-Bad Wings-

It had taken a few hours, the sunlight sinking into a dull pink and orange as it seeped through the cracks in the curtains. However, that was all it had taken to get Coalback to speak in passable Equestrian. Although, his sentences were still slightly broken, and he paused in strange places when he talked.

“I tell you, I never hear about this place,” Coalback said, stiffly shrugging his shoulders. One of his hooves lay over his stomach, gently holding onto the bandages there in an attempt to alleviate the ache from the covered wounds.

“You learned to speak Equestrian pretty fast for never having heard of it before,” Rainbow said, disbelief accented by her raised eyebrows. “Nopony just picks up a language like that. Not even Twilight, and she’s like the smartest pony I’ll ever meet,” she added, leaning back on her haunches.

It’d been nice talking with him, except that she’d done most of the talking. She’d ended up moving right up next to the bed after a while. For some reason, he’d jumped at her approach and had covered himself back over with the sheets hanging off the bed. He had them wrapped around his lower half at the moment, having relaxed as they talked.

He’d asked the occasional question: How a word was used, what certain combinations of words meant. If a place was mentioned he’d ask about those as well. Some of his questions were hard to answer too, she just didn’t really have the answers. He seemed to have a lot of questions.

“I do, is part of how brain works,” he said, lifting a hoof to tap his forehead. “There is a little- spot, in brain, just for talking. Some has work better. I read once that some born knowing every language, even ones that not used,” he explained briefly, making another stiff shrug. His wings shifted under him as he did, and he turned to look at them with a bit of confusion before he returned to looking at her.

“But … how does that even work? That a baby could know how to speak a bunch of languages even though they’ve never even … you know! How?” Rainbow asked, finding herself drawn in on another topic. He’d had a few really interesting ones too, he mentioned a few things while they had talked. But those had been hard to understand since it was still mostly broken words and not really sentences then.

“Think it,” he said, the hoof on his stomach moving up to pad at the twitching wing on his back as he talked. “Talking is weird. You make funny sound, and then others know what you think. You make- ponies know what you know with funny sound, and then you know what they know when they make more funny sound. Weird,” he finished, the last word seeming to trail off as he continued to twist to look at his wing.

“I guess ...” Rainbow said, shaking her head at the strange analogy. Even if he was right, that was just looking into it too much as far as she was concerned. “So you could just … Go, wherever you want. And you’d be able to understand the ponies there?” she asked, still trying to figure out what he was saying.

He gave up with his wing, leaning back into the pillow that had also been retrieved from the floor. “Yes, I am understand, speak take a little longer,” he said, a frown forming on his face as his wing continued to twitch slightly underneath him.

“Alright,” she said, shrugging as she gave up trying to figure out how he did it. It might’ve been his talent as far as she knew. “So where are you from then?” she asked, simply trying to keep a conversation at this point. It seemed like she was running out of things she could talk about.

“I … Hard to know where from here,” he said slowly, looking toward the ceiling as he did. “Probably very far, I think. It is very different here.” He turned back to look at her, lifting a hoof to scratch under his chin absently for a moment.

“What do you mean? Why’s it different?” she asked. There was the obvious, of course. Another language, and all. But it seemed like that wasn’t what he’d meant.

“Feels different?” he said, shaking his head uncertainly. “Air smells different. Sounds aren’t the same. That stuff,” he tried, looking back down at his hoof as he stopped scratching his chin. He seemed to have that same confused look again, like he wasn’t even sure that it was a hoof. At that point, the conversation very quickly dropped to an awkward pause.

Rainbow found herself simply looking around the room, hoping some epiphany would reveal itself in the green tinted walls. She re-examined the dent in the wall, and the pile of splinters that had been a table underneath it. Eventually her attention turned toward the small side table next to Coalback’s bed, a pair of drawers catching her eye.

She turned on her spot and pulled open the top drawer, deciding that whatever was inside might prove more interesting. The first didn’t hold anything interesting, just a pad of paper, a pen, and a small box of tissues. That presented one option: she could try doodling for a little while, not that she was very good at drawing.

She closed the drawer, moving on to the next one. The bottom drawer only had one thing in it, much more interesting than a bunch of paper. It was a Daring Do book, and one that she wasn’t sure she’d read before. She pulled it out of the drawer and looked at the cover, an illuminated picture of a suspicious looking Daring with a strange shadow looming over her, a full moon taking up the background.

“What is that?” Coalback asked, interrupting her before she could open it. When she looked up at him, he’d leaned over to look at the cover as well.

“It’s a Daring Do book,” she said, turning it so that he could look at the cover more easily. “They’re about this explorer, she goes around the world on awesome adventures and stuff. That’s her right there,” she said, pointing to the pegasus on the cover. “This one’s called Daring Do and the Wolf-Pony,” she read off, pointing at the familiar lettering and offering it to him.

He took it shakily in his hooves, fumbling with it for a moment as he looked over it. He clumsily opened the cover, flipping through a few pages as he scowled at the unfamiliar letters there. Rainbow spotted her mistake at that moment, knocking a hoof against her head as she mentally berated herself.

“Sorry. I guess that whole understanding thing doesn’t really work with reading, huh?” she said, seeing him nod absently as he examined the markings on the page. In the corner of her vision, one of the guards tried to hide a yawn.

“Maybe later I find out how,” he said, continuing to flip through the pages gingerly. “It starting to get dark, so maybe later,” he said, fumbling the book closed again and giving it another examining look.

