-Feathers and Teeth-

        Rainbow Dash had been awake for a few minutes now, a previous check of the clock showing there were still two hours until sunrise. What had disturbed her slumber was the loud sound of bumping outside the room, but she had stubbornly refused to get up and check on it. And she continued to lay in bed, eyes closed tightly in defiance to the now absent sound that had woken her.

        “Hey, Rainbow,” Coalbacks voice called from the direction of the door. “are wings supposed to do this?” The question came off as strange to her, and she rolled over to sit up and look at Coalback.

        Coalback stood in the doorway, a torn and scorched shirt loosely hanging from his torso. He had apparently slept in it, and his eyes were still droopy with sleep. But the most surprising part of the scene before her were his wings.

        His left wing was partially opened, and covered in misplaced feathers giving it a spiky texture. The other was pointed skyward, the tips of his feathers brushing the doors frame. Rainbow snorted, and began to laugh at the pathetic sight in front of her.

        “BAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” Her laughs echoed off the walls, and Coalback was still so sleepy that he barely registered the humor, which only made her laugh more. In between breaths of laughter she was able to force out a few words. “You...you..HAHA, you’re fine! That, pfft!...that happens to everypony...” She was able to fight off another bout of laughter and caught her breath.

        “What’s so funny?” He asked in an innocent tone, truly not knowing the humor in his stiffly erect wings. Rainbow barely held off another fit of laughter, and continued.

        “It’s fine, I keep forgetting that you’re new to your wings. They should stop after awhile.” She took a few deep breaths and looked back up at him. “You probably need a preen after all that flying yesterday though,” She hopped out of bed and yawned before picking her sentence back up. “come on, I’ll help you.”

        Coalback stepped away from the doorway, letting Rainbow pass him out. She then turned to the bathroom at the end of the short hallway. She opened the door and began searching the cabinets, the recent laughter had been more than enough to wake her up completely. She found her tools and set them on the floor nearby.

        “Come in and take off that shirt.” She said, indicating a fluffy bath mat for him to sit on. He complied shortly, sitting and then pulling the shirt off his head. “So don’t worry about it when that happens, but try to keep them closed in public.”

        “Why?” He asked, truly curious as to why his wings shouldn’t be open while he was with company.

        “For pegasi, wings are sorta part of the private body. If you know I mean?” She tried, immediately Coalback’s face flushed.

        “So this, is sorta like...” He paused, not daring to say the words he knew were true. Rainbow Dash giggled in a very girly fashion.

        “Yep!” She said, breaking into a short laugh. Coalback lowered his head in a defeated way and groaned.

        “I feel like freaking thirteen year old...” He groaned, this only set Rainbow Dash into another fit of laughter. “Did this happen to you?” He asked.

        “Yeah, this happens to just about all pegasi when their wings hit their growth spurt.” She said, she lifted a brush she had pulled out. She balanced it inside the crook of her hoof and presented it to him, and then explained what she was about to do. “I’m gonna straighten out those feathers for you, then I’ll show you how to clean them.”

        She brought the brush down onto his more rumpled wing, using another hoof to straighten it out further. Coalback jumped at her touch, and even let out a short yelp of surprise. But he stayed where he was sitting and let her work the feathers back into their places.

        “I didn’t realize they were so...sensitive.” He said, his voice quivering a little bit.

        “Are you okay?” Rainbow asked, pulling away the brush and her hoof.

        “Yeah, just didn’t expect that is all.” He turned to look at her, and continued. “It’s just that, all the sudden I have these new, apparently very sensitive, limbs on my back. I mean the change from paws to hooves was a bit strange for a while, but this is a whole new set of limbs.” His skyward facing wing lowered, the spout of stiffness in it finally receding. He looked at it again. “This is gonna be like puberty all over again!” He lowered himself to the floor to rest on his stomach, and buried his face in the fluffy mat.

        Dash giggled again, and continued brushing his wings for him. “You know, it’s alright if it feels a bit strange. After all, you are in a bathroom with a mare, and she just happens to be all over your wings.” She said, only a slight amount of a teasing tone touching her words.

        Coalback’s head shot up, and he turned to look at her. His face was twisted into a half-hearted scowl. “You’re enjoying this aren’t you?” He said.

        She chuckled. “In more ways than one.” She said, clearly teasing him now. “I’m going to move over to the other wing now.” Her tone changed back to a neutral state, but she kept a smile on her face. She got up and walked around to the other side of the mat, and started on the other wing.

