-That Thundering Echo-

Rainbow could remember the last time the town had been in a position like this. Nightmare Night, the first one after Luna had been freed from the Nightmare. She had shown up, and everypony had instantly dropped into a bow. Cowering at her hooves even as Luna continued to look on in confusion. But this time was different.

There would be no misunderstanding, no realization that the evil that had been there was gone now. This was like one of those stories that ponies told each other by a fireside, to scare each other. They were stories of an old race that disappeared from Equestria after the Fall of Discord

The stories she had heard, and the few she actually considered believable, had said that they were on level with gods. Stronger than the even Princesses themselves are. Their royalty were supposedly unkillable, and infinitely powerful. Their temples and ruins were everywhere, even the old castle in the Everfree had once been one of them.

In the stories, they had fought wars so expansive that the land would be stained red with blood for years. And there had been wars between the ponies and that ancient race, devious wars that had been more horrible than the ones during the age of the city states. They had used tactics that ate at the sanity of ponies, even changing shape with their strange magic. They would disguise themselves and infiltrate the pony cities, and then destroy them from the inside.

It had only been the fight against Discord that had stopped them from wiping out the first civilizations of ponies. They had fought beside the ponies, and any other country that would help, to drive back the spirit and his army, and then they had simply disappeared. Nopony knew what happened to them, but their legend lived past them.

Everypony knew what a Grey Angel looked like, and one was standing over them.

The story behind the name was a strange one. Rainbow knew that that wasn’t their actual name, it was the one that the ancient ponies had given them. She didn’t know the actual name, human was a word that had seemed made up. She only knew that it had to have been something that the ponies of that time couldn’t understand.

Or that those who knew it, never lived to tell it.

The Grey Angels were notoriously secretive, so much so that they were infamous for the incredible amount of deaths that surrounded them. The assortment of tortures that they were famous for was appalling, and extensive. Nothing compared to the almost instinctual fear that they had created during their time.

Hell, he had practically thrown it in her face, spelled it out with words in the sky. His strange magic that never seemed to make sense. His abnormal strength, the change to a wolf. Even his name should have been a tip off, if that was actually his name.

This was a lot worse than when Luna made a surprise visit to Ponyville, and was mistaken for Nightmare Moon. This was worse because it had been Coalback. The pony that had saved her from a surprise attack in Canterlot, who had defended the entire town when a group of terrorists had threatened them. The one who had said that she was pretty, had made her feel like nopony had before.

And now,  a part of her wasn’t sure if any of that was real at all.

Rainbow felt the tears before the actual grief hit her, it was like something heavy had just fallen inside her chest. And she never just cried, ever. Not in front of her friends, and especially not in front of the entire town. But this, she couldn’t handle this.

It was like the rug had been pulled out from under her, the love that had been there could all have been just a trick to make another stab at the ponies of Equestria. And the entire town knew it too. They knew that if Douglass was a Grey Angel, he was here to destroy them, not to save them.

Her body wracked with the silent sobs that just wouldn’t stop, she couldn’t make any noise, her body was too tense with fear. It was a worse feeling than having your wing broken, worse than a buffalo burn, worse than being crushed under a two ton brick.

She heard his heavy steps first, and then she heard his strained breathing. He had stopped in front of her, but she couldn’t bring back that resolve that would have let her face him, tell him how much she hurt because of this. But he spoke first, his words were strained, and flat, but commanding and calm.

“The evacuation is still in effect, nopony dies today.” He said, but even past that flatness of his words, she could hear the fear shaking it.

It wasn’t the sort of shaking that a pony’s voice had when they were seriously angry, she knew that shake like the back of her hoof. But the other shaking she did know, was the one Fluttershy had almost all the time, one of barely held back terror. And that shake seemed to permeate every syllable of Douglass’s voice.

“Start walking to Canterlot, we rest at midnight.”

She didn’t dare move, the tears falling from her eyes going uninterrupted. If this was the end, she didn’t want to see it coming. But that ending strike never came, instead something warm rested against the side of her head.

It was his hand, it was warm and calloused from scrambling for survival all those years ago. She heard the carts start moving, their creaking wheels rolling over the icy snow. It was comforting in the feeling that with the rest of Ponyville leaving behind them, something wanted to stay with her.

But she couldn’t help but feel even more terrified, that touch couldn’t have been sincere. Like when a veterinarian calmed a sick animal, before putting it down.  Her body shook with sobs and terror, it was all about to end. The hand pulled away after she started to shake though, she heard his breath catch in his throat.