“It is getting late, isn’t it?” she said, turning to look toward the covered window. The light had become much less now, barely a purple tinge poking its way through the space. She stood up to walk toward it, peeking out to look at the sky. It was strangely pinker than she thought it should have been. “I guess I should go, I need to rest up just as much as you do. It was pretty cool talking with you, Coalback. I’ll see yah around,” she said, letting the curtain fall back where it belonged.

She started making her way to the door as Coalback replied. “I liked it too. Is nice talking to friend,” he said, setting the book down gently on the mattress beside him.

Rainbow paused, stopping just in front of the two guards at the door and turning to look back at him. “I’m your friend?” she said after a moment, looking back at him as he donned a smile.

“Is that right word? Friend?” he asked, a hopeful expression mixed into his features.

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s it,” she said, smiling back at him and keeping her cool. “Thanks. I’ll stop by tomorrow before I take off,” she said, turning back to the door. She nodded to the guard there and pushed open the door, taking one last look back at Coalback.

He was smiling and leaning back heavily into the pillow behind him. And she was almost sure that she saw the echo of a blush on his face as he simply looked up at the ceiling. The door closed behind her and left her alone in the hallway.

In Ponyville, the hospital usually saw a small amount of activity. Usually little things; farmers with small cuts or bruises gained from working on their fields, or a filly with an ear infection. However, in Canterlot, they had an unnecessarily large hospital that was overstaffed and underused. The place was as empty as a ghost town, which left her alone with her thoughts.

She turned blankly down the hall, starting a slow walk toward the door near the other end. Her head was in a swirl, however. I hadn't even realized ... she thought to herself. The entire time she’d been in there, she hadn’t even really realized that in reality … she’d just made friends with Coalback.

It had been so simple … she’d just talked ...

“And he was listening to me …” she mumbled out loud. His eyes swirling with color, and static, and unassuming all at the same time, just looking at her. He’d actually wanted to keep talking to her, only a few of her friends could say that they’d held a conversation for very long with her. Not that she’d ever helped that.

A different sort of feeling washed over her with that thought. It was like feathers tickling at the inside of her chest, like her heart had grown wings and was buzzing around inside her ribs. A strange sort of shortness of breath that she couldn’t quite place. And it disappeared almost as fast as she was able to realize that it’d been there. She couldn’t even remember why she was just standing in the middle of the hallway now.

Maybe it had been those bandages, all that blood. It had thrown her off, made her act differently than she would have.

And there was another thing: He’d saved her life?

If he was some sort of hero, then why were there guards posted not outside his room, but inside his room. Was he some sort of escaped convict that had crossed into Equestria to get away? But if that was the case, then why’d he stop to help her?

At this point, she knew there’d been a dragon attack, and that somehow she’d gotten in the middle of it. And supposedly he’d not only saved her from it, but had taken the dragon down as well. He’d risked his life for her? Somepony he’d never even met before, that he couldn’t even talk to?

This stallion simply didn’t make sense.

Her thoughts came to a halt however, gilded hoofsteps echoing down the hall toward her. “Good eventide, Rainbow Dash,” Luna greeted as Rainbow’s eyes landed on her. She stopped a few steps in front of Rainbow, allowing a small smile to her as the pegasus bowed shortly. “Prithee, how fairest thy wing?” she asked warmly, nodding toward the bandaged wing tucked slightly out of place at Rainbow’s side.

“It’s alright. A little sore I guess, but nothing I can’t handle,” Rainbow replied confidently, returning to an upright stance. “How ‘bout you, Princess? Haven’t really seen you in awhile,” she said, closing her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, Luna’s expression had darkened slightly.

“Not so well as before all of this,” she said tiredly, taking a deep breath before continuing. “We still think that the simple shield is not enough, we should have contacted as many of the other nations as we could as soon as he arrived. And closed the city off entirely, as well,” she said, stopping herself as she noticed Rainbow’s confused expression.

“A shield? Like during the wedding?” she asked, starting to become worried. That would be why the sky’s too pink, she told herself.

“Indeed,” Luna affirmed. “A recent arrival has caused quite the stir. We were just on Our way to see if We could speak with him,” she said, nodding down the hallway to the door at the end.

“You mean Coalback? Why? What happened?” she asked, starting to get worried that Luna might want to hurt her new friend. Even if she didn’t know him that well, and she didn’t know if he was some sort of criminal or not. He seemed nice enough, and she’d already told him that she was his friend.

“Coal-back?” Luna asked, her eyebrows trying to rise and furrow at the same time. “A large, grey pony? You hadst words with him?” she asked, worry starting to edge in on the Princess’s voice.

“Well, yeah. I mean, we talked for awhile,” Rainbow said, narrowing her eyes toward the Princess as she tried to determine what was going on. “Why? Is Coalback in trouble or something?” she asked, starting to become more worried. Is he really so dangerous that the Princesses are worried? she thought to herself.

“Be very wary about that pony, Rainbow Dash. My sister fears he may be extremely dangerous. Alas, We fear this also,” she said, a shimmer of anger entering her voice. “Tell Us, what were your thoughts of him?” she asked suspiciously, turning a narrowed gaze back onto Rainbow. For some reason, it felt like the Princess was looking inside her, her gaze was literally piercing.

Rainbow nearly blanched, only keeping herself in place out of determination to show the Princess that she didn’t think that Coalback was dangerous. “I thought he was pretty cool, actually,” she said, standing up straighter as Luna tilted her head in confusion. “Yeah, he was a little weird until he figured out how to talk in Equestrian. But, other than that, he seemed … kinda normal,” she said, shrugging with a small wince as her sore muscles stretched again.

