-The Monster Under the Bed, Part II-

The wing wrapped over Twilight’s barrel was shaking, Celestia’s sides shivered against her. The limp pink mane fell over her shoulders in stark contrast to it's usual ethereal state. She leaned heavily on Twilight and relied almost entirely on her to keep walking. Luna guided her sister from her other side, stoically leading the way farther into the castle and away from the throne room.

“What happens now?” Twilight asked, her hushed voice sounding slightly too loud in the oppressive silence of the halls. She tried to look over Celestia’s shoulder to Luna, but with Celestia leaning on her she was unable do anything more than see Celestia’s withers.

“Now?” Luna responded in a grave whisper. “We must assist our sister in her recovery,” Luna said, the hum of her magic opening a door in front of them. She guided them within, her magic lowering the light inside.

The tall windows glowed with what light was left in the day, cut off by the bright red curtains curtains and casting the circular room into a gentle twilight. Desks lined the outside, all ornate and delicate. Several sparingly filled bookshelves occupied the space along the walls that the desks did not. And in the center a sunken sitting area was filled with cushions, surrounded by several unlit lamps. These were the what was left in the now seldom used reading chamber.

Luna led them immediately to the cushions and Celestia collapsed into the circular depression in the floor, still clutching to Twilight as if her life depended on it. Luna moved quickly after that, jumping out of the pit and rushing to one of the reading desks. Her magic gleamed as she retrieved a small dish from it, and when she returned with it Twilight was able to see that it was an empty clay ashtray.

“What we are about to show you, Twilight Sparkle, can never leave this room,” Luna whispered, settling into the cushions in front of them. “This is something to prepare you for the future as well. You must stay strong, do not look away and do not speak until We utter it to be so,” she said, balancing the ashtray underneath Celestia’s hung head. “Celestia? Dear Sister, can you hear us?” she asked gently, a tender trace of her magic pulling Celestia’s mane out of her face.

Celestia let out a shaky sigh and nodded ever so slightly. Her face was tight, eyes clenched shut and jaw set rigid. Luna spoke again. “Can you tell us what you see, sister dearest?” she asked carefully, leaning close to Celestia’s muzzle with her eyes trained solidly on Celestia’s closed ones.

“He showed me what hides in the shadows of my mind and my memories,” she whispered hoarsely, so quietly that Twilight was sure that if she had been sitting anywhere but directly next to her that she never would have heard the words. Her voice was so weak it was surprising that she’d spoken at all, it was altogether alien on her. Twilight could barely comprehend how the alicorn could have been struck so low. “All my mistakes, all the things I regret. He laid them bare and made them visible to the Other thing inside me.” She shuddered suddenly, her wing pulling Twilight closer in an almost painful embrace.

Twilight saw it then, a single tear. It fell from Celestia’s eye, sparkling in a light that wasn’t there, and landed in the ashtray in the most peculiar way. Instead of an almost silent splash that Twilight had expected, a rather loud clack resounded from the clay. It was crystal, Celestia’s tears were crystal. Luna watched the tears fall intently, her horn glowing as it held the ashtray steady and casting an eerie light over her features.

“And then he showed me how … insignificant my emotions were,” Celestia started again, her breathing coming out even shakier than before. “And then he made those emotions belong to the Other too. He showed me his pain and his anger, it was like I- We were drowning … at the same time.” Another tear fell. Clack. “It was like an ocean of hate, and then the Other fled. It pulled and ripped at me where it was holding me before. I could feel it leaving scars in me as it tore away from Him. They crushed my soul and the Other ran in fear from Him before I could.” Celestia shuddered, unable to speak further.

“That’s right, Sister dearest. Coalback has done a terrible crime to you, but it was to help you. Do you understand?” Luna asked calmly, eyes moving down to examine the crystal tears inside the tray. Celestia nodded slightly, another tear bouncing into the tray. “You have to keep remembering it, make it as a mantra. All those feelings, all of this must be repeated over and over again or else you will never be able to recover,” Luna explained simply, and then turned to Twilight.

“Our tears are powerful, Twilight Sparkle,” she began, a grim expression on her face. “What that power is used for depends on who wields them. They could be capable of wonderful deeds, or horrifying destruction. Celestia needs you, her tears are proof of this. Help her walk through her shock. Methodically, carefully. Just the way that you know how,” she explained.

Twilight was speechless, everything before her was just too much. She’d never seen one of the Princesses cry before. Before any of this she’d hardly seen either of them do more than pout, but never show so much emotion even to her. And it was all weighed on Twilight’s shoulders that Celestia should recover.

“Okay,” she managed to whisper, still unsure how she would be assisting exactly. “Why me, though? I don’t think I’m qualified for therapy on this level,” she added quickly, a sudden bout of self doubt overcoming the unicorn.

