-Their Legacy-

Before you learn of the future, you must first know of the past.

Many thousands of years ago, there were no ponies or Princesses in the world. Magic reigned free under the watch of a single god, her name only meaning ‘Mother’ in this tongue. The world was far different then: lands and seas that have long since moved or dried to this day, the skies and heavens ruled themselves, unfettered and wild.

In those days, Her loved children were men, their kingdoms spreading far across the world. But there was one kingdom, its name long lost through curse or time alone, that held Her heart’s attention more than any other. The people’s name meaning only ‘Angels’ to us, as was the name She gave them. They were great warriors, blessed by the Mother’s power to protect Her sanctuary from those among men who would destroy it.

It was this blessing that gave the hallowed fighters their eyes of fire, and skin of metal that made them so revered. They forged steel to their very being, burning their dedication to the Goddess into their existence. But not all who served Her had these attributes, or were blessed by Her strength. They, the knowledgeable, were weaker without that blessing of the fire-red eyes. She had balanced the strength She had given to the warriors with an equal amount of knowledge in those who didn’t see the world through Her scarlet.

These men’s power was so great that none dared to challenge them, except those already within their ranks. The last true king had two sons, a prophecy telling him that the weaker brother would fall to a darkness that would consume the world. That king foolishly believed that it would be his single son born with the red eyes of the warrior, Axton, who would be able to overcome this darkness, and cast out the other child at birth.

But it was the Prince Axton who fell to that wicked darkness: A greedy god, jealous of the Mother’s beauty, overcame him and blackened his heart with hate. This cursed brother slew his father in his sleep, taking the throne for himself and falling victim to that god’s hate for this world.

But the other brother had never left, not truly. He’d been taken in by a vassal of the loving Mother, and this blooded Angel raised the child to fight, and named him Chevalier. For years he trained alongside the Angels, both in mind and body. And he was foolishly loyal to his false king, just as the others were.

In a flight from his brothers, those who mocked Chevalier for training to fight without the Mother’s blessing, a grave discovery was made. The Mother had been eerily silent for years, only speaking through Axton. But Chevalier found himself fleeing into the forbidden sanctuary, and stumbling upon her great form. He could see the great black scars that held Her imprisoned in her own sanctuary, marring her stone body.

She caught him in her gentle grasp, Her powers weakened by Axton’s corruption and only allowing Her abstract control of Chevalier. She showed him visions of the suffering to come, and the suffering that had already transpired, directing truth into his soul. And before she was forced to hide away once again, she granted him with one blessing, forging her own body around his, so that her strength and her protection could go with him.

Chevalier’s unconscious form was discovered within the sanctuary, his body exhausted from the fires that had fused the Mother’s power to his skin, and taken before the king. Enraged by the blatant breaking of his laws, he ordered Chevalier to be banished from their nation, exiled and hunted by those loyal to Axton’s crown. He ordered Chevalier’s tongue to be cut from his mouth, performing the task himself with a claw-curved dagger.

And so the world fell into twilight, the Mother’s powers finally sealed by Axton’s swift actions. And with her powers locked away, the Mother could no longer care for her beloved men. The world fell into darkness and chaos, as the greedy god watched in glee, and what had once been an Eden, had become a hell on earth.

Banished, hunted, and now knowing the truth of his so-called ‘king’s heresy, Chevalier fled the great kingdom. North he ran, hiding among the treacherous lands that overflowed with ice even in the hottest summers, and wandered by beasts larger than the tallest trees. There he found something unlike any other, the Mother’s one and only daughter, truly born from Her body.

Her name was Deliciae, her form ever able to change from a woman to any animal that she so chose. It was the power given to her by her Mother, a god’s strength and powers in mortal body. She had only ever watched from afar, and was entranced by the man that wandered into her home. She took him in, protecting him and healing him. And she warned him:

It was her words that sank hope deep into his heart, her warnings only serving to drive him on. She told him of the god that had possessed Axton, and that his power had made them unkillable by any mortal magic or metal. And that she was unable to fight him herself because only a god could command her to kill another god, it was not her war to fight.Instead, she told him of a weapon that was hidden in the sea-ice of the South. One forged from the Mother’s great, hot earth-blood, and infused with the magics of creation, thus granted the power of death in balance. It was this weapon, and this alone, that could truly destroy anything that it clove.

He left her then, his sights set South to find this weapon, so that he could free the world of the hold that Axton, the false king, now had. He traveled across the sea of glass, skipping across those mirrored waves on the prow of a wind-swift boat.