This wing was much less of a mess than the other had been. He must have slept on his side. She was finished shortly and then made another observation.

“Besides, with wings like these, I’d be surprised if the mares weren’t all over you in a heartbeat!” She walked around in front of him as he lifted his head to reply.

“Oh, haha.” He said, still believing she was teasing him.

“I’m serious!” She said, trying to bring back a good mood. “Other stallions would kill for wings like that!” She said, reaching a bottle of what looked like hairspray.

“Weeellll...I sorta did...” He said, though his tone betrayed some amount of amusement.

“Just look at this!” She said, extending one of her own wings and placing it alongside his. It was indeed significantly shorter and stouter than Coalback’s. “And I’ve been told I have big wings, yours are colossal!! I can’t wait to see what kind of wingpower you’ve got in these!”

Coalback just stared at the two wings, looking at the feathers and how they differed. Dash got worried for a second. “Coalback, is something the matter?” She was worried, maybe she had said something wrong?

Coalback jumped, realizing he had been caught simply staring. “Oh, um, I-it’s nothing, really.” He sounded like he was trying to cover up his thoughts. “So what’s the can for?” He quickly changed the subject, and Rainbow folded her wings back against her side before she spoke.

“This is a treatment spray, it’s for after you preen.” She said, a sly smile on her face. “And the best way to preen is with...teeth.” She giggled a bit when Coalback’s face flushed again. “Don’t worry, I won’t bite...very hard.” She was enjoying this too much for her own good.

She walked back around to behind him, getting better access to his wings. He stiffened a bit when she lowered her head down to his wings, her warm breath falling across his wing. She brushed a hoof across some of the smaller feathers at the front of his wings, looking for loose or damaged feathers.

“When you preen your wings you need to look for any feathers that need to be removed, mostly damaged and loose ones.” She paused, grasping a loose feather and pulling out with her teeth. Coalback jumped when it came out, but otherwise stayed quiet. “You also need to make sure that if you find any mites, you get rid of them right away.” She looked up at Coalback when he turned around to meet her gaze.

“Mites?” He asked, some amount of concern on his face.

“Sometimes you get them, it’s not really a problem unless you get lots of them. But if you preen often then you should be fine.” She finished on that wing and then stood up, and pulled over the can of aerosol spray.

“This should help any itching or any uncomfortable spots on your wings.” Rainbow stated, lowering the label for Coalback to see. It read FeatherSpray. There were other labels all over it in flashy stickers, describing how it was organic and good for health. He turned back to her as she pulled it away and emptied some of the spray onto his wing.

He sighed in contentment, small itches and irritated feathers immediately soothed into a comfortable coolness. She looked at him with a smug look on her face, and spoke to him.

“Your turn!” She said, her smile widening.

“Hmm?” Coalback didn’t understand, he was still trying to figure out if she was teasing him.

“Preen. Yourself.” She said, slowly as if to a foal. “I won’t always offer to do it for you. So try your other wing, by yourself.” She nodded toward the other wing.

Coalback looked back at wing, examining it closely. Rainbow turned away for from him for a moment. Putting away the brush, and briefly examining the random soaps and shampoos inside. She hadn’t looked away for more than four seconds before she felt the static crawl up her back.

She turned around quickly, trying to locate the source. Her eyes locked onto Coalback, who was still staring intently at his wing. The Static feeling was intensifying and Rainbow didn’t dare move, for fear that whatever magic was moving through the air would react violently. She had seen too many of Twilight’s experiments go awry, up close.

Coalback very slowly lifted his wing upward, the static increasing in intensity as he did. There was a crack, his wing so fast it almost seemed to simply change position. A blast of wind filled the bathroom and blew the door open, it connecting with the wall behind it a moment afterwards. When Rainbow Dash had blinked her eyes enough to see again, she turned back to him.

Floating in the air next to him, was a perfect outline of his wing, drawn in a few feathers and a cloud of dust. He folded his wings to his side and took a step back from the cloud. He turned to her expectantly.

“How did you...?” She started, the sight before had stolen her voice.

“I had this idea; I wanted to see if I could just grab all of the dust and loose feathers, at the same time. So first I started by finding it all. I used something that was similar to sonar to find everything. Then I had to grasp it, and so I used a shield construct to shape around everything. Then I just moved the wing out of the way, like pulling a tarp out from under the setting of a table.” His rant ended with a deep breathe and was about to begin again, and would have if not for the cyan hoof suddenly shoved into his mouth.