Luna sighed, but nodded in understanding. She knew exactly how Twilight felt. “All you have to do is be there for our sister, and keep telling her to move forward. We will do the rest,” Luna explained, surprising Twilight by placing a reassuring hoof on her withers. Luna turned back to Celestia, the glow in her horn brightening as her magical prowess in the aspects of the mind forced Celestia to re-experience her pain.

Celestia reacted instantly. A cry escaped her lips and her body went rigid as a board. Another tear fell from her eyes, falling to join the rest. Celestia slowly came down from her panic, breath coming in short gasps. The hoof on Twilight’s withers pressed against her, a silent plea from Luna.

“It’s okay, Princess,” Twilight said, trying to keep her voice from shaking. “It’s okay, you’ll be alright,” it was the best she could come up with at the moment. She struggled to recall whatever she could about psychology, therapy, and study papers on the functions of the brain that she’d read. She vaguely remembered a pamphlet that she’d read about irrational fears, and different methods of treating them. “‘Repetition is the cure to fear,’” she quoted, just catching the reassuring smile on Luna’s face as Twilight spoke. “Just keep going.”

“It’s too much- I can’t,” Celestia choked out, a hiccup interrupting her and shaking free another tear. She cried out again as another wave of the emotions she’d been forced to feel washed over her again, it was like she was being held just inches under the water knowing that air was just out of her reach. And it was Luna holding her under now. “Please- please …”

“You have to keep going, Princess,” Twilight begged, pressing the side of her head against Celestia’s neck. It was difficult to move with Celestia clutching to her the was she was, but Twilight tried all the same to return the embrace gently. “Think of everypony who needs you! Everypony who loves you!” she encouraged, flinching as Celestia cried out again.

The scream died to a whimper, her shaky breathing occasionally interrupted by a hiccup. “But if they- saw- knew what happened-”

“They wouldn’t care,” Twilight said resolutely, cutting her off. “No matter what you did in the past, everypony loves you. A mistake that old can’t change that,” she said consolingly. She was able to wrestle free one of her hooves from where it was pinned against her side and stroked Celestia’s closest hoof reassuringly, offering all the comfort she could to her.

“Not them-” she blubbered, crying again when Luna’s horn flashed. “It- It was my fault that they died-” she confessed. “He found it- found it and made me see what I did. He made me hate her as much as myself, he made me remember my hate. I should have protected them- I could have- But I didn’t!” she wailed, shivering harder as she cried.

“It’s okay,” Twilight repeated, feeling slightly out of place saying it. Her gaze drifted to Luna, who held a similar expression of sadness. It seemed even she was on the verge of tears. “It’s okay. You didn’t mean to do that,” she said carefully, hoping she wouldn’t say something wrong.

“No,” Celestia argued. Her voice had risen but it wasn’t much of an improvement over the nearly incomprehensible blubbering she’d been speaking in before. She shook again as Luna’s horn flashed. “No,” she repeated, continuing a mantra of denial as she flinched again and again from Luna’s magic.

“You did the best you could,” Twilight replied, fighting past Celestia’s weak argument. “Everypony makes mistakes … even you. Everypony thinks of you as some untouchable goddess. Perfect, something to strive for. But you’re just like everypony else; you make mistakes, you care about other ponies, you get sad, you get frustrated. You have to stop and think things out sometimes, and other times you just follow your heart. And that’s something that they would forgive you for,” Twilight said, surprising herself with the revelation.

It was true enough though. Whenever Twilight looked back at the days that she spent being taught by Celestia herself, she saw how much of a pony she was. In court, during speeches, and in front of royals she wore a mask of godly distance and calm. But when she was with the ponies she trusted, the ones she held most dear, she was just another pony. She’d seen it before, but it was this extreme case that really drove that home.

Throughout Twilight’s speech, Celestia’s flinching slowly subsided. Luna’s magic flared and she shivered, but even that was less now. Luna’s magic flared for a final time, Celestia’s only reaction a sharper intake of air.

“Rest, dear sister,” Luna said sadly, leaning forward to press her forehead against Celestia’s. Luna’s horn hummed as a spell worked through it and Celestia slowly relaxed.

“Multas egerunt Necessaria,” Celestia trailed off quietly, sleep quickly overcoming the exhausted Princess. She slumped to the side, her wing sliding off of Twilight’s back as she fell asleep in nest of cushions.

“What did she say?” Twilight whispered, turning to Luna with the question. She couldn’t have been sure, but it seemed like Celestia had tried to tell her something else.

Luna simply smiled knowingly, slowly standing. Her magic wrapped around the half filled ashtray, a magical lockbox forming around it before it was dismissed with a flash. “You are a very special pony, Twilight Sparkle,” she said carefully, motioning for Twilight to get up. “But right now we have more worries than that. Come, we have preparations to make for the coming siege,” she said, her voice becoming stern as she made for the door.

Twilight carefully followed, stepping gingerly around Celestia so that she wouldn’t be disturbed in her sleep. She wanted desperately to ask all about what had happened, but was afraid of what she might hear. Celestia’s words haunted her.

