-The Hunt of the Furred-

My body hurt like nothing I had felt before, it was like every inch of my being was buried in red hot needles. I could feel something cold pressed up against my side, but had little room to think of it behind the confused energies that swarmed through my mind.

It was a barrage of feelings, sensations and jumbled thoughts. The feeling of unhindered energies both uncomfortable and familiar. Had I cast some sort of spell without properly defending himself against the flow of magical energies? It could be possible, it wouldn’t be the first time that I had mumbled some word of power in my sleep. But if that were the case then I wouldn’t still feel like I had just been in a train wreck.

Whatever the explanation, the feeling started to fade. As the feeling of snakes crawling across my skin and the sound of bulldogs barking disappeared. I slowly tried to open my eyes, and regretted the decision immediately.

The sun shone directly into my eyes, and I shut them instantly. I grunted in protest to the sudden bright light. I had only woken like this once before, after I had run away from mu home and everything with it. My body ached, maybe I had been running for awhile. But then again if I had been running, why would I be laying on smooth cold metal.

My eyes shot open, ignoring the pain from the sudden stimulation. My head shot up to examine my surrounding, ears swivelling in random directions.

I was in a cage, a generously large one, but a cage all the same. I ignored the smell of mold and rat droppings that permeated the air as fear spread like venom through my veins. I stood quickly, wincing as I was met with the tunnel vision that originated from the sudden change in altitude. I looked around again, searching for my captors, but none were present.

Outside the cage, the slightly damp stone brick walls reflected light from a short barred window. On the wall to the right of it was a thick wooden door, it’s hinges rusted with neglect. The other walls remained empty, and equally far from the cage bars. The cage sat in the middle of the room, it’s iron bars far enough away from the walls to let a guard stand far enough away to remain outside of danger from the occupant of the cage.

My mind raced again, bringing back the headache that had only just recently receded. So many questions ran through it, like too many voices panicking in a tight room. Where was I? How did I get here? How do I get out? Why had I let myself get caught AGAIN by some sick torturer or collector?

My racing thoughts were interrupted by the sound of hooves hitting stone. Perhaps they had decided to feed me, or to have me brained by a panicked animal. I made a fast decision, biting into my tongue to draw blood from it. I lowered myself back to the floor, trying to look as dead as possible while my blood leaked out from my open lips. I kept my eyes open just barely, able to see in a small area aimed toward the door.

The door made a clunking sound as some sort of heavy lock fell from it, and it opened a moment later. What stood in the door caught me by surprise, to say the least. A horse stood there, his chest decorated with some golden colored armor. But no one else was there. No master leading a sickly horse to be put to one last use, just the single white horse.

It paused at the door, opening it’s already abnormally sized eyes even wider. Then it turned and, in a very loud manner, called out in some sort of language I had never heard before. He didn’t talk like any other horse I had met before, but then again he wasn’t panicking and begging for mercy either. The meaning drifted to me as he yelled: Urgent, help, come here. The strangely decorated, and apparently distressed horse turned to run away.

I waited not daring to move, biding my time for a chance to leap up and escape. The enclosed space would not bode well for me in a fight, I would have to move fast to escape without delay. And without the gnawing Hunger driving me, I didn’t want to hurt the horses, as strange looking as they were.

A few moments later a larger company of the hooved animals returned, one of them had a horn poking forward from a shocking red mane. I barely kept myself from twitching in my surprise, it had to be a mistake. Some sort of mutated deer, or an antelope. But it wasn’t, what stood before me was a unicorn. Stranger still was the tattoo and dyed fur on it’s flank. It was some cartoon depiction of a knife and an apple, standing out dramatically against his pale green coat.

They approached the door to the cage quickly, one of the armored horses pulled out a key from the collar of his chest piece. He then slid it into the corresponding slot on the barred door to the cage.

As soon as I heard the click of the tumblers sliding out of place, I rose up and made for the door. My legs tingling as I pushed with all my strength to slam into the metal of the cage’s door. I impacted it with my shoulder and threw it open to bang against the bars of the cage, taking the guard who had opened the barrier with it.