He traveled for many days and nights, the darkness of the absent sun driving him forward. He reached a panicked land, the sky’s eternal twilight sowing fear into their chests. Bandits, murderers and pirates ran free, pillaging, stealing and raping as their dark hearts saw fit. It was in that first port town, its wooden harbors greeting him not, that he made his first stand against the darkness.

He drove out the evil men, slaying them with his bare hands in the absence of his weapons that still lay in his home, long left behind. His skin forged in the Mother’s very being ignoring the bitter bite of their swords and arrows. And it was like this in all places he traveled through, his strength besting even the most fearsome foes of magic and might. He marched on, leaving wonder and awe in his wake.

It was on the eve of the anniversary of his fall that he finally reached the sea-ice, a mean feat to travel from the top of the world to its bottom. There he found a temple cared for by men as ancient as the world itself, their magical power capable of matching any nefarious being that crossed them. He told them of his plight, for they were ignorant of it.

Midnight and midday held no meaning to them, for here at the bottom of the world the sun could rise for months, and set for even longer. They were no strangers to everlasting twilights, and knew only that the earth had grown still. Chevalier pleaded them to show him the weapon that Deliciae had told him of, begged for them to help him slay the demon-god that possessed his once king.

They agreed, leading him deep into the ice that never melted. Here the ice was so old that not even the fires of the Mother’s earth-blood could turn it to liquid, the ice as hard as rock and harder still than that. There they showed him the blade. There they bound his soul to it.Only a soul could cut through the shade that Axton had become, possessed by the hateful god. And thus able to rend them both gone forever. No afterlife would wait for them, for they would simply cease. They wove his soul into the metal, folding the hot iron over and over, making it ever stronger and sharper in the Mother’s blood-forge.

Once again he was warned; “Be wary of using this sword,” they told him, even as they laid the black blade in his hands. “Be wary, for the one whom you strike with it will surely die. You must be sure of your decision, and willing to live with the aftermath.” And those were the only words they offered him, sending him back North to his city.

He rushed back to his beloved city, sped forward by the feet that joined him. An army followed him there, grown loyal to him from his greatness. His noble deeds had spread on the winds to nations far and wide, drawing men who would fight alongside him to regain their world. They marched with him to that city faster than the winds could carry them, sped forth by their right to save their great Mother’s stone body.

With his army behind him, a mass of a thousand thousand voices lifting him up, he marched to those gates with fire in his heart. They broke through the gates, finding that the horrid king had transformed his loyal followers into terrible beasts. They were great beaked creatures, standing tall like a man with skin as tough and hard as a bear’s. Their strength was unbound, rage blinding them to pain or reason.

It was with a heavy heart that Deliciae merely watched, unable to halt the destiny that played out before her eyes. She was forbidden by the laws of her nature to interfere; it was outside her power to help in any way as man sieged the city.

The battle lasted days, Chevalier pushing through the beasts and making his way to the castle where the King Axton waited. It was a bloody battle, his hands shaking with the weight of a thousand monsters’ blood, but he carried on with the stubbornness of a boar. His sword cut through the doors, casting them open for the world to see as the brothers confronted each other.

The false king’s armor was black as pitch, dark magic flowing through him, clinging to his bones. They faced each other, and fought with the siege raging around them. Chevalier forgot his fatigue in trade for his anger, tired limbs made strong with rage. None could escape their fury should they stand in their way, blasted away by magic or might alike.

It raged for hours, their great battle, ranging across the palace, the forts, and then into the Mother’s sanctuary itself. There her true body stood for all to see, a crystal red as blood that stretched from the center of the world, all the way to its heart. They fought and fought, their weapons ringing against each other as they met again and again.

Their battle ended there, with a swift strike of his great weapon the brother’s black blade found the chink in the possesed king’s armor and pinned him to the Mother. Like a great beast dying, the king bellowed, his words echoing out for all to hear but none to remember. It was a Death Curse, one that would take the last of his being and use it to destroy All.

It destroyed everything, turning the battle to nothing in its wake. While the city still stood, all within it had died. No one could outrun the crash: It was all reduced to rubble, and then again to ash. Mountains pushed up around the city, drying its ports and fouling its farms, nearly wiping away the glass-smooth sea to the South.

But the Mother’s stone had survived, their battle not waged for nothing, even if the city stood empty now. The king’s curse still held her, trapping her power within her stone body. She found the crown of the king, splitting it into seven pieces and granting the first to her daughter Deliciae. Her duty was to replenish the life that the hateful king had destroyed.