“So,” Twilight said, joining Luna at the door. “What happens now?” she asked for the second time that day.

“Now,” Luna said, the ghost of a scowl on her face, “we ready for war, and rouse a militia.” She stepped through the door, a set of heavily armoured guards already standing guard there. They stood at attention as the Princess passed through the door, salutes snapping into place.

“This is really happening, isn’t it?” Twilight asked, her eyes going wide. The door closed behind them and they made their way back to the Throne room.

“Yes. And hopefully ‘tis the last time.”

---

That needle. It floated impossibly over my head, mocking me with its impossibility. And I panicked.

Sheets of snow from the wind battered against my face, cold seeped into the webs between my toes. Contrasting that, my shoulders and legs burned with the speed that I put into every hunger fueled leap. I dodged around a tree, a spray of snow blinding me for only a moment as I burst through a thin bush on the other side.

A hundred needles, all staring down at me with men in full faced masks behind them. None of them did anything, just poking holes in my skin and leaving behind a growing hate and fear. Why were looking at me like that? Were they entertained by my struggling against these chains?

I could smell them now. Sour grass, and scat, and just the smallest bit of sweat in thick curled fur. There must have been many, the smell was overpowering. I could practically see it along the almost indiscernible trail of softer snow where they’d packed it down and let new snow fall in. I followed it at a sprint, eager for the chase to come.

Muscled bodies holding me down, a flash of blue and they were gone. Like staring at a ghost, but she spoke in tongues within a blue light. She hadn’t had so many colors in her hair before. What was she doing here? Where was I again? This is all so strange.

A wolf would have followed at an easy pace, biding his time until he could separate a weaker prey and chase it down later. I was not a wolf, I would chase down whichever prey I came to and I would gorge on the fact that I had caught it and it was mine.

I could hear the crunch of hooves in show now. Heavy breathing and grunts of effort to walk through the snow tickled at my ears. I knew them instantly. Twenty elk, four bulls, twelve cows, and four calves. And I had pick of any one I wanted.

Ponies move slow, even when I’m weighed down by the surprisingly agile armour. They moved and my counter move came reflexively. Golden armour glinted, spears flashed, but I did not falter. It took more concentration to keep myself from hurting them than it did to fight them off. It would have been so easy to kill all of them, even easier if I simply changed, but I held back despite that.

The elk screamed in fear as I ran at them, moving in some semblance of a group. The smell of burning pine nuts grew as I closed on them. Their fear only served to spur me on in hunger. I caught up to them quickly, barking and snarling to scare them into splitting from their group. A thin bull broke off suddenly, spinning to swing his antlers at me.

I snarled in anger that it would dare to challenge me, a rage building inside me. It swung its huge head again, and I struck as it tried to hit me again. My teeth found its strong neck in an instant, my body twisting desperately to stay out of the way of the sharp spikes that swung not even a breath’s distance away.

I dragged it down into the heavy snow, the big animal fighting me the whole way. My claws tugged at its thick hide as I held on, refusing to let it roll on top of me or wrestle free. I rolled my jaw, trying to get my fangs to find the jugular and end this.

A horse’s nose broke under my armoured hoof, the rest of the stallion flying back from the sudden impact. A need to kill I’d been holding back since donning the armour and even waking up that morning suddenly given the freedom to feed its lust. I could finally let loose.

I moved with efficiency that had been hammered into me and treated the unicorns as armed individuals, striking them fast and hard on the horn first. His magic exploded just before I could kill him, the rings on my arm burned as they hungrily soaked it up.

Griffon blood tastes like chicken, who would have guessed?

A spray of blood and the animals death keening were my reward as my bottom fangs dug in. I drank the blood as it all flowed out, the elk’s struggling quickly stopped. I began pulling meat from its neck and filling my belly.

Rainbow Dash.

Hot breath, sweat, ruffled feathers. Clouds like pillows. Muffled cries of ecstasy.

I ate. Stuffing myself with coppery meat and salty blood. It was entirely satisfying. The last thing I’d hunted for food had been one of those strange creatures that looked like some mix between a chicken and a giant snake. Not mentioning the dragon or cougar, who I’d hardly had a chance to enjoy.

Gamey, soaked with blood and flavor. Every swallow spread warmth against the cold and satisfaction all through me. I let myself relax as I sated my lustful hunger, the elk’s heavy carcass shifting around with every piece of meat that I tore off. With one final swallow of meat I lifted my head, a new scent suddenly making itself known to me past the blood.

It was not from anything I’d smelled before, but still somehow familiar to me. Like walking into a building that I had been to before but remembering none of the details. It was a strange mix of musty sweat with a sour aftertaste, the heavy smell of urine overlaid it. I swung my head over my kill, trying to pinpoint the direction of the smell.