I burst through the crowd of horses, vaguely noting that they were just slightly smaller than myself in height. I ran as fast as I could almost silently across the stone floor. Shouting echoed behind me, my escape had been swift enough if they were only just now reacting. I spotted a stairway as I raced down the long hallway. I turned into it, leaping up the stairs five steps at a time.

The stairway ended shortly, presenting an above ground window that revealed the outside world. Without hesitation I ran towards it. Whatever these strange horses were, I would feel much more comfortable observing them from the brush of a forest, at night, three miles away.

I smashed through the delicate glass, shattering it into a spray of prismatic razor edges. They hung around me as I fell surprisingly farther than I had originally expected. I fell to ground, crouching to absorb the impact, and hunching my shoulders to protect myself from the shower of glass that followed.

After my shower in reflective shards, I stood and leapt over the pile of broken glass. I shook off any that was still in my thick coat, and then continued to run.

I had exited into the rear of some decorative garden, small statues and shrubbery surrounding me. I ran forward into the trees, trying to put further distance and greenery between me and my pursuers.

‘Allow us entry! We would tear them apart and feast on their warm meat!’ The deep voice inside my head surprising myself enough to allow me to crash into the bush I was about to jump over.

I lay in the shrubbery for a moment to catch my breath. I growled out my own response to the demand from the baritone in my head. “Not now!” My hushed growl, being absorbed into the leaves of the bush.

‘They put us in a cage! This insult to our strength cannot be allowed! Let us attack!’ The words pushed at my mind with their own power. Pushing white hot pressure behind my eyes.

“You are foolish and driven by anger! I have to be smart with this, if that last scene was any indicator there could very well be an army nearby! You do remember the last time we tried to fight a large trained force!” My mind flashed with the remembered pain, sounds and smells of the old fight.

The pain forced through again, much stronger this time. My eyes burned in agony, my chest vibrating as it let out a snarl on it’s own. But the pain stopped and the Voice did not return, it seemed I had won it’s argument. The Voice had been with me since my eighteenth birthday, and over the years I had learned that he did listen to reason when I forced it down his metaphorical throat. Once I had been able to overcome the feelings he created in me, I regained almost full control of my body over the following years. He had become the mental figurehead of my blood’s power. All of the others who were like me had described something similar.

The sound of shouting finally caught up to me from my position inside the shrubbery. I scrambled back up, untangling myself from the offending bush. I turned around to examine my surroundings, I was near the opposite end of the garden now. My gaze fell upon a tunnel in the white plaster wall that led downward into what looked like a very open space, it only took a moment for me to decide to follow it.

Voices and sounds of bodies in motion reached my ears as I neared the mouth to the tunnel. I slowly made my way down it, opting for silence over speed at this point. I reached the opening and peered out, still using the gloom in the short tunnel to help hide myself. Just outside the exit to the tunnel was a intricate fountain, it’s platforms spilling water down soothingly.  More of those horses were inside the open arena-like space.

The strange things were even more surprising than the unicorn had been. These horses had wings, and flew about the arena in various formations. I was somewhat reminded of a sports team warming up on a field before a big game. And I almost fell over in surprise from the sight of a horse flying through the air. Unicorns and Pegasi? How much stranger could this place get. As my gaze drifted over them I spotted something glowing from a tunnel perpendicular to my own.

Two huge slitted eyes glowed from the gloom in the downward leading tunnel, a huge form lurking behind their green light. I followed the gaze of the newfound predator, meeting up my own to a blue colored pegasus. The appearance of yet another technicolor horse made me wonder how they managed to dye their fur in such a way. Her mane had somehow been dyed to a rainbow pattern, and her form was distinctly female compared to the ones that had been chasing me.

A sudden feeling of anger filled me, I may not know what these horses were but I was sure that they were civilised in some way now. The look in those eyes was something that I had seen far too often. They were of hunger and hate, pure bloodlust. This would not be like a fox catching a rabbit to eat, this would be a massacre. A growl escaped my own throat completely out of my control. I felt the familiar strength flood my limbs, the sensation of crawling skin on my eyes as the Voice poured his power into me.

