-Wolf Songs and Sleeping Giants-

It was singing, as distant as it was.

The amount of voices was innumerable, like an entire city had lifted its voices to the skies, and more had joined them. The sound stopped everything. The puppies stopped their hungry suckling, ponies paused what they were doing behind them, even the wind seemed to halt so that it could listen.

There were no words, none that they could hear. And if it didn’t sound as articulated as it did, it would have simply sounded like howling. But, it was more than that. It was beautiful, and haunting, and it felt … important. Rainbow could feel the howls, almost like the sound itself had a hold on her chest, and wanted to pull her toward it.

“Ten miles …” Rainbow heard Non mumble, her attention suddenly ripped from the almost hypnotic noise. “Already so far …” She had become stiff, her ears standing at attention and aimed toward the direction of the howls. The puppies had turned as well, their attention directed to the sky in the North.

“What’s going on, Non?” Twilight asked, the sound of the howling song starting to dissipate, it had only lasted a moment.

“The rest of the wolves are trying to see if we are alright,” Non said distantly, her head turning toward the direction Greyshadow had gone. When Rainbow followed her gaze, she was able to see the scene had changed there. “They expect us to sing in return, and if we don’t they’ll think us dead.”

Greyshadow was barely visible, his back just seen above the slight hill that they had gone over. The thestrals stood around in a large circle, their heads hung low. If she craned her neck, she could just see the wrapped forms of the wolves laid out within their circle. They had all been wrapped in those dark tarps. A neat, military funeral.

“So why don’t you?” Rainbow asked, her voice lowered as some part of her was unwilling to mar the sudden silence that had fallen. “If you’re supposed to tell them you’re here, why don’t you … you know, howl back?” she asked, nodding up at the sky.

“It is not so simple,” Non replied, her eyes locked on the other prone wolf. “A higher rank must start the howl, I could get in a lot of trouble for starting it myself,” she explained her stare turning sour as she looked toward the wolf.

For a long moment, nothing happened. The wind blew gently on the bare branches of trees, creating a slight rustling that tickled at her ears in the silence. If she concentrated, Rainbow could just barely hear the, now slowed, sound of the carts as they closed in on their spot. And just when she thought that nothing was going to happen, the silence was unsteadily broken.

“Dark the stars and dark the moon,

Hush the night and the morning loon,”

A gravelly voice cut through the air with the fluidity of a rock through soil, a sadness weighing it down and breaking it. It didn’t take Rainbow long to recognise it as belonging to Greyshadow, and if he had sounded sad before, now he was practically bawling. The words, only the short verse, was enough to drag at her own heart.

And it wasn’t singing as much as it was being read unenthusiastically from a sheet. He was trying to sing, some part of him stubborn enough not to fully give into his grief, letting him go on. But it wasn’t nearly as loud as the other singing must have been, and it barely reached their ears before fading.

“Tell the horses and beat on your drum,

Gone their master,

Gone their son,

“Dark the oceans,

Dark the sky,

Hush the whales and the ocean tide,”

        Rainbow could clearly see the frustration build on Non’s features, followed alongside her own sadness. She could see the lines of frustration beginning to show on her forehead, but at the same time Non’s lips quivered and seemed to hang heavily from her muzzle. She was either trying to not cry herself, or was frustrated at Greyshadow’s singing, or both.

        Her head lifted slowly, where before it had been almost parallel and low to the ground. Now she slowly raised her muzzle to the sky, and just as it seemed that Greyshadow would have been able to start picking up his voice, hers interceded.

“Tell the salt marsh and beat on your drum,

Gone their master,

Gone their son,”

        Her voice rang out, echoing over the still air and the snow like a perfectly tuned bell. Her voice quickly drowned out Greyshadow’s until it seemed like her voice was the only one in the night. Non took a shaky breath, a tear escaping her eye and rolling down her face. This must have been harder for her than she was showing. It had to be, grieving like this.