I turned away from my kill, looking over the smears of blood where I’d spread it with my paws. I’d dragged the body around to cut a wide ‘C’ into the snow and was gently being covered by the constantly falling snow. The smell was coming from a nearby tree, a slightly shallower spot in the snow around its trunk marking exactly where it was.

The only reason I’d noticed it was because of a shift in the wind that had wafted the fading smell in my direction. And now I recognised it for sure: Wolf urine. This was a scent mark, or simply a spot where a wolf had relieved … herself. Another sniff confirmed it was a female wolf.

“Gaethglud,” Non said, but her eyes said “Exile.”

The wolves were going north to an ancient city. Could they be close by?

My head snapped back fast, a deep throated howl flying from my lips. I saw my breath leaving my muzzle in a steadily flowing cloud. I raised the pitch as I turned my head, trying to let the sound spread as far as possible.

That was a feeling I could never get tired of. Just raising my head and letting loose. Wolves howled more often for the joy of it than to talk to one another, and this was why. I felt it in my chest and my throat, all the way to the tips of my fangs. A certain exhilaration coming from the simple act that I’d never be able to explain fully.

‘I am here’ the howl called out. ‘Where are you?’ it asked in equal measure. When the howl came to an end my ears twitched as my voice was thrown back by the mountains hidden in the distance.

I waited for an answer, doing my best to ignore the subtle sounds of the woods around me. I silenced the wind, ignored the gentle sway and swish from the nettles above me, and drove away the creaking of the trees with merely a thought.

And from the silence I heard it, an answer. It was hardly above a whisper. “This is our place” was all I could make out from it. It was not something I had expected, and it felt none too welcoming. The answering howl was gone just as subtly as it had come, and I was alone in the snow again.

A twitch in the air made me rethink that thought though. A branch gave a particularly loud crackle above me. A swirl in the air presented a familiar smell to me, but I reacted without thinking. I turned fast to face the new presence with a snarl. Stance low, legs tensed and ready to move in an instant, senses brought to bear.

Rainbow’s stance widened in preparation to dart away at the first sign of an attack from me as I came around. Her hooves gripped the heavy bough, her muscles taut to keep her balanced but still ready to react in an instant. But it was more the expression on her face than her presence that made me freeze.

Her mouth drew down into a short, strained grimace. Her eyes were wide, and trained directly at me. But she avoided my gaze. I could hear her heart beating at a fast pace, the loud double drum of her chest presented to me through the cold air. And with another breath I was able to find out why.

Fear. It wafted into the air from the shifted wind that was at Rainbow’s back. My nose itched from the nut-tainted scent that flowed from her.

Rainbow Dash was afraid of me.

My nose was assaulted by the smell once the extinguisher noxious fumes fell away. And I knew the burning, nutty scent was not my clothes. I could taste the ponies’ fear there was so much coming from the crowd. And all of it was from a realization that I was not like them, all from a mark I had not wanted appearing on my unfamiliar flanks.

They were afraid of me, and it made me sick that for a moment that I liked it that way.

“C-Coalback? What happened?” she asked me shakily, mortification deep set into her tone. She didn’t dare to take her eyes off if me, and it was with her question that I realized she wasn’t looking at me. She was looking at the elk’s blood that was covering me.

“I was hungry,” I am still hungry. “I smelled them,” their fear, “and I couldn’t stop myself,” and I didn’t want to. “It’s okay, though. I’m feeling better now.” Not really, your smell is hard to ignore.

I should have fled the moment I smelled her fear in the air, but now it was too late. If I wasn’t careful the smell would build me into a frenzy, the recent kill might help me though. I’d eaten, but my hunger was rising again with that smell in the air.

“No, no it’s not okay, Coalback,” Rainbow said sadly. “Just-” she flinched, fighting herself as she tried to speak “-Just tell me it was Discord that made you do … that,” she said, a hoof pointing behind me to where my meal sat.

I hesitated. “He only had the power to force the change ... telling you anything else would be lying,” I said reluctantly. I didn’t want to lie to her like that, she deserved the truth from me. I wasn’t sure what exactly she was trying to ask, but I could tell immediately that that was not the answer she had wanted to hear.

“No,” she said defiantly. “No, it had to be Discord. He was doing all that name stuff and it got in your head and then you …” she froze up again, grasping at straws.

“The change is total, Rainbow Dash,” I said quietly, careful to speak slowly to make sure she understood. “When I change from one to the other, nothing follows but me. Look, even my leg is better now,” I explained, slowly turning so she could see my rear leg. “His grip is not strong enough to hold me through that. So don’t worry, I’m fine now.”

“Don’t worry?!” she sputtered, an incredulous look aimed right at me. “Coalback! You just killed somepony for no reason!” she yelled, suddenly angry.

“I haven’t eaten much except pastries since I came to Ponyville with you. I was just hungry, so I found some food,” I said, taken aback by her aggressiveness.

“But you didn’t have to kill anypony to get it! I thought you said that you could eat whatever you wanted! Why’d you have to kill him to eat?” she yelled. The entire time pointing her hoof accusingly between my kill and me.