The Princess simply continued with her stare, but after a moment she sighed through her nose and nodded thoughtfully. “Very … interesting,” she said distantly. “We wish you a speedy recovery, and a restful sleep to both of you,” she finished, dropping the conversation and starting to walk around her.

Rainbow’s eyes shot up in surprise at Luna’s sudden change in demeanor, as if the conversation had never happened. “Wait! That’s it?” she asked, turning to follow the Princess with her eyes.

She offered nothing more than another “Good night,” and a glance out of the corner of her eye before she simply kept walking. She didn’t even go into the room like she said she was going to, taking the turn in the hallway and continuing on.

With a confused expression on her face, Rainbow turned around and went into her room. She closed the door, and decided that she was too tired to care why Luna had simply dropped the subject as abruptly as she had. And that it could wait until tomorrow.

---

Her wing ached horribly, and it was almost impossible to sleep. Rainbow had ended up falling in and out of slumber for several hours. The clock on the wall now reading at three hours after midnight. A dull but insistent stitch of pain dragged her just out of sleep’s sweet reach, a torture if she’d ever known one.

She’d ended up simply staring at the nearly pitch black ceiling whenever she couldn’t sleep. She’d even counted the tiles that lined the ceiling, and she’d counted sheep before that. She’d lost count somewhere in the hundreds on both.

This was much worse than when she’d sprained her wing. At least she’d been able to sleep then.

Three heavy thumps dropped through the air, followed closely by a metallic ringing. The sound shattered the still silence that had plagued the room for the last few hours, making her sit up quickly in the bed and look toward the door. That can’t mean anything good, she thought to herself, gently shedding her sheets and slipping out of the bed. She shook the light sheets off of her wing as it caught on there, hissing as the sore wing complained in the only way it could.

She slinked over to the door, moving as quietly as she could. She didn’t want to freak out a nurse because she dropped a couple towels and dishes. She reached the door, opening it just a crack and peeking out carefully.

She was just able to catch sight of a hospital bed sheet dragging itself past the turn at the end of the cart. A light was on at the end of the hall, the door just before the turn stuck open by a discarded guard’s helmet. That was Coalback’s room.

She quietly pushed open her door, slipping out into the darkened hallway. She moved as quietly as she could, resisting the urge to start flying for the sake of her bandaged wing. She made it to the end of the hall and peeked into the open room.

Rainbow’s eyebrows shot up in surprise: all three of Coalback’s guards were sleeping soundly on the floor around the room. Somehow they’d fallen asleep, and Coalback wasn’t anywhere in the room at all. She turned around and looked down the hallway, seeing the trailing edge of the bedsheets turn around another corner. She followed it slowly, peeking around the corner again.

Coalback was shakily standing outside a set of double doors, his blankets wrapped around him and dragged to the floor behind him. He’d stopped in front of an abandoned cart filled with books, eyeing the titles closely. After a moment, he mumbled something unintelligible before reaching forward and taking a thick book with his teeth.

He abruptly turned his back to where Rainbow was standing, pushing through the doors that separated the hospital from the palace and continuing through. Narrowing her eyes, Rainbow quietly followed him. He would stumble occasionally, one of his hooves rolling out from under him just until he could catch himself. Strangely though, he didn’t look like he was in much pain at all.

She tried to time her hoofsteps with his, following him around two more turns. He stopped at a flight of stairs that were closed off by a small chain, a sign reading ‘Under Renovations’ hanging from it. Without a second thought, Coalback lifted a hoof and pawed at the chain until it came loose and fell out of his way.

And without paying the sign so much as a second glance, he started up the stairs. Rainbow followed him up to the entrance, glancing at the small brass plaque next to the stairwell:

West Canterlot Tower

        Below the boldfaced name was a small paragraph describing the tower’s history. It described how it was the last tower to be constructed, and that it was the third tallest in the entire city. Three covered walkways connected it to other nearby towers, including the main palace’s tower.

Rainbow could remember flying around this tower, and as far as she knew it’d been ‘under renovations’ for as long as she could remember. So, what could Coalback want to do in a tower that was basically completely empty?

One way to find out, she thought to herself, starting to follow the unsteady stallion up the stairs. She passed several floors as she rose, including the level where the tower connected to the others. It was the level above that that she found Coalback.

He was just standing in the middle of the room, looking around it blankly. Rainbow jumped back as far as she could into the stairwell while still keeping him in sight, trying to avoid being caught by him if he turned around. There wasn’t much in the room, the only notable thing being the huge covered mirror on the other side. A few windows had been replaced with simple paper covers, one overlooking a covered walkway and the other looking out of Canterlot toward the countryside.

Something in Rainbow’s gut told her that something pretty big was going to happen. She didn’t normally think that anypony but Pinkie could have a sixth sense like that, but that’s what it felt like. Her wings buzzed, the nerves there telling her that there was a storm even though there wasn’t a single sign of one outside. Her hooves tingled and her withers itched ... if that wasn’t a sign of something freaky then nothing was.

She was starting to get a little scared, Luna had said that he was dangerous. He’d somehow knocked out all of his guards, and now he was just wandering around the palace. What could he possibly be doing? she thought again, continuing her incredulous observations.

He set down the book, briefly revealing the cover as he looked around the room. It was an anatomy book, specifically one about pegasi considering the diagram plastered on the front. What’s he doing with that? I thought he couldn’t read, she thought to herself.

“YA ne znayu, vy uvereni chto ya sumeyu eto bez vas?” he asked himself, the words managing to reach Rainbow’s ears as he talked quietly and slowly. But there wasn’t anypony there besides her to talk to, and she hoped that he hadn’t noticed her. He drooped suddenly, lifting a hoof to press against his injured side.