She then gave birth to six more daughters, charging each with a piece of the crown and a duty to match it. Amora, the second oldest, was given the responsibility of love and family, to ensure that even in this fallen age life would flourish and be happy. The third was Gratia, tasked with upholding culture so that it would not fade. Terra was next, her duty to ensure the survivors would sustain themselves from the land that was her Mother’s. Necessaria was to uphold the community and friendship, to work in tandem with the other sisters so that harmony would be achieved.

But the last two, the youngest and yet the most necessary, were not for the people as much as they were for their Mother. Celestia and Luna were given the last two pieces of the crown, and charged with dominion over the moon and the sun, so that the day could herald progress, and the night could let rest with beauty filled skies.

With these seven godling sisters, the world slowly regrew. Magic danced through the land, let loose by the sisters’ births, and brought about the rise of new races from myth. The gryphons, dragons, wolves, zebras, and finally; the ponies, who rose up from nothing but the magic itself. The godlings fell in love with these ponies, born of magic as they were, shaping themselves as they did with both wings and horn, or neither, but with power all the same.

The ponies loved the sisters as parents, and worshipped them as the gods of the world. But it was not to the happiness of one of them: Deliciae was sickened that her Mother had been so easily forgotten, and blamed both the ponies and her sisters for the loss.

She remained loyal to the survivors among men, shaping herself with the wolves and allying with them. Man grew hateful of the ponies alongside her, despising their worship of the Mother’s daughters over the Mother herself. They demanded war, and Deliciae stood by no longer. She helped man create a weapon that could destroy her kin, a way to show that the Mother was the one true Being deserving of praise.

They created the Blaidd-Ddyn, born of man and godling. Deliciae’s womb gave forth a being that was stronger than any mortal, could change its shape, and that could rend the body from a godling’s soul, for they could not truly be killed. They were gods in mortal shape, but remained even after their eternal body’s death. They built their army from Deliciae’s son, hundreds of thousands of them born into a pack that was like no other.

The ensuing war lasted centuries: Ponies were killed, taken from their homes and destroyed. It was Gracia who was the first sister to fall, her hope that peace could be made dashed out from under her with tooth and claw. Amora fell next, her love unable to halt the unrelenting claws of the Blaidd-Ddyn. Terra fell last, her strength and stubborn nature lasting her fight for many days until she was finally overcome.

But before the war could continue, it seemed that their fighting had spawned a new demon: His name was Discord, the chaos of war spawning him from the very souls of the warring races. He raised the beaked monsters again, those sharp-beaked brutes, spawn of far older demons, planning to finish what the last had failed to do.

His armies marched through man’s halls, even the mighty dragons falling under his oppression. That horrid fiend could not be stopped by a single army alone. That devil, the chimera than now ran free, was spiteful to the godlings, tormenting their ponies with deadly jokes and wanton destruction.

Necessaria pleaded to the nations of man, begging them, not to set aside their weapons,but to turn them alongside the pony’s to drive back Discord before they were destroyed as the Angels had been. She pleaded for days, all the while the defenses of man dwindling under Discord’s monstrous siege.

They relented, turning their weapons and teeth away from the ponies and instead fighting with them. Their armies joined together, enemies forgotten as they pushed back Discord’s army. But this was not enough, they needed a weapon, like the black sword lost within the Mother’s stone sanctuary, one to stop Discord once and for all.

The last of the sisters joined with the council of man, forging a tool unlike any other. Before this age, they were called the ‘Sister’s Gems’, and they were indeed beautiful to behold. Forged out of impossible things to trap the impossible creature:

The Ether of the stars, the Love of a mother, the Sweat off a dog’s back, and the Light from the twilight sky. Six pieces were made, each of the three pony sisters to wield them with their magic and to destroy Discord. They mounted the gems in enchanted gold, making them much like their creators, ever able to change shape.

They marched into the battlefield with their new weapon in tow, fighting their way to Discord’s conglomerate form. But under his hateful gaze, the men fell away. The last man fell with a defiant cry, the Death Curse bursting forth from his being and leaving behind a crater that destroyed Discord’s army, but left those godlings there in its wake.

Discord laughed and sung of their failure, even as he slew Necessaria with his claws, mocking the remaining sisters. But as Discord stopped to sing, distracted as he began to descend upon Deliciae, Celestia and Luna struck with the gems. A light like no other sprung forth from them, freezing Discord in stone as he sang.