“Woah, woah, woah! Are you telling me that you just came up with that on the fly? I don’t even think Twilight could do that!” She said, keeping her hoof in his mouth. He tried talking around her hoof, and she let him for a moment before removing it.

“Why would the hour between daylight and darkness have anything to do with this?” He asked, clear confusion decorating his face.

“No, Twilight is one of my friends. She-she’s a unicorn, and she is probably the only pony who would understand what you’re trying to say to me.” She said, quickly becoming annoyed at his sudden outburst. “Just, don’t do that again, at least not with me around.” She said, just shaking her head for a second. “Take a shower, you smell like ozone and BO. I’m going to go get something to eat.”

Rainbow left the bathroom, and headed toward the kitchen on the other side of the suite.

---

Coalback came out of the shower feeling completely refreshed, it had practically been years since he had had a good shower, let alone a hot one. He came out the door, followed closely by a cloud of thick steam, and wrapped with a towel around his flank. Another towel was grasped in one of his hooves as he dried his head and ears, he walked forward on three slightly unsteady legs.

There was an almost unnoticeable clicking noise with every few steps, timed with the movement of one of his rear legs. He reached the arch that marked the entrance to the main room of the suite, and stopped as he took in the scene in front of him.

Rainbow sat at the counter across the room, eating a bouquet. The towel dropped from his hoof and hit the floor with a quiet thump. Rainbow looked up from her colorful meal, and gave a quiet wave before swallowing.

“Hey, want some?” She said, waving to the set of flowers.

“Umm...” Coalback started, still trying to figure out what was happening. “You know those are flowers, right?” He said, pointing a hoof toward her bouquet.

“Yeah...why?” She asked. “They’re perfectly good flowers.” Her voice getting annoyed. She came around the counter, and held a flower up to him. “Go on...” She offered the flower, for him to eat.

He grimaced, pulling back his lips and showed his teeth.

“WOAH!!” She exclaimed, her eyes growing wide and her mouth forming a surprised ‘O’ shape.

It was his turn to be confused. “What?” He asked, not even having the slightest idea of what could have caused the outburst.

“Your teeth! W-what...when did that happen?” She was sputtering, something must have really thrown her off.

“What about them-?” He started, but Rainbow Dash interrupted him.

“They’re sharp!” She yelled, clearly distressed.

He reached up with a hoof and felt around inside his mouth. Surely enough, there were four sharp little points prodding into his hoof, and he could feel the thin incisors shaped for cutting along the front of his jawline.

“Oh...” He lowered his hoof, and looked at her again. Then she carried on.

“Pony teeth are SO not like that! Look!” She reached up and pulled down her lip to reveal her own teeth.

There were several incisors that were flat against each other, and a short space where there was no teeth. Following that were her molars, but there were no sharp canines poking out like his, and he didn’t have a space like that.

“Oh...” Rainbow Dash was looking at him expectantly, and he was shrinking under her gaze. “I think I know what might have happened...”

“Well?” Rainbow encouraged him to go on.

“Well...this wasn’t...exactly...my first...body transformation...” He said, picking his words carefully.

“What is that supposed to mean?” She yelled, another wave of frustration came over her. This was yet another thing that Coalback hadn’t explained, and she was getting extremely tired of it.

“During the other transformations...some things...carried over.” He finished, flinching as if expecting to be struck, after a moment he looked up.

She was looking at him with a thoughtful expression. “How many ‘body transformations’ have you had exactly?” She asked, finally choosing her words carefully.

“Just one before really, but I noticed that some things sort of carried over. But for some reason not to my first body nearly as much, mostly to the second one. It’s really not easy for me to explain right now, you and I are both learning here!” He said, switching to a defensive tone near the end.

“This is all getting really confusing, you seriously owe me a FULL explanation. But the sun is about to rise, so we should get ready to go.” She said, to the relief of the both of them.

Coalback sighed and returned to his room, when he came back out he was wearing a ripped cloth around his flank. She shook her head but didn't question it, she had suffered from the blank flank shyness before. He was also wearing a small bag that hung around his neck, the gentle glow of the crystal almost unnoticeable. Then they started out the door.

Rainbow Dash led the way down the hall, and stopped before it to make one more statement. “When you meet my friends, try not to...provoke them...yeah. They could get a bit excited, or maybe even upset. Just be careful.” She was trying to be encouraging, but it didn’t seem to be working.

Coalback swallowed loudly, and Rainbow pushed through the door ahead of him.