After another moment, Coalback moved over to the mirror and pulled down the cover with one of his hooves. The mirror reflected back the room, including Rainbow’s eyes as she peaked over the top stair. But what was most surprising was how his eyes appeared in the mirror. They looked like they were shining, like an animal’s at night.

He simply looked at himself for a while, entranced by his own features. He almost looked … sad. Tired maybe. His shoulders rolled underneath the sheets around him, his wings pushing the thin fabric off of him.

Rainbow sat almost awestruck as she looked at his reflection. Now that he was standing, she could clearly see the thick muscles on his chest. With every breath, the strong muscles designed for pulling down his wings would flex out. The muscles on his legs twitched occasionally as his stance shifted.

And then his wings spread out, spanning far outside of what the mirror could reflect. Rainbow gasped as she saw them, never having realized that they were as large as they were. They were a different shape to her’s though; the only comparison she really had was Owlowiscious, Twilight’s pet owl. But the one on his right side didn’t seem to want to open all the way, still bent slightly and not raised fully. He scowled at the speckled feathers, inspecting the ruffled patterns there.

She jumped back down a few steps as he suddenly turned around, not having realized she’d taken a step toward him. He walked back over to the anatomy book, flipping through the pages and pressing his nose into it.

His wings were still extended, flexing and shifting as his eyes scanned over the pages in front of him. After having spent a few moments examining some diagram on another page, Coalback stood up again and looked at himself in the mirror. He hummed to himself in thought as he compared his reflection with what was in the book.

That foreboding feeling slowly grew as Coalback took a deep breath, seeming to steel himself for something. And with a grunt, his injured wing twisted up and back, fully extending and twisting back with a sickening pop as it properly found its place in its socket. His other wing twitched as the pain hit him, one of his hooves hitting the floor as he spat out a curse that she couldn’t understand.

He spat out a couple more curses, crouching down as he tried to chase away the pain. Some of his bandages had ripped along his barrel, some of the stitches once again pulled out as blood slowly seeped through the tortured skin. He turned his head to look at the retorn injury, making Rainbow have to duck down again so that her brightly colored mane wouldn’t be spotted out of the corner of his eye.

“Nu chto, za delo,” he said to his nonexistent conversational partner, turning back to the mirror with a worried grimace. With a defeated sounding sigh, one of his hooves hooked onto the bandages and pulled at them. With a few tugs he ripped away the bandages from his barrel, leaving the ones wrapped around his flank. More blood flicked onto the floor, the scarlet-tinged bandages joining it shortly after.

His breathing was short now, laboured as he gritted his teeth against growing pain in his side. She could see him shaking, the pain making it hard for him to keep his own muscles under control. “Pozhyaluysta … dolzen byt’ yesche odin put’,” he said, a sort of pleading tone going through his voice. It sounded like he was trying to convince somepony that something was a bad idea.

The next thing he said made shivers run up her spine, a static electricity buzzing along her wings and making her fur stand on end. It was only two words, both incomprehensible to her. He said it once more, blood spurting out of his side as his chest heaved. Then he said it again, and collapsed onto the floor in a writhing heap of pain.

Rainbow almost rushed out to help him, until she saw what was happening to his … skin. Blood squirted out in crimson streams from the wound as his muscles clenched tight, painting the floor at his side a dark red. The flesh writhed and moved all on its own, pushing back together and stitching itself back shut. The bleeding stopped, lines in his flesh pressing themselves closed and sealing there.

It was the most disgusting thing she’d ever seen in her life, it had looked like his skin had come to life. The wound was simply... gone now. Somehow, something had sealed up what should have been a crippling injury for anypony.

He sat there, simply whimpering in pain for a moment. But then he started … laughing. It started as a low chuckle, growing into a deep belly laugh as he rolled back onto his shaky hooves.

When he looked back up into the mirror, his eyes had changed. They were dilated dramatically, the edges of his irises turned deep crimson like the blood on the floor around him. “Was really that bad?” he asked himself, a mocking tone in his voice. He coughed, his eyes closing for a moment as he replied … to himself. “Okay, now get out,” he mumbled, the joviality slowly leaving him. His voice was raspy, as if his lungs had been filled with sand suddenly.

Rainbow didn’t know why he’d switched back to Equestrian, or why he was having a literal conversation with himself but she was starting to get seriously freaked out. She was starting to think that Luna might have been right. He coughed again, spitting a slightly red glob onto the floor beside him. It looked like he’d bitten his tongue.

He shook himself, standing back up shakily and spreading his wings again. He looked into the mirror again and examined the now fully extended wings again with a thoughtful expression. He started adjusting the angles of his feathers, feeling out the different flight muscles carefully and slowly.

“What- do you really do?” he asked himself, turning to glare incredulously at one of his wings. After a moment of staring at it they seemed to twitch on their own, creating a gust of wind that flipped the pages of the book just behind him. He shook his head, staring at the limbs with sudden surprise.

Why’s he look so surprised about his wings? Rainbow asked herself. After all, shouldn’t a pegasus at least recognise a part of himself? And he’s clearly proven that he doesn’t have amnesia, so that couldn’t be it. But he was acting like he’d never even seen his wings before.

A powerful gust of wind passed over Rainbow, shocking her out of her reverie. She looked up in time to see Coalback’s hooves hit the ground again, a strangely giddy expression on his face as he spun in place to look at his wings. He raised them again, bringing them down fast and spreading his feathers so that he could catch as much air with them as he could.