And so his horror ended, the coupe halted.

But the terror did not end for man there: their beasts, the Blaidd-Ddyn, turned on them in madness. They destroyed the last of man, fighting over the last remaining city of man where a false king once died. They then turned on each other, their rage unchecked as they slew their brothers. Their battles more horrible than any war before that, Discord’s poisonous chaos unable to match their rage.

The three sisters begged them to stop, to see peace as the rest of the world had begun to, but their cries went unheard. Instead, they were forced to retreat into their own cities, sheltering the ponies from the fallout of the Blaidd-Ddyn’s civil war. Deliciae watched in horror as her children shed each other’s blood, her sorrow and guilt growing by the day.

When only one of them remained, the sisters went after him, hoping to make him see reason now that his madness had ended. But he fled, sealing the city from within and disappearing into a tear in the world. He vowed one day to return, and that only his blood could reopen that place.

Deliciae, leading the wolves in a body shaped like theirs, tried to wait for the city to open again, hoping against hope to make amends for her grave mistake. She blamed herself for spawning that terrible war, setting her kin to death by her children’s claws. And after a time, she could wait no longer, and fled into exile with her many followers, the wolves.

And although they mourned the disappearance of their sister, Celestia and Luna took dominion over the ponies, still fearing the hidden dangers of the world around them. They built their new cities, safe under the sister’s protection, the pain of the past slowly fading into legend.