“Dark to light and light to dark,

Three black carriages,

Three white carts,

What brings us together is what pulls us apart,

“Gone our brother,

Gone our heart.”

Non’s last words hung in the air and she stopped, and it felt like the world would wait for her. The silence was numbing, minds blanked in the wake of the song. Non swiped a paw at her face, clearing it of the tears that matted the short fur on there.

Rainbow had heard the sadness in Greyshadow’s voice, but Non had truly made her feel it. Even though she had never even known these wolves, she felt like a part of her had died with them, all from Non’s singing.

It took a few moments, the sound having to travel over such a distance in both directions, but there was an answer. This howl was different than the last, starting with a single howl, and spreading into its uncountable numbers. The first howl had changed randomly, making it sound more chaotic, more natural. But this time single howl graced the air, following the cadence of the song, and being slowly joined by a thousand other voices.

The sound ran shivers up Rainbow’s spine, a hauntingly beautiful sound, edged with the knowledge of the danger that it represented. It made her heart kick up in its pace, let her veins buzz with just the slightest amount of adrenaline. It reminded her of how she felt around Coalback, especially when she knew what he could do.

Maybe that was why she had loved him, why she still loved him. The only thing that had kept her from running was her trust in him, and her loyalty. When he had changed, showed what he really was, it had been a whole new level of danger that she hadn’t been prepared for. But he had proven that he hadn’t changed, just looked different.

She had barely blinked at the fact that he had changed before that, turning into a dangerous predator. She hadn’t even hesitated when he had, covered in the blood of another creature, been in danger. How was this different than that? Maybe she could learn more about him, and what he is? Maybe it would help ...

Her eyes turned away from the Non, whom simply sat and stared into the distance. Her eyes fell on Clean Cut, his crazy raven perched on his head as they both looked toward where the sound had come from. Clean Cut seemed to know a surprising amount about Coalback, at least from the way he spoke.

The howls stopped suddenly, their single note having come to an end in perfect synchronization. And in its wake, a deep, hollow, and grating howl pierced the air like a hot knife. It made Non jump in her seat, as if she had been struck. She looked up toward the sky with mortification, as if pleading to it. The howl sounded again, a sharp bark preceding it.

Rainbow had the sudden feeling that Non had been given some sort of order, she couldn’t quite determine what however. It was strange though, it had a different feeling to it than what Non was displaying. It almost felt like how her acceptance letter had read, not that she had ever finished the training.

But, if that was the case, that Non was being given some sort of award, why was she acting this way? “Non?” Rainbow asked after a moment, once the silence had stretched long enough that she knew the howling was over. “What’s going on?” she asked simply, the wolf wilting at her words.

“I have been made pack leader, by order of the Empress herself,” she said morosely, a sigh of mixed emotions escaping her. She looked back at Rainbow with a mix of grief, and that look that somepony could only have once they truly felt abandoned. “It means that we will not be allowed to simply join another pack, and that we must go on.”

“Then come to Canterlot,” Twilight spoke up, drawing a surprised look from Non. “Come with us, you can speak to Celestia,” she insisted, nodding encouragingly at the dour wolf. “All you want to do is reunite with the other wolves, right?” she asked, continuing as the wolf nodded in confusion. “I’m sure that Princess Celestia would be more than happy to help you. Look, you’re injured, you have two babies with you. We can help you, keep you warm and fed. And then we can help you get home.” Twilight motioned with her hoof, trying to work some hope into Non’s expression.

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed, starting to stand. “Let us help you, you’re in the same bind as us. Safety in numbers, you know?” she said, gaining a nod from Rainbow and a contemplative look from the wolf.

“I will come with you, my pack and I. If you and your lord would grace us, by helping us send off our packmates,” she said, looking up at Rainbow with sad eyes.