I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from snapping back at her in a similar fashion, it would only make her angrier. “My body needs the protein, Rainbow,” I said, though not as calmly as I had hoped I would. Maybe I could appeal to what she knew of athletics, even ponies needed protein. She looked like she was about to form a rebuttal, but I cut her off sharply. “This is nature! Part of the circle of life! The prey eats the plants, the predator eats the prey. That is how it is, and I am a part of that,” I said curtly, drawing her to a pause.

“Yeah, but you can choose to not be,” she said, her gaze smoldering. And I had to stop myself because she was more right than she probably realized.

I huffed in frustration, leaning down to rub some of the blood off of my face and onto the snow. “We don’t have time to argue about this,” I said quietly. “We’re out here for a reason now, so let’s go. The howl came from that direction-” I nodded my head along the valley’s stretch in the direction I’d heard it “-so we should start moving before it’s too late.”

“We should bury him,” Rainbow said equally as solemn as I had sounded.

“We don’t have time, leave it too a scavenger-”

“It’s the right thing to do, Coalback,” she said shortly, her glare leveled back on me.

“Lots of bodies never get buried in wars, Rainbow,” I said, starting to turn away. “If we can’t get help from the wolves there’s going to be a lot more.” I started walking, satisfied that I could hear her soft wingbeats following. “He was sick anyway, Rainbow. Starving. He wouldn’t have made it through the winter,” I admitted. I caught her surprised look out of the corner of my eye as I started to pick up my pace into a light trot. “Wolves cull the herds of the weak, and in the end it makes the herd stronger as a whole. It’s dirty, and vulgar, and violent. But it’s the way things are in nature, not the happy utopia that you come from.”

I picked up into a run, feeling the exhilaration of speeding over the deep snow despite the dour mood we’d made for each other. It made me feel a little guilty. But the run kept speeding up until I was at a full sprint without further comment from Rainbow Dash, only her wings beating and her breath stirring the air in a controlled pace.

By the time she spoke up we’d already started up the mountain on the other side of the valley. “We don’t know if it’s like that out here, it might not be like what you’re used to,” she said sardonically. “He might not have been just ‘part of the circle of life’. He could have been like you or me, with dreams and hopes … and a special somepony that he cared about.”

I slid to a stop at the top of a pass between the mountains around us, sinking somewhat into the snow and spraying it up. Rainbow came to a halt, surprised that I’d stopped. “Even if he was like you or me, what difference does it make? The animals in Fluttershy’s cottage are obviously more intelligent that I’m used to, but I don’t think that that makes their diets any different,” I argued, truly starting to become irritated with Rainbow now. “Do ponies hate hawks for eating the mice or rabbits or snakes?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Well, no. But-”

“Then what is the difference?” I asked again, a cold edge to my voice. “Even ponies are a part of nature, as unorthodox as your existence is. You live and die, and then you go back into the ground. Wolves in nature in my home buried their dead too, but they respected their kills. They made sure that their deaths were for a purpose: keeping themselves alive. One death for many lives. They thank their kill, and respect it, by eating all of it.

“So, yes. It was wasteful and disrespectful of me to hunt down and kill more than I could eat. But that elk would have died on its own soon enough. If anything I saved it the suffering by giving it the honor of dying defending his herd instead of simply collapsing from the cold and the hunger.” My own glare met hers, and she was subdued by my sharp rebuttal. “No one is in the wrong here, Rainbow. But no one is right either. Winter, especially in a place like this, is a time of death and harshness that cannot be deterred by a kind heart like yours.”

The wind howled in a stiff gust, forcing Rainbow to land in the snow in front of me. She refused to look at me, whether it was because she was ashamed or because her pride would not let her I couldn’t tell. “Why can’t this kind of stuff be simple?” she said, so quietly I almost missed it over the sound of the wind.

I paused, unsure how to react. Around us the wind stirred the few trees and bare bushes around us. The light had gotten brighter as we climbed, revealing the tiny ribbon of orange that was the sun. The tips of the mountains glowed orange that slowly slipped away with the sun, it was barely an hour after noon.

“I know it’s hard,” I said calmly, taking a few steps toward her, “believe me I know.” Her hooves sank in the snow, making her seem much shorter than she was. It was only made worse by the fact that my paws refused to sink more than an inch or so in the powder. “But right now, we can’t afford to let our morals get in the way of our duty. There are innocents waiting at home for us to bring back help.”

I leaned down carefully, the blood was gone from my coat by now but I wasn’t sure if she wanted my comfort. I gently pressed my muzzle against her withers, as much of an embrace as I could offer. Mercifully she pressed back into it, turning her face into the thick mane around my neck. “Canterlot is strong, they’ll be able to hold out for a little while. But we don’t have long …”

Rainbow shuffled closer to me and I let us rest for a moment, I wasn’t sure exactly how far we still had to go. Sound probably wouldn’t travel too far in the mountains here, but the echoes off of them might throw off the direction. I’d have to call out again and hope that the wolves would answer me, otherwise we’d be stuck out here until we could somehow navigate back to civilization.