The blue pegasus looped down low toward the ground, and the glowing eyes leapt forward. I felt my legs move without my own command, I felt the hate toward the thing rushing toward the prismatic horse. My lips pulled back into a silent snarl, my mind running through possible plans of attack.

I jumped up the layers of the fountain to gain the high ground on the enemy. And I leapt from the top of the fountain toward the mare, if I could get her out of the way of the offender’s attack I could fight it on even ground.

I sailed through the air, watching the claws of the red attacker reach toward the mare, who had turned to stare in frozen horror at the huge lizard leaping at her. I impacted a moment later, my shoulder connecting with her side just below an outstretched wing. She couldn’t have weighed much, her body bounced back from my shove almost like a rubber ball would have. But I had not moved fast enough to get the both of us out of the way of its attack.

My side exploded in pain as the giant lizard dug his clawed hands into it, and threw me onto the ground. I landed hard, all the air in my lungs forced out of my chest in an instant. Very few things could affect me like that when the power of the Voice coursed through me, so whatever this thing was it was massively strong.

One thing that you never want to happen in a fight is being stuck on the ground, it is too vulnerable of a position, too easily taken advantage of. I scrambled forwards away from the incoming strike, not even bothering to catch my breath yet. The thick leg of the creature impacted where I had been laying only moments before.

I turned to face my opponent, breathing heavily as I did. I barely had time to gawk at the new ridiculous sight before me. It was more than just some giant lizard, I had dealt with those before. This thing was covered in shining red scales, spikes of dark blue trailing down it’s back. Perched on it’s back were two comically small wings, but I didn’t have much time to examine it. It turned it’s huge, drakonic head toward me opening it’s maw wide while sucking in a huge breath.

‘You’ve gotta be kidding me!’

I reacted immediately, whether or not it was doing what I thought it was, I did not want to be in the line of fire when it happened. My assumptions proved correct as it let out a jet of blue hot fire. The heat that radiated off of the tightly coiled fire blast was enough to start my fur smoking, even from my distance to it. The force of the fire actually tore a rut in the soft dirt and grass of the stadium field.

I knew that if I stayed out away from it it would just cook me with another bout of flame. But if I wasn’t fast enough when I did get close, it would tear me to shreds with it’s claws. And something told me that it’s back would be covered in armor thicker than my claws could get through. I would have to get inside it’s reach and to the soft flesh of it’s neck, before it ripped me in half.

The dragon let out a roar that literally shook the ground around it, I felt the reply in my throat without my thoughts controlling it. My own snarling roar was not nearly as loud as it’s, but I had made my point. This thing definitely had size and weight against me, but I had speed and I was smarter than it.

Wolves usually fight using teamwork, laming their prey as a group. They would surround the target from all sides, and attack it’s legs when it turned to look at the other side. I hadn’t had that advantage for a long time now, I had had to create my own form of fighting for situations like these. It involved a lot of running, mostly in the opposite direction of the fight. But that wasn’t an option anymore, I could feel the animal inside me taking over. I had been issued a challenge, and I was not going to back down now.

It started to pull in another breath, preparing a blast of fire. I ran as fast as my legs would carry me straight at the dragon, dodging just under the deadly blast as it raced from the dragon’s mouth. The heat burned at my hide, for a moment I thought that I was on fire. But I pushed aside that panic and fear, choosing instead to concentrate on my now closer target.

If you study the way an animal attacks, you will notice a pattern that is common among all of them. They have two main targets, the fleshy parts of the body. Mostly consisting of the neck and groin, only the second of which was in reach of me. And in an unfair fight, you can’t afford to be decent or civilized. All things go, even this. I opened my jaws wide to affect as large an area as possible, and bit down on the crook between the legs of the dragon.