He lifted off the ground, clumsily flapping them again to try and maintain his height but inevitably returning to the floor. He breathed out a laugh, looking back at his wings again with look of foal-like wonder. “Very good!” he said excitedly, turning his head at random odd angles to try and look over his wings. “Very, very good!” he exclaimed, stopping to look toward one of the windows.

His experimental flapping had knocked one of the paper covers on an empty window half off, exposing the night sky and the covered walkway that it overlooked. A spike of concern lanced its way through Rainbow. She knew that she was supposed to stay off her wing, even though it only felt a little sore and she could probably fly pretty easily. But there was no doubt in her mind that Coalback couldn’t be flying.

Whatever that … thing was that he did to his side might have erased the injury, but there was no telling how strong he was after that. She had needed a few weeks to retrain her wing after that bad sprain in Ponyville, there was no telling what sort of condition his flight muscles could be in after that kind of injury. The core was a very important part of flight, it controlled balance and helped pull the wings back during forward movement. Without that control he could wobble right out of the air, or his wings could simply cramp up and he would plummet.

He’d already trotted over to the window, pulling away the last of the paper as he looked along the covered walkway. With a loud clap from his hooves as they pushed off the tiled floor, he leapt past the paper. Rainbow shook herself to steady her nerves and darted up to look through the newly opened window.

Coalback was running full tilt toward Canterlot Tower, kicking up shingles as he went. His body curled in on itself, his rear hooves meeting his front before he exploded forward in a new burst of speed that left a small crater of broken shingles behind him. His wings lifted up above him, spreading like sails as they caught the air and pushed it down. They reached up in front of him and fell in a blur, ripping shingles from their place on the roof and tossing them behind him.

His hooves continued to move for a moment as they left the roof, his wings pumping faster to lift him higher. He climbed slowly, turning upwards in a long arc as he flew up Canterlot Tower. His hooves barely avoided connecting with the tower as his arc sent him straight up the tower, his wings reaching far forward and pulling the air down behind him.

His speed quickly stalled as he neared the top, pulling him to a slow hover just at the top of the tower. He landed clumsily on the sloped roof of the tower, sliding on it for a moment as he scrambled for a spot to stand. Rainbow could see him looking over the city with a mixture of awe and barely contained giddiness.

“That was probably the longest takeoff I’ve ever seen,” Rainbow said with confusion. How could somepony with such large wings need so long to get off the ground? He should have been able to just jump into the air, especially with wings as large as his. “Does he even know how to fly?” she asked herself, shaking her head.

Coalback jumped in place on top of the tower, hopping up and down in excitement. His head lifted up to the clouds, a loud cheer echoing down from him as he did. The sound bounced off of the shield’s ceiling just above him, echoing the long cheer across Canterlot. It stretched on for so long that Rainbow started to wonder if it was more of a howl than a cheer.

He just stood there, open mouthed as he stared out at the city under him. She could see him breathing deeply, his wings still extended slightly. Rainbow let out a sigh of relief, if he stayed there, then the guards would be able to get him down. They would have heard all his yelling, so that probably wouldn’t be long.

It hadn’t even been two seconds since that thought went across her mind that a grey blur in the corner of her vision caught her attention. Coalback had dived off of the tower, gaining speed fast as he pumped his wings toward the ground. She could easily see a familiar speed building technique in his wing movements: Only flapping the wings half open and snapping them closed at the end to reduce drag so that he could build speed fast and keep it.

She didn’t have to be a mind reader to know the thought that had made him jump; I wonder how fast I can go? She knew that was what he thought because that was exactly why she would have done it. The image of a pony flattening himself against the near-invisible-in-the-night-pink shield at subsonic speeds graced her mind’s eye, making a pulse of panic flash through her.

“The Doc’s gonna hate me for this,” she mumbled, jumping out the window before she could talk herself out of it. Cold wind whipped at her, her wings taking command of it and propelling her forward. She had to catch up to him and warn him, or else her new friend could end up a pancake … And she’d never get to figure out what he’d done back in that tower.

Her wings spread out painfully, a hot fire poker digging into the elbow of her wing. She fought past it, she’d felt worse before and had flown twice as fast as Coalback was going. He had a head start, but she’d spent her whole life training for fast acceleration and faster speeds. She could catch him, she just had to move fast.

She angled herself into a rough intersecting dive, letting gravity help her pick up speed. Coalback was already at a fast clip, approaching the pull up point quickly. Her wing was slowing her down, the bandages around it ripping as she flapped furiously toward the intersecting point. She glanced to the side to see Coalback’s dive slowly shallowing out, and paled as she recognised a pattern in his movements.

He’d flattened himself into a position that was as aerodynamic as he could get it, squinting as his wings pulled the air from in front of him. At this point, it was impossible for anything living to be able to move faster. However, pegasus magic had a nasty habit of ignoring that fact. His wings wouldn’t even be pushing air at that point, a bubble of pressure centered at his hooves just starting to form as strong magic kept him moving faster.

She knew he wouldn’t stop on his own, she knew that look in his eyes. She knew the thrill of feeling her forelegs burn, the fear while her tail felt like it was going to be pulled off by the winds whipping past her. She knew the adrenaline rush of seeing that elastic band of pressure start snapping in front of her. He was going to go supersonic if she didn’t stop him.

But he was running out of room, if she didn’t stop him soon there wouldn’t be enough room for him to pull away. If he slowed too soon after a supersonic sprint, he’d be torn apart by the pressure wave. The buildings lining the maine streets of Canterlot was approaching fast, a long runway beckoning in its openness. And at the end of the street, the edge of the retaining wall at the drop-off of the city. Beyond that, the immovable wall of the city-wide shield loomed.