“Do you know what the wolves are doing right now?” Rainbow asked suddenly. She had pulled away from me just enough that her muzzle was free of my fur.

“No, should I?” I asked carefully. I couldn’t be sure whether or not the question had been rhetorical. And any purpose behind the question was lost on me.

“I guess not,” Rainbow admitted, shuffling her hooves in the snow. They were probably getting cold. “It’s just that I heard you howling and it looked like you heard something come back, but I couldn’t hear it. Did they tell you where they were?” she asked.

“Sort of, I am … not sure what they meant though,” I answered equally carefully. The strangely cryptic howl that I’d just been able to hear on the wind returned to me.

“What do you mean? Were they, like, mumbling or something?” Rainbow asked, trying to lift the mood slightly. I gave an amused scoff that ruffled her mane and melted a bit of the snow clinging to it.

“Not exactly … it was faint so I can’t be sure,” I said, the small smile that I’d gained from Rainbow’s sarcasm dropped. “It just wasn’t as … warm a response as the Geni Llwyd gave me … us,” I tried, not really sure how to explain the mixed feelings that had come up with that howl.

“What? Well … Maybe they didn’t think that it was you? Like … Uhm, maybe they’re trying to keep their numbers low on account of the big group they were travelling with? Maybe they don’t have enough food and they’re not too hot about getting more mouths to feed,” she suggested, pulling away from me to clear the snow from her wings with a shake.

She took to the air, wings stirring the snow in the air. Her arms crossed in front of her while she tried to rub some warmth back into them. She looked out into the snowy valleys spread out beyond the pass we’d stopped on.

I turned my head and howled, catching Rainbow off guard and making her falter slightly in her steady wing beats. It was the same howl as before, but I had to make an effort to keep my doubts out of it. I waited for a few moments again for an answering howl, but when none came I was reluctant to try a third time.

I’m not sure if Rainbow could tell that I was having doubts, or if she simply had the urge to join in. But without giving me a warning, she began to howl. She tilted her head back to try and imitate what she’d seen me do. And while it ended up being off tune and not as loud as it needed to be, but it was about as close as I could have expected her to be able to do without me teaching her anything about it.

When she stopped she looked back down at me. A silent word passed between us, only the look to say what we needed to. At least I hoped that’s what it was. But as one we turned back to the sky and howled together, my deep voice rolling off the snow and ice around us with her own higher pitch.

It touched my heart to know that her voice was risen with me. My heart thudded in my chest, and I wanted to howl with her more. I didn’t want to stop howling with her. It was much nicer than doing it on my own.

When we did stop we looked at each other again, and maybe we both felt a little closer for it. I know I feel that way. And we stayed that way for awhile, just looking at each other with slowly growing smiles. Until another voice rode on the wind.

It started slow at first, more like a song than a howl really. But it was there all the same, and much closer than I had thought it would have been from the first howl I’d heard. But eventually it evolved back into something more intelligible. “I  hear your voice  on the wind,” it called, melodious and beautiful in its sound. “And I  hear you call out  my name.”

Her call, as I was sure it was a female’s voice now, echoed out from the direction our path would have taken had we continued over the pass. And when we looked that direction, trying desperately to see through the heavy snow, we could just make out a dark shape walking through the snow toward us. As we watched her head lifted again and she continued.

“‘Listen, my child,’ you say to me. ‘I am the voice of your history, answer my call and I will set you  free,’” she sang, her voice trailing off into another beautiful howl. She was getting close enough now that we could see more of her.

Through the snow we could see her dappled brown coat, practically shimmering as it fought against the wind and snow beating against her. Yet even against her darker coat I could make out familiar tattoos, but hers appeared to spread across her entire body rather than stopping at the face like Greyshadow’s had. What seemed to be hawk’s feathers were braided into her mane around her neck, catching the wind and pulling her mane upwards as the wind caught them.

By the time she started singing again, Rainbow and I had begun to walk toward her. “I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain,” she sang, swaying from side to side as we came closer. “I am the voice of your hunger and pain.” Before we could truly come face to face with her, she spun around and began retracing her pawprints back through the snow.

Her tail stood high, but not quite flagging. She walked ahead of us without looking back, she was confident that we would follow. She had the walk of an alpha. And as she sang, her pace increased until it matched the cadence of her singing, taking us into an easy run through the snow.

“I am the voice  that always is calling you. I am the voice, I will remain.” She never once looked back to check that we were following, which we did without question.

It felt strangely right to follow that gentle voice as it sang, and I found myself eager to keep pace with this mysterious she-wolf. And out of the corner of my eye I found no protests from Rainbow Dash as she easily remained at my side in the air.

“I am the voice in the fields when the summer’s gone, the dance of the leaves when the autumn winds blow.”