My teeth sunk deeply into muscle and flesh with a feeling like biting eggshells, hot blood flowed over my face and down my throat. The effect was immediate, the dragon screamed in an ear piercing wail. I used my momentum to swing under it’s legs, tearing out the chunk of flesh and muscle as I went.

I swallowed the chunk of bloody flesh, my body being fueled by the pure rush of the fight. The dragon fell to the ground, and I didn’t wait for it to recover from the cheap shot. I rushed up, jumping over it to land on top of it’s spiked back. I could feel my claws rip through the leathery skin of his mediocre wings, even if they wouldn’t lift him away I was taking no chances. I opened my mouth and gripped around the snake-like neck that separated from his shoulders. My head fit just between a space in the spikes, allowing me to crush the dragon’s larynx in my powerful jaws.

The dragon thrashed around, trying to shake me from my hold on him, it must have been panicking. It rolled over, trying to crush me between itself and the ground. I adjusted my grip on his neck with my teeth and slid around to it’s front side, they tore long rivulets in his scales as I took the opportunity to reach the much more vulnerable side of the neck.

I was no longer thinking of the fight, the taste of the blood and the rush of the adrenaline had sent me into a full bloodlust fueled rage. I ripped and tore at the exposed throat, not even stopping when I reached the ribs below. I tore away pieces of flesh and meat and swallowed them whole, the dragon thrashing under me the whole time. I was literally eating it alive.

I didn’t stop until I had it’s heart in my teeth, I could feel it beating weakley against my tongue. I had ripped apart it’s throat into a bloody tunnel into its chest. And it had lived through my malicious frenzy, it’s thrashing growing weaker by the moment.

My teeth closed around the heart, and I pulled. The still beating muscle tore free of the flesh that still held it in his chest cavity. It gave a few final spasms, spraying blood from the now severed arteries that fed into and out of it. I Pulled myself from the hole I had created into his body, and swallowed the ball of cardiac muscles.

I pulled my head back and let out a snarling howl of victory, the rush starting to die off. I waited for the my senses to broaden, floating in the aftermath of the rage.

That was what made doing this sort of thing dangerous, that sort of rush was addictive and could turn deadly. If I let myself be taken over completely, I would never be able to come back to myself. It had led to the death of many of my kind.

The sounds of the world started to come back into focus, high pitched screaming, distinctly deeper voices yelling out commands. The horse guards had caught up to me during my fight. But some part of me said to wait, and tend to the horse the dragon had made to attack.

I turned my head, dragons blood dripping from my lips. I scanned the horrored faces of the horses, searching for the blue and prismatically decorated one. She was not among the horror struck, she lay on her side behind them. Several more of the horses were around her, but none of them seemed able to help her bloodied form.

I disentangled myself from the body of the now hollow dragon, it’s steaming corpse would remain a symbol of my dominance on the area for weeks to come. That is, if any other predator came here. I slowly made my way over the short distance to the prone form.

The horses let out more wails of terror, scrambling to get away from me. I didn’t doubt that I looked like hell. The wound in my side was making it difficult to walk, but I didn’t show it. I did not want to appear weak, especially when twenty spears lowered toward me. One of the larger horses yelled out some command toward me. It’s meaning was clear: Stop, or we will attack.

But my pace didn’t waver in the slightest, I let a slow pulse of will leak from my mind. A soothing feeling placed in it’s current, I did not want some nervous rookie getting twitchy with his spear. The horses didn’t lower the long weapons, but it seemed to have worked. Which was good, it meant I still had control over myself.

As I walked forward, they parted in front of me. My vision was narrowing down again, the prismatically maned horse becoming the center of my concentration. I could see the wound now, it was very bad.

The bone had actually been cut into, the tip of the claw had nearly severed half of one of her wings. Blood covered her side, and she was lying very still. But my finely attuned ears could just make out the gentle beating of her heart. I finally reached her prone form.

I could feel the Other again, a rasping voice echoing and talking over itself in my mind. The cacophony unreadable as that same power that had saved me three times before in the past two years filled my mind. It had given me the knowledge assurance to save lives and outwit my enemies, far unlike the Voice of the Wolf. More screaming reached my ears, but it was distant to me.