She he looked up, surprise and fear shocking her from the prone position. She followed his hand as it came up to his chest, the smooth and muscled limb retreating away from her. His image filled her vision, every detail becoming imprinted in her minds eye in an instant. He was crouched down in front of her, his long legs folded underneath him. His shirt had ripped open, a line splitting it down the middle and revealing the toned muscles underneath. But what really caught her eye, was the scars.

They were easily visible on his almost hairless chest, whatever wiry hair that was there didn’t seem to serve any purpose at all. Peeking out from his right side, was a burn. It looked more like the roots of a purple plant growing under his skin than anything, a lighting burn that etched its pattern into his flesh. There were four thin lines that came down from over his shoulder,  but as thin as they were they must have been deep at the time. The scars around his throat were far more visible now, every mark from the teeth that had once torn at the skin there perfectly defined. Each one of the scars told a new part of his past, written in the blood he had shed.

His tattoo stood out in stark contrast now, the symbols representing milestones of his life easily visible. The other mark, decorating his other breast, had two new symbols on it as well. He must have made them while he was hiding in the forests, committing the recent events to permanent memory.

But the most disturbing of the scars that she could see, was the one that split his stomach into sections. It started just under his ribs, the line disappearing under the hem of the pants. It was a distorted ‘Y’ shape, the line splitting off just below where his ribs were and following them down. They were perfectly straight lines, the flesh folded over more neatly than Rarity’s meticulous sewing. Surgical was the only word that seemed to fit its description, but something told her that it hadn’t been for his health.

His eyes were different too, no longer swimming in the greyness that had dulled them before. They were an infinitely changing green tone, iridescent and practically glowing. They stared at her, the edges of his irises shaking in an almost imperceptible quiver. He was terrified, and looked like he was holding on for everything that he could. Like the floor had fallen out from under him, and he was trying to cling to the bare walls.

“Rainbow, what are you doing?” He said, genuine concern lacing his flat voice, that fearful shaking still present. “It’s just me, I’m not going to hurt you. Now let’s go.” He said, his hand moving back toward her.

She flinched away from him, her lips forming words without thought. “I-I’m fine.” She said quickly, her heart beating like a drum in her chest. “You go on, I-I’ll catch up.” She stuttered finally, listening as he hesitantly backed away from her.

She didn’t move until the sound of his unsteady footsteps had gone out of earshot. When she felt it was finally safe to move, she simply collapsed onto the snowy ground. She felt the tears return, but she didn’t move to stop them, she didn’t want to move at all. She curled herself inwards, making herself into a tight ball in the hope that the sorrow in her chest could be squeezed out if she tried hard enough.

Her mind was a storm of conflicting thoughts and theories, different halves of herself warring within herself. He had lied, one part said. At the same time, another would scream that he couldn’t do that to her. He never wanted to be with her, that side would say with sorrow. But another half would deny that, the memories of how he acted around her springing forward. And then she would remember the other side of him, the one that would yell, and that would hurt ponies. The one that killed, and snarled, and ate the red meat of the living.

She was only able to lose herself in her thoughts for a moment though, a hoof rested on her shoulder gently and pulled her out of her fear stricken mind. She didn’t move to push it away, not willing to stop her sobbing yet, that fear still holding a tight grip on her. But eventually, even that became exhausted, and she ground slowly to a stop. It was then that the pony offering her comfort, spoke.

“Rainbow?” Twilight’s voice said gently, her own sorrowful fear in her voice evident instantly. “I know that this is scary, b-but I think that you need to get up. There’s no point in staying here anymore.” She finished, the short lecture reviving her resolve somewhat. But it didn’t help Rainbow at all.

“Why?” She said, malice and tears weighing the words so much that it was hard to speak. “Why should I? There’s no point in moving either! Coalback’s gone, and I just-” Her throat closed on her, the words catching on the lump that had formed there.

“B-but, he’s not though.” Twilight tried, Rainbow could almost hear the gears in the unicorn’s head turning. “I should have seen this sooner, but I don’t think that he’s one of- of the Grey. It wouldn’t make sense, right? Not even in the stories did they actually disguise themselves as strong, he wouldn’t have protected us all this time just to turn around and destroy us, it doesn’t make sense!” Twilight continued, her voice growing more sure and confident as she spoke, and slowly drawing Rainbow out of herself with the sound logic.