“Of course, he probably would have insisted on it anyway,” Rainbow said, Non gaining that glimmer of hope in her eyes that they had been aiming for. “Great. I’m gonna go check on him, okay?” She asked, looking between Twilight and her new carnivorous friend.

Twilight nodded in understanding, Non replying with as much of a bow as she could manage in her prone position. Rainbow turned away from them, heading back toward Coalback, and hopefully some answers.

When she arrived, Clean Cut was fiddling with a lantern, stubbornly refusing to use his horn. She stopped to watch him fumble a few matches before finally managing to light it, he lit the lantern at the expense of a few burns on his lips. He closed the glass cover, letting the flickering light play across Coalback’s body. He cursed under his breath as he dropped the smoldering match, rubbing at the burns on his lips.

“How do you know anything about Coalback, or what he is?” Rainbow asked with a scowl, making the strange doctor jump.

“You may be better at sneaking up on ponies than you realize,” Clean Cut said. He placed a hoof on his chest and took a few deep breaths, the action didn’t amuse Rainbow. His goofy grin dropped when he realized that he wasn’t entertaining her. “Perhaps you should sit. The carts will be here soon, so we can load him onto one and move him to where he can get better care.” He patted the ground next to him.

“You better start talking, Coalback’s not the only one who can put the hurt on,” she said with a glare, impatiently taking her seat. She rarely had use for the martial arts classes she had taken, the kick to the troll’s head being one of the few. They weren’t even very good classes, and she had had to go to … other sources in order to really learn anything.

“Okay, okay,” Clean Cut said, the exuberance that was usually in his voice had faded. “First, a question. Do you want to know how we know what he is, which is a simple answer that you won’t like or want. Or, do you want to know what he is? Two questions with very different answers,” he said with a note of seriousness that felt alien on the normally chipper doctor.

Rainbow paused, unsure of her answer. She didn’t care how he knew, at least not at the moment. “Tell me what you know, and then you can tell me how,” she stated bluntly.

“Coalback is not a werewolf,” he started flatly, continuing without addressing the confused look on her face. “He changes into a wolf-like creature, yes. But the fact that he can also change into a something pony-like, instantly changes his definition.”

“Not a werewolf?” Rainbow mumbled. “What does that make him then?”

“There isn’t an … exact definition,” he started, frowning in concentration. “Whatever he is, whatever caused his existence … He is the apex predator. The top of any, and every food chain,” he tried to explain, lifting his hooves and motioning at Coalback in frustration. “He’s like Superpony, there’s no comparison. You read those comics about the spears bouncing off of her, and you think; ‘That’s pretty far-fetched,’ But this is almost exactly that.

“His bones don’t just flex and absorb impacts, they practically reflect it. His muscles, Hah! That would be like comparing twine to rope-” he motioned from her to Coalback. “They’re strong, stronger than anything that a mortal body should be able to create. And the organ systems, don’t get me started on them.

“From just a glance at his digestive track, it looks like he could eat just about anything he can get down his throat. Maybe even rocks, for all I know!” The doctor pulled his hooves up to run them through his red mane. “And his endocrine system is … immensely more advanced than anything that I have experience with, it looks like he could actually replace his blood with adrenaline. Or any other hormone, for that matter.

“And his goddess damned nervous system!” Clean Cut exclaimed, jumping to his hooves and turning to her with a mad glint in his eyes. Merletta squawked as she was launched from his back, hovering in the air until Clean Cut had stopped moving. “I actually ran a few tests while he was unconscious in Canterlot, and I was blown away!” He collected himself, calming the surprisingly sudden jump. “The reaction time is less than instant. He can react to stimuli faster than our eyes can follow. And speaking of eyes! I don’t know exactly what he can see, but he has tapeta lucida!” He pointed at his eye, an excited grin decorating his face.

“A tapee- what now?” Rainbow asked, balking and doing a double take. Clean Cut seemed to be overly excited about this, extremely so.