Soon the snowy tree dappled mountainsides changed into full forests, where the evergreen canopy was thick enough to shield the ground from most of the snow. The snow cover was, and I could clearly see tracks in the snow.

“Ne’er do I sleep throughout all the cold winter long.” The trees became thicker and thicker, until there was barely space for us to find time to dodge around them and keep up with the wolf. But she never stopped singing, not even short of breath. “I am the force  that in springtime will grow,” once again her words escalated into an ecstatic howl to the sky, I could see her lifting her muzzle through the trees.

And when her howl faded out, and her song came to a pause, I heard something else coming through the trees. Drums. They beat out an enrapturing beat, and I found my paws striking the snow and dirt under me to their sound. And the drums were our only warning to what was revealed when we cleared the trees.

Firelight suddenly broke through the dimness of the storm and shadow of the mountains behind us. Gathered at the base of a steep mountain range that seemed to simply jut from the ground like a wall was what could only be a wolf camp. A huge plume of flame sat at the center of the camp, just under a large rock outcropping that shielded the mountain behind it from the light.

“I am the voice of the past that will always be,” the she-wolf continued, leading us straight into the camp. Wolves, thousands of them, parted to make way for us. Their eyes flickered in the spattering of fires and torches that were spread among them, tracking us as we passed them. No more than shadows in my peripherals, I had eyes only for the she-wolf it seemed. “Filled with my sorrow and blood in my fields.”

She led us directly to the huge pyre, darting ahead of us to turn and face her back to the flame. Several wolves raised their eyes from their perch atop the large flat rock that the wood burned under, curiosity visible even though they were no more than silhouettes with flickering bright eyes. All the while the drums, coming from all around us amongst the wolves in perfect synchrony, continued their intoxicating beat.

“I am the voice of the future,” she sang, her paws never once pausing. Now in a dance she slowly backed toward the fire, paws moving in comment to the drums. We slowed when the she-wolf had turned, eyes watching exactly where the she-wolf was moving. “Bring me your peace,” her voice sang out, drawing the both of us closer and closer even as she backed away in her strange swaying dance.

I wanted to call out, to warn her of the fire that she was so happily about to trip her way into, but found I couldn’t. Her paws danced, the music lifting as voices rose to accent her hypnotizing dance. One of the wolves above lifted their head to the sky and gently howled out a tone not unlike a sad violin that only added a delicate rush to the she-wolf’s dance.

“Bring me your peace, and my wounds, they will heal.” And with that she stepped into the fire, and it was like a switch had been flipped. The fire exploded into light, where before its light had reached high and was by far an impressive flame, now it stretched toward the sky with such ferocity that I was shocked into a halt. And all the while she danced, even as the fire caressed her fur. And she kept singing.

“I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain, I am the voice of your hunger and pain,” her voice rang out, stronger and more enthralling than ever. The flames licked at her, but they did not burn, as if she’d simply stepped into the arms of a gentle lover. And the fire danced with her, swirling and swaying and twisting and flickering into the sky in a display that would surely catch every eye within the camp.

“I am the voice that always is calling you. I am the voice!” Her lips sang to the sky, her voice accented as other wolves joined to add an orchestra to her performance. And as she danced a figure shaped itself from the flames.

It was a woman, tall and curvy. The flames were her dress and hair and flesh, and she danced with arms spread wide as if to greet me happily. Her lips moved with the she-wolf’s, they were one.

“I am the voice of the past that will always be, I am the voice of your hunger and pain.” The world became still, nothing dared to infringe upon the spectacle before us. “I am the voice of the future! I am the voice!” The woman flickered high in the air, head held to the sky like her wolvish partner. They danced together perfectly, and I felt the power behind every word that they sang.

“I am the voice!” Slowly, the she-wolf stopped dancing and the fire calmed with her. “I am the voice!” Her legs bunched under her suddenly, and with an agility unbefitting her size she leapt from the fire and onto the stony ledge behind the fire. Her voice rose to a howl, full and loud. “I am the Voice! I am the Voice!” her song ended their, her words trailing off with the reluctance of seeing a beloved friend have to leave.

In the wake of her song there was only silence, save for the gentle rustle of the wind and the crackle of the fire. She didn’t lower her gaze from the overcast and gently snowing sky for several moments, but when she did her eyes locked directly onto me. Rainbow’s side pressing against me as she landed drew me out of the hypnotized gaze I held on the wolf.

Wolves milled around us, creating an open space around the fire where Rainbow Dash and I stood. And as far as I could see through the snow in the black of the early night, I was met with glowing eyes of wolves. Their coats were all dulled in their winter coats; greys with streaks of brown or the blacks of young wolves. Some even wore clothing; ranging from simple leather collars, to armor made from metal and leather alike, to wrappings of warm furs from animals as numerous as themselves.