“In the journal he gave me, there were pictures that at first I didn’t understand. They were of things that looked just like Grey Angels, but in situations that ponies would be in.” She said, pulling out the ratty book and flipping it open. She turned several pages before settling on one and floating it in front of Rainbow’s eyes where she could see, almost forcing her to look. “I think this one is of a female that he was interested in for a while, look at it.”

Writing surrounded the picture in blocky text, unreadable to her, and looking more like random scribbles than actual words. “That isn’t something that a merciless Grey Angel would do. This thing is old, just look at the cover! It is literally impossible to fake the kinds of things in here. A-and look here, this one is about you. One of the last ones he wrote in it.” Twilight flipped to some of the pages near the end of the book.

Unsure of Date, Somewhere above Ponyville;

I can’t believe I found this thing again, I thought it had been destroyed when I left. It turns out that the coat had protected it in the obviously harsh conditions I passed through, thank goodness though, now I can record my thoughts again.

Many things have happened in the last few days, but I shall address the thoughts at the forefront of my mind first. Rainbow Dash. She has been almost all I can think about since I met her. When I first woke up after the dragon fight, I was practically within another nightmare. I was strapped to a bed, a syringe hanging over me in an unseen grip. My panic was almost immeasurable, I felt as if I were back in MenSp that place all over again, just thinking about it makes me shiver. But she came in, Rainbow Dash, she instantly took charge of the situation, ridding my panic with the removal of the restraining ponies around me and the syringe that revived such old fears.

She is a beautiful pony, as strange as that sounds in my experience. Never had I thought that I would be in a situation like this, but here I am. I suppose I felt this way when I lived with the wolf tribes packs, but I have only just met these creatures ponies, and only just become of similar form to them. All the same, she enraptures me with her presence. She is strong, every movement of her body presents lean muscle and poised elegance that I cannot see in even the royalty of this place. She reminds me of Abigale, so much so that it almost pains me to see her, almost. They are both so brash in how they do things, never saying what they want but expressing it with their actions, a bit like myself I suppose. I feel, well I suppose that I do anyway, safe around her. I always feel like I can trust her to stand by me, even though neither of us have known the other for much more than two days.

Currently, I am only a room away from her. Merely a hallway and two doors, made from clouds strangely enough, are what stand between me and expressing how I actually feel about her. But I fear that such an open show of my affections would scare her away, only more so after my brutal display of physical ability at the train station today and the interrogation of one of the stallions afterward. I should not have let any of the mares stay to watch that, the stallion actually became incontinent on the spot. However, they must be much tougher than I originally give them credit for, as they rarely voiced any concern during the entire exchange.

But now I know, I am absolutely sure, that I am staying here. And I shall follow in my decision to leave behind that past, as bound to my body as it is, in a way that is already in effect. I will no longer bind myself to the name that my family has given me, and if it were possible, I would also renounce my human shape. I know now that I must stay, and that one way or another, I will show her how I feel. And I refuse to allow her to experience the horror that Abigale felt, and I am well on my way to preventing that.

For the last time with this name,

Douglass James Colebeck

“There are only a few entries written in Equestrian, but from what I was able to determine from the rest of his entries, he really is a good pony.” Twilight said as Rainbow finished reading the passage. She looked up, her eyes meeting the unicorn’s as Twilight continued. “E-e-even if he’s different now, it’s only because he was trying to help you. Like when he changed into a wolf, he just looks different, but he’s the same pony that we met two weeks ago.” Twilight encouraged gently.

Rainbow took a shaky breath, Twilight’s steady logic bringing her out of the fear stricken position she had taken. She gingerly started to lift herself from the ground, little clumps of snow catching on her fur as she stood. “You’re right, it’s still Coalback over there. And I was totally cool with him being a wolf, so this is pretty much the same thing, right?” Rainbow said shakily, looking again to Twilight for support.

“Exactly.” Twilight said, helping the pegasus to her hooves.

“Oh, no.” Rainbow groaned, putting a hoof to her head as she thought back to him. “And he probably thinks- I gotta go find him!” She said hastily, hopping into the air for a better vantage point. She looked over the procession of ponies in front of her, trying to locate the towering form of the human.