And there was peace … for a time …

~~~

Merletta’s voice flowed smoothly as she told the story, her head bobbing and weaving to an undetectable symphony that only she heard. Her wings spread occasionally, pointing off toward one wall or the other to something only she could see. The past played before her eyes through a thousand others’, she needed only to tell what she saw.

But now she had calmed, deep breaths shifting the feathers of her chest. It had been a taxing experience for her, as it always was when gazing into the past. It was like trying to fall faster than a waterfall; the water above her was easy to read as it fell on her, but try and read the past and she’d have to catch up with it. The future flowed over her, but the past had be sought for and caught before it could be seen.

“Are you alright, Merletta?” Clean Cut asked carefully, her perch shifting slightly as he tried to look up at her. The movement was enough to drag her out of the strange limbo that she always found herself half in and half out of, even when still connecting herself to the present she usually found herself accidentally in a simply blank state.

She made only a few clicks in response, shaking her head to wake herself the rest of the way. “I will be fine, simply getting too old,” she assured, taking into account the concerned looks that the others in the room had donned. “The future holds many dark tidings, death will be the theme of the future. Whatever the outcome, a new kingdom shall rise out of the ashes left from the battle,” she finished grimly.

Their response to her recounting had been muted, enraptured in the dictation. It gave her a small amount of pride to know that she could still capture the attention of the ponies, Clean Cut’s responses having long dulled over the years he’d cared for her mothers before her. She was tired though, her eyes drifting closed as she tried to rest herself.

“Why tell us all of this?” Twilight asked, having taken out a scroll from her saddlebags and taking notes judiciously throughout. “It seems to me that this faded out of history for a reason; a weapon like that could compete with the Elements fairly easily,” she explained, raising her quill in preparation to add to her already sizeable amount of notes. It was a simple question, and a valid concern: If another major weapon existed, and fell into the possession of something the likes of Discord, it could be a threat that was too much for the Elements alone to handle.

“And how does any a’ that concern us anyway?” Applejack put in, looking toward the bird with a skeptical look. “Yah said tha place is shut up real tight, right? So there ain’t a problem. We just gotta hit Discord with tha Elements again and we’ll ‘ave it done,” she added, a look of confidence overtaking her features. She was more than confident; they’d defeated him before and this time they’d simply have to up the security this time.

“I fear that the Elements of Harmony will not be enough this time,” Luna replied coldly, making Applejack all but trip over herself in surprise. When the rest of the ponies turned their surprised looks to her she continued. “If he has escaped not just once, but twice, then Discord may have learned how to circumvent the Elements. They may not be enough, especially with myself being as weak as I am,” she said, drawing more confusion from the ponies.

“You don’t look very weak to me,” Coalback interjected, tilting his head toward her. “More powerful than the thing that gave me the power to make that wall even remotely possible,” he said, nodding toward the door and waiting for her response.

She nodded sagely, taking a moment to collect her response. “After I returned from my exile, I was slightly weakened from the long exposure to the extreme conditions of that place. And when the Elements cleansed me of the hatred and jealousy that had clouded my mind, it also stripped me of much of my power. It is the reason why I appeared more … muted, the first time you saw me,” she explained.

It was true, the first time they’d seen Luna, just after the Elements had cured Nightmare Moon from her, her mane had appeared as any other pony’s would have. She had been an alicorn only in shape, but did not have the same ethereal mane that Celestia had. Now it seemed she’d more than regained those aspects, but still lacked the same size that both Celestia and Nightmare Moon had possessed. If that was somehow an indication of her abilities, then she was indeed much weaker than Celestia.

“The reason that Merletta has told us about this past is so that you can understand: Understand why Discord will have the upper hoof in this battle. Understand why the Elements are now ineffective. Understand why we need your help, Coalback,” Luna continued, turning resolutely to the single man in the room. “The last descendant of the Blaidd-Ddyn has come in our darkest time, a key to the stronghold that holds perhaps our only hope,” she said grimly, her expression darkening as she spoke. “Your kind were once our enemies, but you have a chance to change that now.”

Coalback had been very quiet during Merletta’s story, his eyes drifting in and out of focus as his thoughts raced behind them. Rainbow wasn’t sure what to make of his distance, or how he’d reacted to it. Other than the single comment he’d made, he’d been totally silent. When they’d first met, he’d talked about finding answers, things like who he was. But now that he had that answer, how was he going to react?

“... I need some air,” he said hoarsely after a moment, pushing Rainbow off himself and slowly pulling himself onto his one good leg. His fingers gripped onto the metal mesh around them, pulling himself up into a slouched stand. He stood nearly a head taller than the Princess, easily able to put his hands against the grates above them.

“Coalback-” Clean Cut started, stepping forward to try and stop him. The doctor froze however when Coalback’s fingernails scraped along the mesh, a ringing scrape snaking into their ears. Coalback’s shoulders were hunched, a deep grunt displaying his lack of concern for the broken leg.

He took shaky, limping steps toward the door. They backed away from him so as not to block his path, afraid of the anger that seemed to be simmering under a fragile facade of calm. Even the door seemed afraid to oppose him, opening on greased rails at the touch of his hand. He used his hands to swing himself through the low door, gripping the top and ducking under.