I lowered my head down to the horse’s wing, the strange power of the Other giving me the instinctive knowledge of what to do. I stopped over the wound, and let my already bloodsoaked tongue slide over the ripped flesh. The magical energies flowing out in a familiar pattern that dictated a healing spell. But something that neither the Voice nor I had expected interrupted the magical flowing energies.

It felt like someone had just slapped my brain with a hot fire iron. That is the only way I could possibly explain it, every nerve buzzed with some sort of backlash. Even the Voice came to a pause, which scared more than anything. I pulled away for a moment, mumbling the mantra that I hoped would save me from some horrible explosion.

“Magic, do as you will. Magic, do as you will. Magic, do as y-” My voice was cut off as I felt the buzzing actually intensify, and I got the sudden feeling that I had made a fatal mistake by giving the forces of nature free reign over my charged body.

On pure impulse, I rose from the crouched position and lifted my head to let out a howl. My head pointed to the sky and the clear deep tone of my howling voice slid out of my throat. The buzzing in my limbs intensified yet again, and I felt something new.

The feeling of bones shifting is a very unique and scarring experience, especially when they move of their own volition. But no pain accompanied the feeling, even as my skull warped with the magic that flowed through me. Everything moved, but the most noticeable change was in my paws, as the bones fused together, and the claws spread out into a flat plate that encompassed the entire area of my former toes. I could feel some sort of new weight on my back, but it was barely noticeable to my ribs and collarbone shifting nearby.

When the shifting finally did end, I opened my eyes. My much larger eyes that is, and saw the glow of magical energies still clinging to my coat.

---

“The rest gets a little fuzzy after that.” Coalback said, cutting away from the detailed account. “I can recall much more shouting, and running as well. But I was carrying something, and the guard ponies were running with me. So I wasn’t running away. Then I woke up in the hospital bed with a needle poised over my head.” Coalback ended his story there.

He looked up to examine the muted reactions of his small audience. Luna sat behind her wooden desk, sitting in a large pillow behind it. Rainbow Dash had moved over to a couch by the balcony, her face was decorated with a distinct look of awe. They were both looking at him as he sat on the floor across from them. He kept switching between their faces hoping for some sort reaction.

“Empty night...” Luna muttered, Coalback didn’t understand the weight behind the term, but from her tone he could infer that it was some form of curse. “All of that goes through thine head, every day. For how long has thee been like this?” Her tone switched from one of awe to slight concern.

“I have been, as I am now, like this ever since my eighteenth birthday. That was five years ago...” He trailed off for a moment, before his eyes widened as something occurred to him. “That’s right, I missed my birthday...hmm.”

“It was your birthday when you got here?” Rainbow asked, finally finding her voice.

“It was when I left.” Coalback stated carefully. “But I don’t know how long the trip lasted.”

“So you just, up and left? Everything and everyone you knew?” She asked, a small amount of sadness lacing her words. She couldn’t imagine leaving her friends forever, just the thought made her sick.

“I...didn’t have many friends, or a home...or a family.” Coalback said, his voice breaking up as he reached the end of his sentence, but he continued. “They died a little after my eighteenth, I don’t really think I can talk about it right now.” His voice had lowered into a choked whisper, he hadn’t meant to draw up those memories. He fought with his thoughts for a moment to organize them.

“I’m sorry,” Rainbow apologised quietly, realizing that she had brought up the touchy subject. She decided to try and steer the conversation back to another subject. “So, you weren’t a pony when you got here?” The question had come to the front of her mind while she had been listening to him recount his fight with the dragon.

“No.” He stated simply, not bothering to continue. Rainbow could practically feel his negative feelings toward the topic, and dropped it as well.

They sat in silence for awhile, Luna looking at Coalback like one would eye a piece of intricate jewelry. Then she spoke, and what she said surprised both of them.