The ponies stretched out before her like an ocean of darkly lit colors, points of orange lantern light creating virtual constellations among them. But above, the sky had only just started to reveal the pinpoints of light that were supposed to be there. It was smoke, she could smell it now that she was above the ground, those weapons and the fire that Coalback had created must have blotted out the sky with it. But now the sky was slowly lighting up with the stars, and a nearly full moon started to cast it’s silver light.

She spotted the Apple family and their cart, loaded up with barrels of apples and the supplies from the farm that they could carry. She could make out the foals sitting there, some of the other mares walking nearby. And then she saw him, running ahead of the evacuation group by a large margin. He was heading toward a grove of trees to the right of the path that the evacuation would take.

She darted off after him, reaching the trees only moments after he had disappeared into them. She landed softly just inside the treeline, looking down at the tracks he had left in the snow. They were as wide as her hoof, just the five toes digging into the dirt and tearing through the soil. It was deep, a running footprint from something that was heavy. It was his, no doubt about it.

She started forward, adding her own hoofprints beside his trail as she followed them. Her eyes kept moving from the tracks to the trees ahead of her. She followed the tracks, watching as they changed to a less dramatic pace. The print lengthened, the pattern to the bottom of his foot revealed in the dirt and snow.

It was longer than she had thought it would be, his heel, which had once been high up on his leg, now contacted the ground in a deep depression. It looked like a majority of his weight was held there, where before he had used his toes in almost the same way that seemed normal. But from what she thought she could tell from the tracks, he was walking at a calm pace now.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Coalback’s voice echoed out of the trees, the sheer ferocity of the words making Rainbow skid to a halt instantly. It was sudden, breaking her insight to his strange, new form.

There were sounds of branches breaking coming from ahead along the trail that he had left. She started forward again, slowly. Eventually making her way to the edge of a clearing, a lightly frosted pond taking the majority of the area there. One of the most notable aspects of the clearing however, was the huge, overgrown pillar that stood solitarily next to the pond.

Coalback was standing by the shore, facing toward the water as he continued to argue out loud with himself. “Stop! Just shut up!” He yelled again, his whole body shaking with rage as he screamed out to the water and whatever apparition that held his attention. “Don’t try to tell me that you care about how I feel! About the ones I love!” He yelled again, turning away from the water and stomping toward the pillar.

He yelled wordlessly, grabbing at the collar that hung from his neck and ripping off both of the charms that hung from it. He raised his arm into the air and threw them both away from himself, spinning and letting them fly without thought. They landed before the trees, just in front of Rainbow in a small puddle. He turned back toward the pond, yelling out again at the object of his anger.

“Ever since I called your name that night, ever since THEY DIED, you’ve acted like you care, acted like you know what I need. You’re starting to sound more and more like that fucking ROCK!” He bellowed, putting his hands against the cold stone of the pillar. His whole body flexed, his feet digging into the snow as he kept pressed against the huge stone ruin.

It shivered in it’s base, dust and snow falling off it as it started to lean. He yelled out wordlessly as he gave one final shove, pushing a huge brick out of place as the pillar reached the point of no return. Old dead vines ripped off like snapping cables. It fell with a groan, smashing down into the water of the pond and spreading water in a huge outward spray. And in the spray, she could have sworn that she saw an outline. The vague shape of a wolf revealing itself in relief to the spray.

“You damned, parasite!” He yelled at it, swinging his arms back and thrusting his head forward to yell out at it. “This is only a repeat of the path that we’ve walked before! And it’s all because you said to wait. To tell her later, to wait again, and again.” He was starting to sob as he yelled out, the water slowly rolling off of the invisible wolf. She watched as it flinched at his words, it’s mouth moving without sound coming out, but Coalback reacted to it.

“NO!” He yelled, turning away again from the apparition and running his hands through his hair. “I can’t live through that again! I would rather die defending her, than live knowing she fears me.” He said to it, his back turning to her as he fell to his knees. “Just, shut up.” He finished weakly as he curled into a ball and fell to his side in the snowy dirt. The last of the water dripped off of the wolf, letting it disappear again.

Rainbow took a tentative step forward, moving out of the treeline and into view carefully. She looked down quickly to the charms that he had discarded, the gem was completely dark, colorless and void of any of the light that it once harbored. The wolf’s charm was soaked with the cold water, the feathers gone spiked with a coating of water. She gently picked them up in her mouth, careful not to let the gem fall from its pocket in the tattered collar.

She walked gingerly toward him, not wanting to startle him. She took careful steps as she walked around him, his quiet sobs reaching her. It pained her to have to be careful, every part of her wanted to just jump to him and hold him close. But she knew that if she did that, it might scare him into lashing out.