Rainbow only took a moment to hesitate before starting toward the door. Turning around one last time to make sure that the Princess wouldn’t stop her too before darting out the door after him. The room seemed eerily quiet again once they’d left, everypony turning to a dour Princess for the final word.

“We all could use some time to … think about what we’ve heard today,” she said after a moment, her voice weak and lacking the emotion it had held before. Her mussed mane and coat seemed all the more fitting, a fretting sister at the end of her rope, and unsure what to do. “Go, you’ll find your ways to your chambers,” she continued, drawing a circle through the air with her horn. The magic flickered around the room, passing through the newly opened door and out into the world as if it had been funneled out through a barrel.

The ponies began making their way towards the door, Twilight hesitating for a moment before she went through. “Are you sure that it’s a good idea to-”

“Go,” Luna said forcefully, sadness wilting her voice. Sorrow clung to the single word, and meant much more than it said. She didn’t want them to see her like this anymore, it wasn’t fitting for her to be so unraveled in front of her subjects. Thankfully, Twilight didn’t ask again, and followed the others out.

Clean Cut was last to leave, and had begun to turn toward the door when Luna spoke again. “Not you, Clean Cut,” she said, the forcefulness gone from her voice. She couldn’t command him to stay, it wouldn’t feel right. It was a request, though one he was willing to fulfill. “I do want to speak with you: I’m sorry for having been so distant since I came back, I truly did miss you,” she said, waving the door closed again with a minute flicker of magic.

Clean Cut turned back to her solemnly, both he and Merletta bowing to her again. “It was a long, hard waiting, Majesty,” he said quietly into the floor, his voice barely reaching her. “And I should be the one who is sorry,” he finished, bowing slightly lower.

Luna only sighed at the sight, almost unable to stomach his sudden submissiveness, it was too far outside of the character she’d come to know from him. “Do not bow to me, you haven’t bowed to me like that since we first met,” she said sadly, watching him rise with a careful slowness. “It pains me to see you act like this: Tell Us what We have done to make you so … stepford,” she demanded desperately.

This wasn’t truly the subject she should have been concentrating on as she was. She should be thinking over her sister, and whether Coalback would still be willing to ally with them knowing what his true purpose used to be. She should be hatching a plan, she used to be able to make the most intricate plans of such perfection that only she herself was the flaw that had made them crumble.

But this? This was an old wrong that she felt needed to be righted before she could think any further. Especially since he had proven not only loyal, but so persistent as to find a way to wait for her to return. She would need his loyalty in the days to come.

“It is not what you have done, Majesty. It’s what I did ...” he said morosely, his head moving down again.

“You’ve done nothing wrong, Clean Cut. In all the many long years I’ve known you, you have never once wronged me!” Luna said angrily, feeling on the verge of cursing at him, but she would never be able to bring herself down to that again. He should be the one I worried about some enchantment over, she thought to herself, unwilling to give the words voice. If the spell Twilight had cast truly worked, it would have found something in anypony in the room. But this constant obedience was ... wrong coming from him.

“But I did, your Majesty,” Clean Cut argued, letting Merletta hop off his head before lifting it slightly to look up at her. “In the time when you needed my support the most, I betrayed you! I should have stood by your side as Ebony Shield did. It was she who was truly loyal to you, pulling in her allies from Thestral Islands. But I ran like a foal, and because of that you got locked up on the moon!” he protested, his formality dropping as he spoke.

He’d stood up again, conviction returning to him in the form of spiteful hate toward himself. The memory played out in front of him, and it made bile rise to the back of his throat. He’d stood by her side as long as he could, trying vainly to follow both his Princess and his conscience. He still felt that his inaction had resulted in her punishments.

“You did what was right, Clean Cut,” Luna said, a consoling wing spreading over him. He looked up in surprise at the Princess, he hadn’t been held like this since he’d been a student, a foal no less. “I can see that; why can’t you?” she asked gently, pulling the smaller pony into a consoling hug.

They simply sat there for a moment, both drifting into a calm from the others embrace. “I’m far too old to be held like this, your Majesty,” he said breathlessly, the anger leaving him in an instant. An echo of a smile appeared on his face, dark memories falling away as the Princess held him as her sister had for her own student so many times only a few years ago. A few warm memories flickering to life in his overstuffed library of thoughts.

“Two old doddering ponies can console each other, can’t they?” Luna asked playfully, loosening her grip at hearing the humor return to his voice.

“I hate it when you pull that dream magic on me,” he said, a smirk growing from the smile as he turned to aim a raised eyebrow at her. “Here I am trying to have a genuine argument and then you just have to go and make it all better don’t you?” he asked, joining the Princess in an empty chuckle.

“You shan’t blame yourself for this any longer then?” she asked quietly, trying to force a more reprimanding tone into her voice and failing for the most part. Her wings returned to her sides as he nodded, both of them rising. “Good, because we may have more … pressing matters to prepare for,” she said, turning toward the door with him.

“Indeed, Majesty,” he said, throwing a teasing grin into the last word for her. “This time I’ll be there to help you save the throne,” he added, finality weighing in with his almost-consistent smile.

---