“A tapeta lucida,” the doctor explained with exasperation, Merletta settling on his horn with an angry glare that went unnoticed by the unicorn. “It’s that reflective film on the back of the eye. Like what cat’s have. You know, the eye glow?” That managed to get a look of recognition from her. “And there’s something different about his rods and cones, but we weren’t able to examine them without- Well, without cutting into his eye. Which would have been totally unacceptable,” he finished quickly, lifting a hoof in a placating manner as Rainbow aimed a glare at him.

“You are about to say too much,” Merletta warbled, patting his horn with one of her claws and drawing an annoyed snort from the unicorn. “You know the rules,” she said darkly, making the unicorn droop.

“Yes, yes,” Clean Cut replied.

“Wait, what rules?” Rainbow asked, sudden confusion dawning on her. Why did Clean Cut have to stop telling her things, this was important. “What can’t you tell me?” she demanded.

“We obviously cannot tell you what we cannot tell you!” Merletta squawked angrily at her, turning and hopping on Clean Cut’s horn and drawing another snort from him. It must not be comfortable having her hop around on that. Of course, Rainbow couldn’t know what that felt like. She just hoped the rumors about unicorn horns she had heard, including the more vulgar ones, weren’t true. For Clean Cut’s sake.

“First off,” Rainbow leaned away from the angry bird, “stop hopping around on his horn, it’s freaking me out.” Merletta complied, dropping off his horn and landing on the ground. “Okay, so you can’t tell me some stuff. Why?” she asked, the situation suddenly overcoming her attention.

The two traded glances, an unseen conversation drifting between the two of them. Clean Cut made a noncommittal shrug, nodding between the bird and Rainbow. The bird turned back to Rainbow, donning an unamused expression. “I see through the eyes of all ravens … everywhere. Even in his homeland.” Merletta nodded toward Coalback. “And for a while, he owned a pet … a raven that he kept in his family’s greenhouse. He would often read over his notes in there, and he had a very particular study subject,” she said, narrowing her eyes.

“He … was studying his family?” She asked, looking toward Coalback with a question on her features.

“Quite thoroughly, in fact. He was indeed, very dedicated to becoming a doctor. He would often talk with his Raven, even before he began to understand our languages. By the way, he often looked at his duties among the family in the smith shop as a chore, just so you know. But you didn’t hear it from me,” the bird added as an afterthought. She then turned away from Rainbow with her beak aimed high, effectively showing that she would say no more.

“So,” Clean Cut continued, a deadpan look on his face. “That means that I effectively have the largest source of street information out there. All wrapped up in one, beautiful bird,” he said, the mentioned raven seeming to soften slightly at his praise. “That, combined with my vast array of contacts, also means that we, collectively, know too much. Simply speaking, that is. So we must be careful what we say, especially out in the open like this. We could accidentally change the course of the future with our words.” He said, nodding toward Merletta.

“All ravens. Past, present, and future ...” the bird confirmed, turning slightly toward Rainbow before returning to her original position.

“Okay …” Rainbow said, that information slowly seeping in. She stored it away for later, returning to her original purpose for even coming over here. “Is he … Is he still the pony that I met in Canterlot?” she asked reluctantly. She absolutely, positively, completely hated herself for asking them that instead of Coalback himself. She just couldn’t stand it if he wasn’t, and it would be easier for her if he wasn’t the one to tell her otherwise, and all the harder to accept.

Merletta turned back to Rainbow, a surprised arc on her avian face. Her face softened for a moment, and she turned fully toward her. “All his life, the only thing he has known is what he is not. But you can be certain, Coalback has never lied about himself to you, in action or in word. Your answer is; yes,” she said. And it was almost like the bird sounded … tender. Like a mother to her daughter, like some sort of caring had revealed itself. “And I’m the wrong thing to ask!” And then it was gone.