She put down the charms gingerly, the copper wire bouncing off the gem with a quiet clinking noise. And as she raised her head again, her eyes caught the sight of a distortion in the snow that hadn’t been there a moment before. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, a static charge shooting up her spine in an instant. She froze when warm breath stirred the thin fur on the insides of her ear.

“A word, before you go to him.” A deep, scratchy voice whispered in her ear, the sound barely audible. Like it was talking from far away, and fading. Rainbow made an effort to push against her frozen bones, nodding shakily. “Renouncing one’s own name is not something done lightly, even for a mortal. But for us, our names are almost a part of our soul. And now, the rock is asleep, exhausted from trying to keep him together, and from feeding his abilities. So now the task turns to us.” He said, his hot breath stirring the fur on her neck. She felt his wet nose brush against the base of her ear as he continued. “He doesn’t realize it, but I’ve watched out for him since before he was born. Now, you and I are the only things holding him together, so be careful.” He finished, the voice fading as the feeling of a presence in front of her disappeared.

Rainbow flinched at the sudden absence of warmth next to her ear, the cold air biting at her. She let out a breath slowly, not even realizing that she had been holding it. Her body shivered involuntarily, she had practically just talked with the thing that had tormented Coalback for years. And now it was saying that it was protecting him? The more she tried to understand, the more she seemed to be confused.

She trotted carefully around Coalback, his shivering frame gone silent as his sobs finally spent themselves. She came around to his front, looking down at his face. His legs were bent inward, his knees nearly meeting his chest. His feet pressed against each other, the small digits there entwined strangely as he continued to force himself into as small of a shape as possible. His arms were over his head, his hands pressed to his temples. His face was contorted into a scowl, the skin there was red and shining with slowly drying tears.

She leaned down carefully, putting her face close to his. She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped herself. If Coalback was hurting the way she thought he was, then he wouldn’t want to hear her out. She moved forward again, pressing her muzzle under his chin and gently nuzzling against him. He didn’t move to return the gesture, his stiff limbs refusing to give. She pushed up against him, leaning herself against him as she continued to nuzzle against his chin.

She could feel his shaky breath against her side as she wriggled in close to him, his cool skin pressing against her fur. He slowly lowered his arms, small whimpers escaping his throat as he gingerly returned her embrace. The whimpers slowly evolved back into quiet sobs as he held her close, clutching her to him as if she might just disappear at any moment.

She let him continue for a long while, until he had gone silent again. She turned her head, his arms wrapped gently around her neck. She gently placed a kiss under his chin, feeling the texture of the stubble that had formed there with her lips. She ended the kiss by rubbing her head up against his chin. When she spoke, she whispered quietly, not wanting to break the delicate silence that had fallen.

“Coalback?” She whispered, feeling his hand move up to hold her shoulder with a shaky grip. “I’m here, it’s alright. I’ll help you.” She said gently, bringing a hoof up to his chest and running it along the scar that split his stomach into two parts. He shivered under her hooves, his grip firming for a moment, like just her touch there was enough to revive the memories associated with it.

He made a choking sound in his chest, his body not ready to form words yet. His chest shook with another uneven breath, she could hear his lungs wheeze as he did. “I … I got caught.” He said, the words scratchy and broken as he held her close. “It was a bear trap, big metal teeth ... edged with silver.” He said, shaking his head and pressing his chin against her head.

“I’m sorry, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” Rainbow said, adjusting herself in his grip, his arms loosening when he realized that she wanted to move. She moved herself so that her sides pressed against his, her head coming even with his so that she could kiss him properly.

She pressed her muzzle against his lips, her nose coming into contact just under his. She held the kiss for a moment, feeling his breath gently tickle her muzzle. He pressed into the gentle movement, but pulled away after a moment. He shook his head in a small movement, forcing it through his fear.

“You know what Post Traumatic Stress is, right?” He mumbled, looking down at her.

She nodded gently, showing him that she knew what he meant, but still left confused. “Y-yeah, yeah. I know that some ponies get that after a bad accident, like a fire, o-or a bad crash. I-uh don’t know what exactly happens to them, but- But I know it’s not anything good. Why?” She said, gingerly tracing her hoof across his chest.