Rainbow’s hooves pounded against the carpeted floor, the endless red carpet dulled by the windows that led nowhere. She’d given up flying about three turns and four crashes into her chase. She’d moved faster than the halls changed that way, and had already nearly caught herself inside a twisting wall as a crossroad cut off. Her breathing was ragged, muscles burning, hooves aching, and it’d only been a few minutes.

“How can somepony with a broken leg even get this far so fast?” she mumbled to herself angrily between each carefully controlled breath. She might have forgotten to control her breathing during the initial sprint after Coalback, who’d somehow disappeared into the ever changing hallways, but now she needed to push off hitting her limit before she found him. All the while fretting about him.

She didn’t know what was going through his head, how could she? It must have been big to him though, that she knew. When they’d first met, he’d kept talking about figuring out himself, even after getting his cutie-mark. He might know who he is, but he’d still wanted to know what. He’d spent every moment after losing everything trying to figure that out, that’s what he’d said, it’s what he’d shown her.

How would he react to the cold, hard truth: He was a weapon, bred and born.

He’d never said it, not directly anyway, but Rainbow knew that he’d spent a long time trying to be better than that. He didn’t like killing, he’d more than shown his hate for it, as much as he’d done since arriving. It takes a strong pony to be able to say no to that kind of power, a kind of strength that didn’t come from a set of weights and hours on a track. That took power of will, and if what he’d shown her so far was what she made it out to be, he was stronger than anypony else in that regard.

And it was barely enough to keep himself in check.

How could anypony feel after being told that everything they’d tried to deny about their life, was true. Coalback never wanted to believe that he could only be that, the thing in the darkness. But something told Rainbow that Merletta probably couldn’t lie. Why would she want to? So that meant that every word she’d said was true.

Coalback’s kind, the Blaidd-Ddyn that the wolves loved so much, had been made from a war of hatred. It was the kind of thing that he’d shown to stand against since she’d met him. He’d even told her how he didn’t want to hurt anypony, he never wanted to do any of the things that had made him who he was. But every time he’d been forced into a situation where the only option that he knew of was to fight, and it just spiraled out of control from there.

He must be torn up over it, she thought to herself, taking another twisting turn that changed the floor into the ceiling before she was able to correct herself with her wings. It was incredible seeing the halls move in front of her as she ran, oftentimes overtaking the shifting wave of the hallway and nearly tripping over the suddenly rough, folded hallway’s wall.

But she kept running because she knew she was following Coalback, there were things that the hallway left behind: A knocked over bust that rolled across the floor as the walls shifted, a torn down tapestry or curtain near a window where he’d fallen, a hole in the wall that very closely resembled one of his fists.

Despite that, she couldn’t be sure if she was really following him, or just coming across leftovers that the hallway had yet to fix. It seemed like she’d passed the same turns a hundred times now, for all she knew the hallways were pushing her around in circles. Frustration poked at her mind, heatedly pointing out the variously unnecessary signals from her body.

And every time it did, the hallway would seem to become just as agitated as she was getting.

She shook her head to try and drive away the heat-addled thoughts, angry at herself for not being able to just tough it out and wait. Waiting, postponing, excusing all the time. All she wanted, all she needed was a few minutes alone with him. Then maybe she could start thinking clearly again. It hadn’t just been a few hours, it’d been a whole day since she’d had that moment of release, where she’d simply had him.

“GAH!” Rainbow yelled out, skidding to a stop and throwing her head up in the air in frustration. She pounded a hoof against the side of her head, a vain attempt to drive out the insistent desires and thoughts that kept crowding in on what was important. It only left her with more of a headache as she tried to catch her breath, sitting on the plush red carpeting in the dark.

She was so frustrated, and not just because she’d been holding herself back for so long. Nothing made sense anymore! Nothing seemed tied down in this new reality that she found herself flailing in. Even the Princesses weren’t what she’d thought they were, what she’d been taught they were! She’d always been so confident in her image of the world, so solid in her knowledge that everything would work out in the end. But for once, that didn’t seem like it would be an option.

It seemed that, no matter what they did, how this all ended, nothing would be the same. Nopony would be left without some sort of black mark on their soul after this was over, if there was anypony left to feel it taint them.

The hallway grew still around her as she stopped chasing it down, seeming to pant from exhaustion as much as she did. She’d stopped at a branching off of the hallways, splitting at a rounded corner that sent them off at angles from where she sat. The hallway wasn’t nearly so dark here, a small lantern shining brightly at the top of the rounded corner and spreading its light across the paint sculpted ceiling.

Red carpeting split off to her left, more light obviously visible at the far end. A small breeze flowed down it, tickling at her feathers. She hadn’t noticed how stuffy it had gotten in the hallways, the fresh breeze filling her lungs with cool air. Her wings fluttered at her sides, anxious to stretch out and move again after so much running.

To the right, the hallway darkened again and the labyrinthian place continued on. The carpet darkened again into an ominous red, but something was off about the carpets there. Where the halls and floors had remained nearly pristine save for the few fallen or broken things strewn about them, the carpet here had been disturbed.

Sweeping footsteps traced their way along the wall, a shambling walk that tried to favour one leg. The footstep was wide where it had pressed into the floor, a distinctly inequine shape disturbing the flow of the carpet. Not to mention the small smudges of blood that had been smeared to the wall, five points dragging along before being renewed as weight was put back on them.