I could see tattoos, some covering the entirety of their faces as Greyshadow’s had, others still with hardly more than a line across their foreheads. Fangs pierced through many ears glinted in the firelight, feathers braided into manes fluttered in the wind. And their many eyes glowed in whatever light there was.

Some circled the clearing with heads low, tails out horizontally, eyes never once leaving us. Seeing so many wolves in one place was one thing, having them size me up as these ones were was a different thing entirely. Maybe I’d been right to think that they wouldn’t be so welcoming. But when the she-wolf spoke, they all stopped whatever they were doing instantly to look to her.

“Brothers! Sisters! Loyal wolves of the north,”  she called out, pausing expectantly.

Like a roar of thunder the wolves around us answered, loudly and proudly. “Land of the Evernight! Land of the Midnight Sun!” they bellowed, shaking the very ground with their voices.

I felt more than saw Rainbow’s confused look directed my way, the wolf had spoken in a language she didn’t understand. The fact that it was so similar to Welsh still startled me even after having heard some of it during my meeting with the Geni Llwyd, but this was far more than a coincidence it seemed. I translated for Rainbow in a hushed tone, drawing curious looks from the wolves around us.

It seemed that had been what the she-wolf was waiting for, as she begun again as soon as I’d finished. “Tonight is a glorious night indeed, my Brothers and Sisters!” When she spoke it was loud, though not to the point of yelling, and I was sure that every wolf could hear her. “Songs will be sung about the coming events for hundreds of generations! For tonight we have returned to our beloved homelands, a place we have only known through the stories of our elders and the Empress herself!” The wolves cheered at the mention of their Empress. Howls, barks and yips permeated the air as the wolves shared their excitement with whomever would listen.

I translated briefly to Rainbow what the she-wolf said as the wolves calmed again. Rainbow nodded thoughtfully at my words, I could practically see gears turning behind her eyes as she looked at the wolves around us. The wolves eventually grew still enough that the she-wolf saw fit to speak again.

“But not only this!” she dictated, a smile growing on her face that never revealed her gums but let her teeth shine in the light. “The ancestors, our guardians of fate, have seen it fit to return to us one of our own! Tonight the Blaidd-Ddyn walk amongst us again!” she cheered, bringing back the howls and cheers from wolves with an all new abundance.

The wolves exploded into motion as soon as the she-wolf had paused. Jumping, barking, howling joy to the snow filled sky, and jumping into the clearing around the fire only to jump back out as if they expected one of us to jump up and follow them back into the crowd. It was less a threatening display as it was a playful one, and I wondered if it was fear or some deep-rooted respect that kept them from rushing toward us.

Another wolf on the rock stood, stepping into the light to reveal his own grey coat that was equally tattooed as the she-wolf. He stood beside her and let out a booming bark-howl that effectively calmed the maelstrom around us. The she wolf glanced to him as a thanks and paused to look at me expectantly.

I translated to Rainbow, who nodded back. She seemed somewhat awed by the wolves, same as me then.

“We welcome you as well, feather-pony,” the she-wolf spoke, in surprisingly good Equestrian. There was hardly any of the slippery quality to her words that I’d heard before from Greyshadow or Non. Rainbow jumped as she realized the change in words from the wolf, already having started to turn to me for a translation before realizing. “I am Esyllt, Alpha of llaw miniogi and the Feather, daughter of the Alphas before and master of The Hunt,” she continued, stopping and staring down at Rainbow from her perch.

It took Rainbow a few moments for her to realize that Esyllt was waiting for her to respond. She gave a fleeting glance to me before turned back to the rock and speaking. “I am Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty, fastest flyer in Equestria, Weather team leader and-” she gave another look toward me, this time just to take some confidence from my presence, “-and recently, Alpha,” she announced.

The crowd of wolves suddenly exploded into growls and yips of anger, a low undertone of growls made Rainbow turn her gaze from the wolves atop the rock to the ones around us. Another large male on top of the rock jumped up beside Esyllt, a barely contained snarl on his face. But whether it was directed toward Rainbow or the sudden outburst of the wolves I couldn’t tell.

I barked, as loudly and forcefully as I could. Instant silence was my reward. The bark echoed off of the mountains around us three times before I spoke. “I am Coalback,” I started, making my voice as loud and forceful as I could. “Once Douglass, kin-slayer. And since I have come to this place of magic I have hunted dragon, pony and griffon alike. Discord’s brutes and Discord’s jaguar knight have both fallen under my wrath. But just as much as I have slayed, Rainbow Dash has protected me, and for that she earned her place beside me,” I announced, a low growl beneath every one of my words.

“This is … unexpected,” Esllyt said, apparently the only wolf willing to make her voice heard now. “We had perhaps expected your companion to be an emissary, an act of goodwill from the ponies after having sheltered you,” she said, turning a glance to the other wolves gathered atop the stone. The other wolf only offered what amounted to a noncommittal shrug. “However … you are welcome here, the both of you.”

And then she smiled, and the wolves cheered.