She was getting closer, and she could feel the air starting to compress in front of her own hooves. All she had to do was get close enough, just enough so that she could yell at him to stop. She could even just dart in front of him if that failed, that could shock him enough that he’d lose concentration and snap back on that pressure wave in front of him. It wouldn’t be pretty, but it would be better than the other two alternatives.

The distance was starting to close, his dive now aimed down the long street outside the wall. She changed the angle of her wings ever so slightly as she flew, pulling up more sharply underneath him and shortening the gap further.

The castle wall passed under them quickly, barely a white blur as they suddenly entered the city proper. A long road stretched out before them as they slowly neared the roofs of the tall houses there. She was getting closer now, about twenty-five meters and slowly closing in.

The pressure wave in front of him was getting more visible now, starkly contrasting against the night sky. If she didn’t hurry, he wouldn’t even be able to hear anything but the roaring of the wind. “Dude! Stop!” she yelled out, turning her head toward him as much as she dared.

She definitely couldn’t get to supersonic safely with her wing dragging her down as it was, and at this point was almost running parallel to him as he started to pass. “Coalback, stop!” she tried again, the wind in front of her keeping her from getting anything more than a whisper to him. She adjusted her angle again, pushing herself closer toward him so that she could grab his attention.

Fifteen meters …

Fourteen meters …

She could see the retaining wall that fell away to open air, and the very solid shield just beyond. “Coalback!” she yelled out again, trying desperately to catch his attention. But she could tell that the pressure wave in front of his was starting to unravel, he was nearly on top of the point of no return. If the pressure wave broke here, the buildings would funnel it after him in a wave of death.

Twelve meters …

At this point, if either of them went supersonic now, the other would be get shaken up. If she got much closer, then a shockwave could shake her out of the air altogether. At the epicenter of the sonic explosion, the one that would soon be chasing Coalback’s tail like a bat out of Tartarus, could crack building foundations.

Eleven meters …

Windows started to flash by as they passed below the roofline. She could see lights coming to life behind them in the very edges of her vision. The sound wave behind them was loud enough to rattle windows and shake flower pots off of their sills.

A sonic boom at close range isn’t exactly a boom anymore, it’s more like a continuous crack. When a pegasus pushes past that point, where not even sound can catch them, they leap through that crack in the air and hope to hell that it doesn’t snap back at them. If a pegasus bulls their way through that crack, like Rainbow does, it leaves behind a spectral pressure wave. That’s what makes her Rainboom possible in the first place.

However, being ten meters from the epicenter of one of those pressure waves is considered … unhealthy. When Coalback found that crack, the leap he took through it caused a pressure wave that caught her wings on the upstroke. They snapped open painfully, if the stitches in her wing hadn’t pulled out already they definitely had now.

She didn’t even hear it, the overwhelming pressure driving out anything but the sound of wind flying past her ears. She was spinning, and she couldn’t tell if she’d been knocked toward one of the buildings or the ground. She fought against the direction of the spin, locking her wings out at their full extension.

She recovered quickly, years of flight training allowing her to pull up just before hitting the sidewalk below. Her hooves scraped across the concrete as she slid to a stop on the ground, glass and dust raining down around her. She looked up just in time to see Coalback approach the edge of the city.

Following behind him in an invisible wave of pressure and wind, dust and debris jumped from the ground and the walls. Flower pots rattled off of sills, smashing onto the street below. Windows rattled violently moments after he passed, lamps lighting inside as the ponies within were shaken awake. Ponies screamed in surprise, rushing down to their doors.

With a twist of his wings, Coalback’s flight pattern rapidly changed. He rolled wide as he approached the retaining wall, dodging just over the stone railing. He smashed through one of the potted hedges lining the wall, continuing through and out of sight.

Rainbow could only stare at the place where he’d disappeared, breathing heavily with her wings hanging heavily from her sides. That was it. He was a gonner. A crash at that speed would do more than kill somepony, they’d be cleaning him up with a mop. She could only stare, thinking: I wasn’t fast enough … 

She could hear ponies starting to come out of the buildings around her, trying to find the source of the explosion that had rattled their homes. She couldn’t see anypony glaring at her, but she already knew that she was the prime suspect. She vaguely heard somepony ask if she was alright, and nearly jumped as a hoof touched her arm.

But she couldn’t stop staring at where he’d disappeared, waiting for the inevitable crash. She had just watched somepony die. She’d tried to stop him, and she hadn’t been fast enough. But there was still something that didn’t seem right. That weird feeling in her gut was back, and she could feel the buzz in her wings past the ache of protesting muscles.

She kept waiting for the sound of a body hitting the wall of magic, but the sound never came. Instead, a strange sort of screeching hiss echoed over the retaining wall. It was distant at first, slowly growing as the sound drifted to the right of where Coalback had disappeared.

“Look at that!” somepony yelled, a cream hoof lifting from the crowd in front of Rainbow. The pony pointed up and to the right, Rainbow’s eyes immediately drawn to where she was pointing.

A streak of blinding pink sparks sped along the shield, quickly fading as it chased the hooves of the pony streaking across the surface. With a pump of his wings to keep his speed, Coalback howled out another cheer. Rainbow saw his hooves shift slightly, turning him upwards at a steeper angle along the shield.

His wings remained closed to his back, only moving to boost his speed once he started to slow. He was moving fast enough that he simply slid along the magical barrier, even as he went vertical and began to shift upside down. His hooves skated across the surface, throwing up sparks as his speed slowly bled off from the friction.