“Hello, Rainbow Dash!” a voice called out, drawing their attention away from the blank that the conversation otherwise would have taken. Rainbow turned her head to see the new arrival, and the cart that she was perched on. It was the ‘mayor,’ alongside two large stallions who were strapped to the covered cart. “I take it you need a ride,” the false mayor said, her tone dropping its joviality.

“Very good, Miss Mayor …” Clean Cut said. He hadn’t said anything against her, but it seemed that he already knew of the changeling. “I’ll retrieve a litter so we can lift him onto the cart,” the doctor started to move away, Merletta hopping up with a flap to perch on his back.

“We have a mattress and a litter in the back, Doctor,” Mayor Mare said, ignoring his acknowledgement of her deceit. However, the doctor stopped, changing route and moving to the rear of the cart. “You can load him up now, if you like. We even have a heated kettle and some clean towels, so you can wash him off, Ma’am,” Mayor Mare finished, nodding in an almost-bow to Rainbow.

“Thanks,” Rainbow said, throwing a questioning glance at the disguised changeling. She almost hated the fact that she was allied with her, the thing that had caused the mayor’s death. But, Coalback would take priority for now. She could wait.

Rainbow took a moment to look over the cart as she waited for the goofy doctor to return with his litter. It was a covered wagon, a large white tarp stretched over a looping top and tacked to the low walls of the sideboards. A lantern burned bright on the top of a long pole attached near the front, still swinging idly above Mayor Mare’s head. She stood on the seat, essentially piloting the cart.

But there was something that surprised her about the cart, the stallions pulling it. Both of them had very distinctive bandages on their flanks, little lines of red just barely showing through. These two stallions had been among the ones hunting Coalback, ones that he had caught and marked for trial, as he had put it. And they looked happy to be there.

For a moment, Rainbow was baffled. She could fix that quickly, though. “What are you two doing? Do you realize who you’re helping?” she asked. She put on her best incredulous look, drawing confused glances from the stallions themselves.

“Of course we know who we’re helping,” the brown earth pony stallion said.

“Yeah,” the other, a golden yellow stallion with a bright purple mane said.

“Okay, but why? He’s the one who gave you those, wasn’t he?” she asked, motioning toward the bandages around their flanks. She wasn’t sure why she was pushing this, they were helping after all. It just didn’t make sense, though. They had no reason to want to help him, in fact, they should hate him more.

The stallions traded glances, there seemed to be a lot of that going on today. “It’s complicated …” the gold stallion said.

“He showed us up. It’s sorta one o’ those superiority things. Like how the bigger squirrels gets the most nuts, so all the other ones kiss up to him, you know?” the brown stallion tried.

Rainbow huffed in annoyance, starting to distance herself from the conversation as she heard Clean Cut starting to move around the cart. “Stallions …” she scoffed under her breath. They took too long to get dressed, they kept weird secrets, and were just overall a mystery to her and just about any other mare.

Clean Cut walked back around the cart, a large, flat board held aloft in his magic. He placed the board down next to Coalback, positioning it parallel to his body. Moving Coalback was uneventful, if stressful for Rainbow. She couldn’t help but cringe as Coalback was rolled onto the board, lifted into the air, and carefully floated into the cart. He was carefully returned to his back, resting on the mattress where his feet hung off it, and his head had to be supported by a tightly rolled bedroll.

“There we go …” Clean Cut murmured as Coalback settled into the mattress, the cart creaking under his weight. Clean Cut moved the lantern to Coalback’s side, letting the light play over him. He used his magic to spread a blanket over him, letting it settle over the tarp that Coalback had been wrapped in.

Rainbow hopped up into the cart behind them, looking around the inside of the cart. The mattress was pressed up the back, pushed forward to make room for Coalback’s head. More blankets were rolled up and pressed next to the wall before the mattress, and other various supplies for any others who might ride on the cart. A large kettle with a small trail of steam coming from its sealed top sat near the front corner. Next to it was a wooden bucket of warm water, a few small towels laying over its edge.