“Very well, We have made our decision. Coalback, thou may take thine things with thee as thou leaves. You are to report back to this office after sunrise. The Elements will be sent for, we wish for them to meet our guest. For now the both of thee may retire in the suite down the hall, second door on the right.” She said, turning away from them to make her way toward a spiraling staircase near the rear of the study.

“Huh?” Rainbow asked, clearly confused at the Princess’s sudden nonchalance.

“It has been a long night for the two of thee, rest while you can.” She said, her voice quiet and caring. “There are many things we have planned for the morrow.” Her voice slipped into the Old Equestrian again as she continued up the stairs to an unseen room.

Coalback stood, slowly climbing back onto his stiff limbs. He shook himself a few times, and the bandages came loose from around his waist. Rainbow Dash gasped, causing Coalback turned to look at her.

“What is it?” He asked, not sure what to think of the sudden outburst.

“Y-you don’t have a Cutie Mark!” She said, disbelief evident in her voice. Coalback merely looked confused.

“What is ‘Cew-tee mark’?” He asked, rolling the term on his tongue as he said it. It was completely alien to him.

“You know- It’s a symbol of who you are, of your special talent. The thing that makes everypony unique.” She said, trying desperately spark some trail of recognition from him.

“I have never heard of such a thing. To define a pony in such a way, what is it?” He asked, his own disbelief tracing into his words.

“Everypony gets one! They represent your special talent! Look, I have one.” She turned to the side, presenting her flank alongside the cloud and rainbow lightning decoration that clung to it.

“The tattoos?” He asked, a look of confusion twisting his features.

“No,” Rainbow said. “They are not tattoos, they appear when you discover what your special talent is, and who you are.”

“What do you mean? They just appear?” Coalback asked, chuckling slightly as if the thought were humorous to him.

“Yes! And it’s a really important moment for everypony when they get theirs!” She leaned forward as she spoke, trying to emphasize how serious she was.

“Oh,” Coalback said, he muttered something quickly in his own tongue before continuing. “So, does that make me weird?” His voice was tinged with concern, even a bit of fear.

“No no no!” She said quickly. “Not at all! It’s not uncommon, but usually a pony your age would have one by now. That’s all, nothing serious.” Her attempts at reconciling the speckled stallion didn’t seem to completely put him at ease, but he didn’t look nearly as tense.

“Okay, maybe it’ll just come in time?” He asked, some small hope in his voice.

“That’s how it works for most foals.” She said, trying to calm him further. “And since you weren’t a pony before, well maybe you didn’t have one before?” She tried.

“No, I suppose I didn’t.” He said, finally calming down. But it didn’t stop him from draping the clothes over himself in a way that hid the blank spot on his flank.

He gathered the other objects that were spread on the table while Rainbow Dash got up from the couch and stretched her legs a bit. When he turned back to her, she was already waiting by the door for him.

“Let’s just get some shut eye, then we can figure out what’s going to happen.” She said, Coalback nodded in agreement as he followed her down the hall. They entered the suite a few moments later, and Coalback stopped to admire the dimly lit space.

The roof went up to a ridiculous height above them, it was decorated by swirls and designs in the texture of the paint. When his gaze returned to the room he noticed the  cushioned furniture spread before a fireplace. To the right of that was a small kitchen, only a kitchen in the sense that there was a counter and a cabinet stocked with a small amount of food. And to the left was another hallway that led to two other rooms and a single bathroom. All of the colors of the room were gentle and deep, like an open field in the light of a full moon.

Rainbow stopped to chuckle at Coalback’s reaction. “Bet you never seen this kinda stuff before.”

Coalback stopped his inspection to look at her. “I was raised in a house with rooms nearly this big, but never this beautifully intricate.” He said, a small amount of foal-like wonder in his eyes.

Rainbow chuckled again. “Yeah, this place can get pretty impressive. But right now the only thing I can think of is that soft bed.” She started toward the bedrooms. “I’m gonna hit the hay, g’night.” She said between a yawn.

“Goodnight, Rainbow Dash.” Coalback said, turning into his own room after she had disappeared into hers.