This is a story about a sheep. A little sheep, locked deep in prison, put there by ponies. He doesn't want to be there, but then he's had to do a lot of things he doesn't want to. It's a shame he deserves to be in there.
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10729174
Yass!! A new chapter is here! And I totally would have forgotten about the dramatic ending the previous chapter had if you hadn't commented
I love that the way she phrases it makes it sound like protecting himself was a crime that is to be overlooked due to his age.
Error Report
Sufficed to say, they just rewards and acclaim have not and will not be forgotten in shadows, (thy?)
it was actually a weight of his shoulders, (off)
Another non-result and another test of the list. (off)
I gotta say that I really loved the scene with Lilly getting 'inspired' by Prey. It was a fun scene that even got me to emit a happy giggle and a happy 'oh no' with the misunderstandings on both sides and the subtle depth. It seems like to me that Lily's been dealing with being put down or a lot of group think in her life, lots of either 'you'll need help' or 'we' activity as she seemed shocked when Prey told her 'she' could fix herself. I'm probably reading too much into it but it feels like she thinks Prey is the only one believes in her herself, which is giving her ego that nice little nudge to start reviving again. I am glad to see she's getting better because I thought having a boastful firebrand was a nice counterpoint to the rest of the group's quiet nature, especially that she will likely return as a cautious firebrand instead of and arrogant one.
Hmm two mention of the lich mirror and a mention of all prices must be paid eventually. Something tells me we're going to finally find out what that did and what it's price are in this arc of the next. Doubtlessly has something to do with him avoiding his reflection.
Now I'm really curious... I kinda want Prey to go back to his original hometown before the resistance to see what has become of it.
I’m betting it’s going to pass up the chain of command
Fangirl Lilly. I am pleased with this development.
So, Prey's planning on taking a trip out of town, eh? Wonder if he'll actually manage to do it. Either he gets roped into something before he can execute his plan, or he gets his vacation and comes back after settling some debts. Then he either has to deal with the ensuing international crisis or finds out that Celestia got Luna to call everything off at the last second.
The mysterious List has finally borne fruit
It'll be interesting to see the things he's put on it (apart from the obvious- Names to strike out).
10730721
I'm keen to find out how the Liches' Mirror has kept him alive, too. The Jaw just keeps his heart pumping, and the spell just keeps his outside looking young (while speeding up aging thrice) and not only has it been longer than any sheep could have lived for since he got placed into Dreverton, he triply couldn't have lived it, as his insides would still age and decay and fail him.
Likely meant harebrained
Two 'for now's, when I presume there was only meant to be one.
lair's
I'm going to laugh so hard if Prey starts his holiday and one of the main show events immediately kicks off. Prey can never catch a break without something happening.
Also, fingers crossed that Crimson's mission goes smoothly. I don't see how this won't turn into a political shitstorm though.
IMO, Sewer Heart is an example of the "Sunk Cost Fallacy"
Without the veropedes, Prey doesn't need a sewer hideout. He'd do better to cut his losses and get a new hideout that the mimics don't know if
I feel like in the end that quote succinctly summarises the core of Prey's critic of pony society. That being that Prey himself believes very deeply in Harmony, and what he detests so thoroughly about Equestria is how unharmonious it actually is.
From how everypony claims that all races are equal, while in reality there exists a clear socio-biological hierarchy with alicorns at the top, then unicorns, then pegasi, earth ponies, thestrals, and finally all other 'lesser beings'.
To how the land itself is managed. On one extreme, Canterlot. A beacon of superfluous and controlled overabundance, a shining city on a mountain where even the weather is tailored to exact specifications, a land of Order. On the other, the Deeper Green. A land of unforgiving hardship and uncontrolled savagery where the strong suffer and the rest die, a land of Chaos. The center is micromanaged, the periphery is ignored, and imbalance reigns.
nah prey ponies conquer you with friendship to quote star trek:
Quark I know. It's so bubbly, and cloying, and *happy*.
Garak Just like the Federation.
Quark But you know what's really frightening? If you drink enough of it, you begin to *like* it.
Garak It's insidious!
Quark *Just* like the Federation.
Is not. A grammar error in the title, oops.
To be fair, Prey did expect that one to end in his death.
No evil monologuing, no last second one liner, just right down to business.
And now Prey is leaving Canterlot. Would be a great time for a certain unwritable-all-knowing villain to break free and be imprisoned again off-screen/page. I wonder where he's going. It first sounded like it was VanHoover or somewhere where he has unfinished business, but the references to the cell make it seem like it's old unfinished business. I don't think he's be dropping by Green Fields or whatever that landowner from Rustweed was, if he or his children are still alive. Border Guard? Far out of the way, and Prey hasn't really done anything to plan on taking them on. The Solar Guard? Don't need to leave Canterlot for that.