The trail of sparks slowly shrunk until Coalback was almost a third of the way back to where he’d started, far above the castle wall. His hooves separated from the shield as gravity finally overcame centrifugal force, and his arc slowly aimed itself toward the castle gardens. A thin trail of smoke followed him, remnants of sparks flying out into step as far as they could before fading fast.

Rainbow launched herself out of the street, blasting the ponies beside her with a wave of wind. She needed answers now. So many had cropped up inside her head that if somepony didn’t start talking, she’d start bucking, and she’d start with this ‘hero’. She didn’t care if he was a stallion, or what anypony would think.

She approached the gardens just as Coalback touched down, or rather, splashed down. He’d aimed himself toward a long reflecting pool, littered with a few shriveled lilly pads. Water spread around him in a wave as he simply collapsed into the water, rolling to a stop on his back in the shallow pool. He relaxed, wings and legs outstretched in the frigid water.

A purple bruise spread out under his fur on his chest, shaped in the distinct shape of the decorative pot he’d rammed into. His chest heaved as he tried to catch his breath, mouth open wide and puffing out small clouds of vapor in the cool air. His hooves looked burnt, blackened on the bottoms and slightly chipped.

Rainbow landed with an angry stomp next to the pool, glaring in at the stallion as he bobbed slightly in the wake of his splash. When her landing drew nothing more than a twitch of one of his ears toward her, his laboured breathing uninterrupted, she stomped up to the edge. “Coalback!” she yelled, drawing the stallion’s vision up at her. “What the hay was that?” she hissed, staring daggers at the stallion as he continued to stare up at her with a giddy smile.

“Ty simpatichnaya, kogda zlish'sya,” he said with a chuckle, his wings moving under the water to make a few ripples.

“Dude! This isn’t funny! You could’ve killed yourself with that stunt!” Rainbow felt incredibly hypocritical saying that, considering some of the tricks she’d tried before. But she honestly didn’t care. If he was as inexperienced as she’d seen, then there was no way in Tartarus that he could pull off half the stuff that she could.

“But I not die,” he replied sarcastically. How he even managed to make a smartass comeback when he was so unfamiliar with the language, she couldn’t be sure. “Is always as fun as that was?” he asked suddenly, a childlike glee glinting in his grey-green eyes. “I have not felt so … awesome, for until I was run for first time!” he exclaimed, folding his wings in and rolling over onto his hooves. Water fell off of him, creating more ripples in the shallow water.

His explanation went unheard by her as she lunged for him, tackling him back into the water. They rolled over twice in the water, sending a spray out to the side of the pool. Coalback twisted in her grip, suddenly flipping her onto her back and pinning her there with his hooves on her forelegs. Her head was just above the water, the shifting liquid tickling inside of her ears.

She stared up at him incredulously as simply looked down at her, that giddy smile still plastered on his muzzle as he tried not to laugh. He’d shaken off her tackle almost as fast as it had hit him. She’d taken martial arts classes before, passing easily as even her teachers ended up losing to her. And she knew that tackle had been perfect, her grip firm and her stance steady. Yet, he’d practically shrugged it off and flipped her over like she’d weighed nothing.

His expression suddenly dropped, his smile flipping into a frown as worry etched into his features. Almost as fast as he’d pinned her, he backed away from her. The worried expression on his face changed into a frightened grimace. “Rainbow Dash … you are bleeding,” he said shakily, as she stood back up.

She pushed her legs underneath herself, standing up fully before looking up at him incredulously. Her mane hung down in front of her eyes, heavy with water and clinging to her neck. “What?” she mumbled finally. Coalback had backed away, putting a few steps between them in the water that was starting to numb her hooves slightly.

Without saying anything, Coalback shakily lifted a hoof. He pointed just past her, toward her still slightly outstretched wings. Water shed off of him irregularly, splashing back into the water around them. She turned to follow his hoof, freezing in place as her eyes fell on her wings.

She went completely stiff, afraid that even the slightest movement could make it worse. The bandage around her wing was completely gone, revealing the crimson matted downy feathers underneath. Blood pooled out of the ragged wound, meeting the water and rolling down her feathers. The stitches had been ripped free from her flesh, cutting holes before they’d finally broken.

She was afraid to look away, as if just the act of looking at it was holding her wing together. Her heart beat hollowly in her ears, each one coming faster and making her wing shake slightly. She felt like she couldn’t get enough air, no matter how fast she took in air it wasn’t enough. She had to bite her lip to keep from yelling out, trying to reign in her panic even as it grabbed hold of her chest.

She jumped when a hoof rested on her chest, making her drop back to reality. She nearly bumped noses with Coalback as she looked up, his eyes suddenly meeting hers. His hoof pressed into her chest, keeping her in place as she swayed on her numbing hooves. It was a strangely comforting feeling on the otherwise sore muscles there.

“W-what are you doing?” she asked nervously, his hoof offering an anchor for her to stop with. Her thoughts managing to drift away from her wing for just the moment, if only for it to remain in her peripheral vision.

“Just hold still,” he said calmly, the shaking in his voice almost unnoticeable now. Whether he’d hidden it to try and keep her calm, or if he’d pushed it away for some other reason she couldn’t be sure. But it was calming that he wasn’t panicking. If he could be calm about this, then so could she … Right?

She steadied her breathing, the shivers running up her spine intensifying for a moment before gently slowing. She could feel her heart still beating rapidly in her chest, refusing to slow as it seemed to work all the harder. The cut in her wing ached dully, pulsing with each heavy beat of her heart.