Coalback had gone that way, and he’d started bleeding again too. Had he not felt the fresh air, seen the brighter hallway? Or had the labyrinth of hallways hidden it from him, choosing only now to allow Rainbow to join his path that it had created? Or had he simply chosen not to leave?

She stood only for a moment, the desire to stretch her wings again nearly overcoming her. Even if she was fast, a quick lap around the towers, she didn’t know if she could get back at all. She needed to be there for Coalback, the last time he’d run off he’d gone into a full out rage directed at himself, or parts of himself anyway. And she had no idea how he would react to the recent news.

She stomped on the desire to fly resolutely, turning in place toward the darkness of the other hallway. Even if all she was able to do was stand there, it would be better than just leaving him all alone.

It didn’t take long to catch up to him this time, a single doorway that had been broken off its hinges more than enough to show where he’d gone. The room beyond was just as bare and repeatedly decorated as the halls had been, with only one exception collapsed against the far end of the room. A single window provided light into the room from the late afternoon sunlight, partially blocked by the man staring out of it with hunched shoulders.

Stepping through the door, she felt like she’d suddenly been plunged into water. The air was no different, no pressure pressing against her overly sensitive wings. Still, she felt like she’d just spent a week in Cloudsdale and hadn’t conditioned herself for the thicker air back on the ground. It was Coalback, his presence practically filling the room.

She could see the muscles in his neck and arms moving under his skin as he closed his hands into fists and opened them, his head swiveling as he looked out the window blankly. She almost felt like she was watching him hunt, even though she’d never seen it. There was a strange quietness to the way he stood braced against the window, like he was ready to leap out of it.

The tense, coiled strength of a predator stalking its prey.

“Coalback?” Rainbow called gently, carefully stepping into the room. She wanted to be careful, she couldn’t be sure if he’d want her to see him like this. And she didn’t want to be in the way if he struck out. “Are you okay, Coalback?” she asked, unsure where to really begin trying to help him.

She waited, afraid to come too close to him before she was sure that he wasn’t on the edge of his anger. But the oppressive air of the room lessened, and his back relaxed slightly. “I’m fine …” he said weakly after a long pause, a wave of strained relief washing over her. While she was happy to hear him so much calmer than she had expected, he’d said that before too.

“Are you sure? You don’t look so good,” Rainbow said softly, taking a few more steps forward in the empty room and standing beside him. The window lit up his front, casting strange shadows on the sides of his body. A forced and strained calm had overtaken his features, the lines of his tightly clenched jaw betraying the emotions playing beneath the surface.

“I’ll be fine, I have more important things to worry about than my own dilemmas,” he said quietly, a small shake in his voice from the tensed muscles in his chest. “I have to worry about how long it’ll take for the army to march around the wall. I have to worry about the military ability of Canterlot, and consider raising a militia to boost our numbers,” he listed, his head drooping and looking down toward the ground outside the window.

Rainbow followed his gaze, stepping up beside him and pressing against one of his stiff arms. Ponyville massed below them, the pony refugees milling about as guardsmares worked to organize them, find them housing, and provide whatever medical attention was needed. It was a crowd of activity, various pegasi flitting over the crowds with supplies piled on their backs. Food passed among them, a hastily set up soup kitchen providing a hot meal to the tired ponies.

“I have to worry about them,” he continued, a dark expression gently asserting itself over the calm he’d tried to maintain before disappearing again. “I have to worry about the Princesses. I have to worry about your friends, like I promised. And I especially need to worry about you,” he said, the hand she’d been leaning against moving to rest around her neck gently.

She shivered slightly under his touch, an itch crawling up the inside of her thighs. Images instantly flashed through her head as he gently massaged his fingers through her mane. She tried to stop the moan building in the back of her throat and ended up sputtering out a grunt of approval. She huffed as she shook his hand off of her mane, reluctantly looking up at him with a worried expression.

“Don’t tease me right now,” she said quickly, a stiff shake resettling her twitchy wings in a more comfortable position. “Are you sure you’re alright? You looked really twisted up earlier. And what about your leg?” she asked, the shake in her voice only drawing a smile from him.

He sighed, the tension instantly dropping from him. “I wasn’t, and I probably won’t be. The leg will be fine in a few days, a week at most. But that can wait,” he said, the smile slowly defeating the oppressive atmosphere that the room had first held. “Besides, I think I need a bath,” he said, his hand resting on her back, just above her shoulders.

She shivered again, not bothering to hide it as she pushed up against his side with her head to push him up to his feet. He stood shakily, leaning heavily on her as he pushed himself up. He let out a grunt as he settled with most of his weight on the uninjured leg, the other showing a distinct amount of swelling above his knee.

“Alright,” Rainbow said breathlessly, looking carefully at his leg and standing on his other side. “First we’ll get somepony to look at your leg, and maybe more of those flowers. Then we’ll go find a room!” she said as she started to lead him out, her tail wrapping around his good leg as she tried to press against him while they walked. It was taking a lot of concentration not to just jump onto him right then and there, but she could see the strain on his face from the pain from walking.

They shambled down the hall back the way they’d come, agonizingly slowly making their way out of the maze of halls.