“You can clean him, if you like,” Clean Cut said once he had made sure that Coalback was settled. He motioned with a hoof toward the small smears of troll still clinging to Coalback, on his face, his chest and his legs, where it had splashed onto him. “Or, I could do it-” he started, noting Rainbow’s blank expression.

“No,” Rainbow said quickly, cutting off Clean Cut without a thought. “I should do it,” she said, moving over to the bucket and kettle. She felt like she was empty, the gravity of Coalback’s injury starting to seep in. He was crippled, and no amount of stubbornness on his part would fix that, not without doctors and time. His hip had been damaged to a point where he was forced to walk with a limp, and now the same leg had been broken like a twig.

She picked up the towels in her mouth, dragging the bucket and kettle around toward Coalback. There was a thin length of open floor beside his bed, where she sat herself and the clean water. She looked down at him, his face that was too quiet. He didn’t even sleep as still as he was now, it made her heart heavy in her chest.

Clean Cut silently left the cart, Marletta giving a few clicking noises as a goodbye.

She opened the top of the kettle, flinching away from the steam. She set down the towels in her mouth, picking one up and setting it in the hot water, the top hanging out of the kettle. She spread another towel under Coalback’s head, to keep the water from soaking into his bed.

She retrieved the hot towel, folding it over and pressing it against his face. She gently pulled it across his face, wiping away the disgusting troll smears. She could already tell that the smell was getting … less bad. It would take a while to clean him like this, he had a lot more surface area now.

“Alright, Coalback,” she said quietly. She wasn’t sure why, but she had to talk, even if he couldn’t hear her. “I think that I need to tell you something, okay?” she asked, continuing her motions of cleaning. A wave of tiredness swept over her, and doubt seeded into her limbs. She sighed forcefully, “I don’t even know what I’m doing now. Not like I’ve ever had to give somepony a sponge bath before,” she muttered grumpily. “I hate this, just so you know. Seeing you like this is … I wish that I wasn’t such a wimp!” She threw the towel into the bucket, taking her frustration out on the only thing that she could think of.

“If I could tell you how I feel, I would- In a heartbeat!” She said, picking up the towel again and ringing it out. “When you changed … I freaked, okay? And I’m still freaking. But- I want to believe that you’re still you,” she said, dropping the towel again and laying a hoof on his chest. She could feel his heart beating, slow but strong. She could feel his chest rise and fall, ever so slightly, with each breath.

His chest was so much wider now, not like a pony’s. His shoulders were much wider, practically spheres of firm muscle. And covered by tarps and blankets, she would have to take them off to clean him. She, reluctantly, removed her hoof from his chest, moving it to transfer the damp towel to the hot water, letting it soak.

She moved back to him, scooting herself forward and gently pulling the blanket and tarp away from his chest. The wiry hair on his chest gently tickled against her hooves as she pulled back the tarps, she couldn’t help herself as she ran her hooves gently across them. Her heart fluttered in her chest as she pulled the tarp back further, feeling the ripples in his flesh where his muscles and his scars were.

She stopped, though, something unexpected making her pause. He had nipples, pink and soft on his chest. Rainbow simply stared, a bit confused, at the discovery. She didn’t know why he had those, but all the same, she didn’t care. She leaned down, gently brushing against one with her nose, taking in his smell as she did.

Even through the light smell of troll, she could still smell him. That was something that hadn’t changed, even as a wolf he smelled like this. She loved that smell, something that could only be described as his. She shuddered as she breathed it in, not even caring as her heat flared hot again.

She didn’t stop herself when she pressed closer to him, her task forgotten. She just wanted to be close to him, to feel his warmth again. His skin was soft, but far from smooth with all of his scars. “Just show me that you still are … That you still care about me …” she whispered, the soft hairs on his chest stirred by her breath.

His arms twitched, a shaky breath escaping him with a whimper.