Is he planning on tracking down a retired Border Guard from way back during the war? Extremely unlikely. So what's he up to? There was that name that was thrown around twice and the author alluded to. Yarn Ball or something similar. Someone from the war period, surely. I guess we'll have to wait and see...
Good thing the therapist couldn't hear that one, he'd need a second therapist if he heard all the things Prey has to say about him
10730866
We know that Prey is going to use the dead bodies for some kind of necromancy. What if he tries to bring back one of his veropedes? Particularly his damaged veropede that was already sort-of-undead and had anti-magic countermeasures partially completed on it.
I've got one positively macabre idea on how it might work. A veropede is a creature of flesh and chitin. What destroyed the veropede wasn't its outsides being destroyed, but something permanently disrupted the functionality of its insides. If necromancy allows you to bring back the dead as necrotic automatons, who's to say that it only works when one uses the whole body at a time. Take the dead veropede's exoskeleton with its defenses and pull out the unsalvagable parts of its flesh then replace with zombified pony flesh, and voila!
10731154
Wouldn't there be a time limit on that?
+ Need reasonably intact corpse?
Ah, Prey want holidays now, maybe he'll be able to check out the library.
We can also see how Lilly becomes a bit more crazy here and will go deep into madness tier by following Prey's example. Yes the example of a child who is obviously cynical, cunning and cold toward others.
Isn't that how you become a fanatic ? I just hope she won't harm him or his plans.
Nice chapter, as usual.
*Vacation intensifies*
Not sure if this is written elsewhere or not, but the complete nursery rhyme Prey sings!
"Raven magpie, fly away, Scarecrow, keep at bay~
Wheat n' barley dance and sway, Harvest king, come to play~
Straw the barn n' reap the hay, Sickle slice, fell and dice~
For winter's bite comes cold as fright, Hungry wolves, in the night~
For farmer knows to plant and grow, Fallow field, barren rows~
Summer passes at its height, Reaper king, laughs delight~
Raven magpie, fly away, Scarecrow, keep at bay~"
It seems to just be a slightly creepy rhyme about life on a farm. Some mention of how a bad harvest can lead to starvation and that disaster is relatively close by fairly often, but nothing all too dark compared to rhymes like "Ring around the Rosie" where everyone dies of bubonic plague at the end.
That Prey seemed to have somehow scared off a dark magic artefact is amusing to no end.
The only other thing that I found interesting is Prey's thoughts on the Elements of Harmony. Not too much there but it's interesting nonetheless, although I always felt the Element of 'Magic' represented the ability to appreciate friends and the time spent with them rather than pure magical power or ability.
...and as expected, Prey is able to unintentionally tell Lilly what she needed to hear to keep hope and push away any suicidal tendencies, just like the last time he tried something like this. It seems his knowledge of the mind and/or personal experiences subtly helps him with putting things into perspective and reigniting the drive to live.
10730809
From what I got out of it he managed to halt aging at the price of suffering from organ failure and dying at third of the age he would've been, but he was aware of this and nullified it by using the jaws to keep his organs operating and unable to fail or give out.
Early chapters showed the aftermath of the ritual however and explicitly mentioned that three simultaneous rituals happened, and the next flashback had Prey getting use to reading the minds of everyone around him.
My guess is that the mirror gave him his mind leech abilities and, probably as a side affect, prevented his mind from aging and forgetting. The price of this however has yet to be revealed.
He also, at some point, sacrificed his horns for some sort of dark magic ability. My guess is the ability to use runes.
Great read, as usual
10731127
Wasn't Yarn his father?
10731748
I just went back and looked and you're absolutely right. I somehow missed that reveal and have been wondering who Yarn was this entire time.
I guess Prey despised him so much for that, that he put Yarn near the top of the list despite predating its creation. Prey/Gossamer was 4 when Yarn died, yet he still holds onto that hatred.
... Meaning I have no idea where Prey is going to try to wander off to.
10731145
Or if he somehow annoys Prey enough. Then Prey'll definitely need a replacement.
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Hello and thank you to all who helped out with grammar and spelling mistakes you spotted, and taking the time to point them out again. 😄
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Holiday. A holiday, or the holiday? Which will it end up being?
As to where he is going and what he is going to do, that will be revealed next time. 🙃
Who knows? Perhaps it'll do Prey some good to get out of Stupid Central for a while?