“They-” His voice caught in his throat again, his chest shaking under her hoof. His eyes got distant, his mind starting to trace back to the past. “... did things … cut me up … opened me up, rooted around inside!” His voice rose, his arms clutching her closer and his eyes watering for a moment before he could regain his composure. his hand disentangled itself from her mane, moving down his chest and guiding Rainbow’s hoof over the scar on his stomach. “The anesthetics didn’t work, none of them did.” He muttered, the tears falling from his eyes and onto the ground.

“You can stop, Coalback.” Rainbow said gently, holding his hand close to her. “I know this is hard for you.” She whispered, pressing her cheek against his. But he shook his head again, his lips quivering as he spoke again.

“No.” He said defiantly, his grip loosening slightly. “I need to do this, you should know.” He started to sit up, pulling her along as his abdomen flexed to pull them both. He adjusted himself until he was sitting with her balanced on his lap, one of his hands moving down to hold her against himself. “But it didn’t stop with me.” He started again, the hand that had been holding her hoof moving to his head and running through his ragged hair.

Rainbow gently wrapped her hooves around his neck, his head coming level with her chin as they sat like this. His hand left his head, returning to wrap around her midsection and meet his other hand. “There were others there … in the place they took me. It was called MenSpecter, that’s what they told me anyway. They kept telling me, that I was helping the rest of mankind, even as they cut me open.

“There was so much blood …” He said with shaky unease. “And the others, oh damn … They had tumors bigger than their heads, they were experiments! Based on the things they learned from my body.

“They wanted to make humans stronger, faster, smarter, tougher.” He muttered, his hands shaking. “Seeing them like that … I-it was too much … I was broken. I became a good patient, a good dog … and when they thought they had had enough playtime with my insides, they took me to fight in the war.” He said, his words starting to mix anger into the brew of sorrow and horror.

“A war?” Rainbow muttered, thinking out loud. ‘ … you could call me a soldier, of a kind.’ He had said, is this what he meant? “They made you fight?” She asked, this time actually directing her words to him so that he would hear them.

He nodded wordlessly, pressing his face into her withers and sighing roughly. “They packed me up, and the next thing I knew, I was being shipped off to the desert of the world. Where the people don’t even realize what they’re fighting for anymore. They just kill each other, blindly. Even some of the actual soldiers, they enjoyed killing these terrorists, they liked the fight.” His voice started to fail him, falling away as he lost himself in the old memories.

“They put me in a platoon, about thirty others to fight beside me.” He said darkly, the emotion gone from his words. It was almost like he was there again. “I was supposed to fight with them, protect them. They were my friends.” He said, swallowing as a shiver went up his spine. “One day, we were on patrol. An old street, lots of civilians. As our truck passed a car on the road, old beat up caravan, it exploded. It had been packed with explosives and left there for something big to set off as it passed.

“Twenty.” He said, pulling his head away and looking up at Rainbow’s face. His eyes were red from tears, the streaks of wetness staining his pale skin. “Twenty of us died out there. And then- the full moon came.” He said, looking at her with guilt in his eyes.

“But- I thought that was just a myth. The moon thing, I mean, you’ve changed during the day, so that can’t be true. Can it?” She said, confusion and concern pushing at her thoughts like a heavy weight. Every Werewolf myth out there said that they changed during a full moon, and usually to go on a bloodthirsty rampage. He couldn’t have done that, could he?

“If I’m injured, or unable to- to change on my own.” He swallowed the lump in his throat, regretting the words before they had even formed. “The wolf can force it during the full moon, something about a cycle. I don’t know how it works.” He said, the words weighed down with guilt and silent tears as he continued. “I changed … and I killed everyone.” He said with finality, looking up at her with shame in his eyes. “The soldiers, the ‘scientists’, the civilians. Men, women. Males, females. Children.” Another sob interrupted him, shaking his whole body as those iridescent eyes went distant again.

“I was awake the whole time, I saw everything, I heard everything, I tasted everything … Sometimes … when it gets really quiet, and I’m left to just my thoughts, I can hear them … screaming.” He said, his voice dying in his throat as his mouth kept trying to speak.

Rainbow couldn’t take it anymore, he was ready to fall apart right in front of her. And she hated seeing him like this. She liked when he was confident, when he knew what was going on and knew just the thing to do in any situation. But now, now he was lost, tired and confused. And broken up inside.