Her eyes traced down his neck, examining his features once again. He was so much taller than her, the top of her head only just meeting his chin. She could see his throat move under the thin fur there, patches of paler skin and old puncture marks stared out at her. It was a distant fact, one she wasn’t sure how to respond to noticing. But it was almost comforting knowing that he’d been through worse than a cut on the wing.

“I can make better,” he said gently, his throat moving in her vision and making the pale scars dance. “Do you want me to?” he asked, taking a small step toward her. She wasn’t even thinking anymore, just concentrating on anything but the image of her wing. She couldn’t stand to see it torn and bloody like it was.

Her mind jumped back, once again playing the scene in the tower. His flesh writhing as if it was alive, separate from Coalback as it put itself back together. Had he done that to fix the faded injuries that filled her vision now? He’d taken something that should have crippled him, maybe for the rest of his life, and had jumped right back up as if it had never been there … Could he do that to her as well?

She didn’t look up, if she stopped looking at him she might panic again. She could feel her wing aching, draining the life-giving liquid out of the gaping hole in her wing. She felt herself nod, the motion detached from her actual thoughts. She just knew that she wanted her wing to be better, and that Coalback could do it. Anything to stop her from having to see her wing like that.

Coalback nodded in return, slowly lowering his head toward her wing. She stiffened as his hoof moved up to her shoulder, causing a twinge of stretching pain as her wing opened fully in response to his touch. Her breath caught in her throat as she felt his breath move across her feathers, stirring them and causing the slightest sting as it passed over her wound.

She saw a scowl grow on his face from the corner of her vision, her eyes still locked forward in refusal to look back at her wings. His head shook away the scowl, another breath sending a warm wave of stinging up her wing. She jumped as his muzzle brushed against the feathers next to the wound, his hoof keeping her in place firmly.

A white hot poker suddenly pressed into her wing, stabbing through the wound and deep into the bones of her wings. It turned and pulled up inside the wound, pulling the skin tight and making her gasp in pain. Fish hooks dug into the edges, stabbing the flesh and weaving together as they pulled the skin back toward itself. She felt her blood spray from the tensed limb, the pain dissipating just enough for her to realize the actual source of her pain.

Coalback carefully pressed his muzzle against the wound, his nose sliding across the bloody flesh and sending ripples of burning fire down her wings. She hissed as his tongue slid over the wound, slowly cleaning away the blood. He was slow, deliberate and gentle as he moved, never pressing too far into the injury as his tongue soothed the sore flesh.

She shivered as the pain slowly faded into a welcome warmth, drawing her full attention back to her wing. Coalback gently licked at the wound, every pass of his tongue slowly driving away the pain. Between his licks, she could see the wound pulling itself back together. She could see the flesh rippling under her feathers as it made its way back toward itself. It was slower than what she’d seen Coalback do in the tower, but it didn’t seem to hurt as much as he’d seemed to.

It kept shrinking, her feathers following the flesh to fill in the blank space. Soon it was smaller than a bit, then barely a paper cut. Coalback didn’t stop until it was completely sealed, his hoof holding her steady all the while. When he pulled his muzzle away, the only sign that there had ever been an injury was the small parting in her feathers and the blood still clinging to her primaries.

Adrenaline and endorphins suddenly flowed through her, racing to stop the pain that was no longer there. Coalback stepped away as the buzz from the chemicals turned into a flood, making her heart race and her head spin giddily. She almost fell over as Coalback’s hoof left her, her head suddenly lighter than it should have been.

For some reason she couldn’t stop smiling, a detached sort of excitement overcoming her. Even the sight of her blood covering Coalback’s muzzle seemed almost comical, his tongue darting out to clean the blood off of his nose. She just stood there, suddenly having to fight the urge to burst out laughing as her limbs buzzed.

“Are you okay?” he asked after a moment, moving into her line of sight. The blood was gone from his muzzle, save for a few streaks of red that he’d missed. Water still weighed down most of his mane, pinning it to the back of his neck.

“I …” she started, the buzz from the endorphins starting to fade. “I don’t know,” she finished, swallowing against the tightness that was suddenly around her throat. “Is it … I need to get you to tell me what that was …” she said, lifting a hoof to point at him shakily. “... ‘Cuz it was pretty awesome …” she admitted, a chuckle escaping her lips as Coalback tilted his head.

She knew there had to be a simple explanation, she’d just have to decipher it from whatever he was able to say. Her delirious chuckle escalated, quickly turning into a barely controlled cackle as Coalback smiled. He nodded and added his own chuckle to hers.

She couldn’t help but find the scene around her comical. Here she was, splashing around in a frigid pond in the middle of the night with a pony she barely knew. Her wings ached like they would after a long workout that she’d forgotten to end with a set of proper stretches. And it suddenly felt like this entire day could have seemed normal.

“You two!” a regal voice said, cutting through their laughter and halting it instantly. They both turned suddenly, finding themselves face to face with a very irritated looking Princess Luna. Her intricately inlaid Ebony regalia shifted in the dim light of the night, her starry mane flowing around her with erratic waves of anger. She stood in the archway to the gardens, her eyes narrowing as she took in the scene before her.

“Follow,” she said quietly and firmly, the sudden absence to the volume of her voice only adding to Princess Luna’s intimidation. Her eyes narrowed further as she watched them climb out of the frigid pool of water, their heads hanging low as they approached.

Without another word, Princess Luna turned around and began walking back toward the castle’s entrance. Her gilded hooves lightly tapped against the stone as they entered, the hollow sound of guilty hoofsteps duly following behind her.