She pulled him close again, leaning her head down so that she could kiss him. Her lips met his, stopping him from speaking again. They stayed like that for a while, each trying to show all their feelings with the unspoken movement of their lips against each others’. Rainbow could feel the remorse in every word he had spoken, all the fear and horror that he had, for himself.

He held onto her, his body shaking as he tried to stop the sobs that his mind pushed at him with those memories, coming back to him in a flood of remembered pain. When they finally broke apart, keeping themselves close to each other, he kept talking.

“And now, when you looked at me like- like you could see all the horrible things I had done. And the fear-” He choked, another lump forming in his throat. “It was everywhere. I could smell it all over the ponies out there, pouring off of you.” He said, more tears falling down his face. “You were petrified, you could barely make yourself look at me.” He sobbed, pressing his cheek against hers and letting more tears flow.

“But I was scared.” Rainbow said, putting a hoof up behind his head and holding him close. “I had a nightmare that you were going to break apart, shatter like glass. And when you changed, it looked like it was actually happening. I was so scared that I had just lost you. And then, you looked just li- I thought you might have been something else. For a second, I thought that you might have just been lying to me this whole time.” She said sadly, stroking the ragged mane on his head, the short tufts of hair feeling stiff and coarse under her touch.

“I couldn’t lie to you, Rainbow!” He said, pain in his words. “I couldn’t! And I tried my best not to, but I- I just didn’t want to frighten you away. I was so scared, that you would just look at me one day, and all you would see was a murderer. A monster.” He said, shaking his head and taking a deep breath.

“I know you couldn’t, it just took me a second to realize that again. But what really scared me, was that you looked like something out of an old ghost story.” She said, pulling back so that she could talk to him face to face. “There used to be a country full of people that looked like you do. And the fact that you did all that, on your own, all that magic. It was like looking at the old ruins of the places they lived.” She said, trying to make him see that.

“But I didn’t do it on my own.” He said insistently, drawing more confusion from her. “I can barely light a candle with my magic. That wasn’t mine that did all that. Fuck, I could never have gotten here on my own.” He said, shaking his head and looking up at her imploringly.

“But if it wasn’t you that did all that, then who did? Knight? The wolf?” Rainbow asked, looking again at him with confusion showing on her face. He shook his head.

“I did make all those things happen, I was in control.” He said, bringing a hand up and idly stroking her mane. “But I don’t have that kind of power. I just directed it. Most of that power, stolen and stored in those rings. I had four before I came here, used up a whole one just to redirect an attack.” He looked at her with a pleading stare, begging her to believe him. “I’m not strong like that, I’m a magical lightweight. And even then, I don’t always make it happen. Sometimes the magic just- does what it wants.” He finished dismissively, trying to see what she would make of it.

“So- When you healed me?” She asked, looking at him again in confusion.

“That was power stored in the stone, helped along by Knight so that I wouldn’t hurt you by mistake.” He responded, nodding gently.

“And in the tower? Or when you attacked that jaguar?” She asked, starting to see where Coalback was trying to go with this.

“That was all magic that I had taken and stored away, or magic that the gem had made. I practically stole a well of power and filled the rings with it. All that stuff I did, most of the magical things, came from those rings or from the stone.” He explained, starting to calm himself after the dive into his memories. “And with all the magic I had to use to push back those things, it was almost too much. The stone was dormant, Knight is so exhausted now, that he can’t even talk.” He said, looking over his shoulder and spotting the charms, a look of guilt passing over him as he remembered his earlier neglect for their existence.

“Well, okay. So are you going to be okay? You said that that gem was helping you fight off the wolf.” She said, drawing the conversation away from magic and all its confusions. Not that trying to understand some of the things that Coalback did was any easier.

“It’ll be a little harder, but yes, I should be fine. Now that you’re here, I think I can manage.” He said, turning back to her and quickly kissing her.

“Do you want to go back now?” Rainbow asked, gently rubbing her hoof on his shoulder.

He smiled gently, nodding and loosening his grip on her so that she could stand again. “Only if you want to.” He said, letting her step off of his lap and onto the snowy ground.

“We should, the others might get worried if we just disappear like this.” She replied, walking around him as he stood up again. She gently retrieved the fallen charms, taking them in her mouth and turning back to him.

They walked side by side as they exited the clearing, Coalback’s limp only slightly showing as he walked beside her. But neither of them noticed the eyes in the trees.

Their yellowed scleras and red irises, going unnoticed in the gloom. And if anyone had been listening carefully, over the sound of dripping water, they might have heard a laugh.