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10731761
Correct, Yarn was Gossamer's father. He was a good father, but an awful husband to Gossamer and Fleece's mother. For that, Prey will never forgive him.
10731708
The full children's nursery rhyme came back from the chapters about the Reaper King and Mayflower, but the first lines of it were actually spoken much earlier, when Luna first came to invade Prey's dream, and you hear it in the background. 👻
As to Prey's view on Magic: It is not necessarily the right view, or maybe only one side of it, but it is his view. And out of the 6, magic is really the one which doesn't fit the theme and concept.
10731154
10731163
What Prey is going to be doing with his stolen bodies isn't going to be pretty, whatever it ends up being, that's for sure.
As he has said multiple times, dark magic's are banned and feared for a damned good reason!
10731127
Wow, great catch right there, and a great start to the chapter. Right slap bang in the title. Thanks.
The question about Yarn was already answered elsewhere, but where Prey is going, (aside from being revealed next time), I am great looking forwards to writing. I have high hopes for the next chapter! 🤗
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10730721
Lilly is gonna' turn out how she's gonna' turn out. Be that good or bad. Either way, Prey just wishes she'd make up her mind already and that it didn't have to involve him every time. 🍎
Part of the reason is, no one else will give Lilly the same blunt perspective Prey does, they are all much more conscientious and caring, (the correct way to be around someone who's been suicidal, of course), but Prey doesn't care about that. That, and Lilly see's Prey as a child, and if a child can do all this, then why can't she, a grown confident adult, do the same?
10731829
Oh man, I know the feeling. I've had two chapters in the past that I looked forward to writing months beforehand.
10730901
When you look at it, ponies are very controlling of what they permit and what they don't in their 'Lands of Harmony', and the average pony is at least slightly racist because of the society they are raised in. And everyone worships, (literally worships!), alicorns, the pinnacle of the pony race. It's no wonder what follows on from there, really.
10731714
Why would a mechanical heart pump keep a liver from going into organ failiure? Or a kidney, or a lung, or a spine from getting osteoporosis? Or a brain from growing old? Its job was just to keep the heart pumping as the person who made it was sick of the heart failing first from stress on his torture victims and put it in there to keep them going longer
Seems to me the Mirror must have something to do with his prodigious lifespan.
10731901
I think I was too vague in my wording there. Or probably misplaced a term.
First what we know.
The witch's ritual keeps him for physically ageing, at the cost of shortening his lifespan by half. Exact means of death aren't said but since the Jaw counteracts it, probably heart failure.
The Jaw of Heart's keeps his heart beating, it's functional effect being described as "Their body could literally break into pieces, but their heart would beat on."
Apparently these two things are enough for immortality, but Prey wanted to be sure so looked into the Lich's Mirror and cursed himself, this curse somehow also helps keep Prey alive. Although looking into it apparently drove Prey insane...er. What it actually does has yet to be brought up. From what I can tell.
It seems that I just assumed that the Jaw applied it's affects to all or most of his vital organs as well, and used "organ failure" when "heart failure" probably would've been more accurate. My mistake there.
Also, while looking back to fact check for this I found that I was wrong about Prey's horns, apparently it was the witch's ritual that took them.
The ability to use runes is just something that was taught to him by Snake.
10731713
I can't wait for Prey to have to talk to Scenic Paint and accidentally inspire him to return to the ISND too. Prey's going around handing out rousing calls to action when he's just trying to be a petty bully.
10731919 I went and dug up the relevant passages through the ancient and dark magic of Ctrl-F
So the ritual kept the outside looking the same, while at the cost of accelerating aging on the inside.
While the Jaw is little more than an artificial heartbeat, forcing the heart to keep going. In essence, a magic powered blood-pump, which I've just googled to be apparently called a 'Ventricular assist device'. The more you know, lmao.
So from how its' worded, the outside is kept the same by turning the inside into overdrive, while the Jaw keeps the heart pumping no matter what by effectively replacing the heartbeat with mechanical assistance. The ritual causes the insides to age while keeping the outside looking the same, so Prey should have died many many many years back in Dreverton from his accelerated aging. The aging after all, isnt said to have been only on the heart, and even if it was it would eventually fall apart from sheer age and decay. Can't pump what isn't there.
Since all three things were done in a similar timeframe, and there is as yet not really an explanation for his continued life, I'm thinking that the Liches Mirror has something to do with it. A lich, after all, stays alive even through death- they live on and on. Maybe it has a similar slowing effect on the aging of his internals? Maybe it halts it completely, maybe not. maybe he's even already dead Either way, it should hopefully give an explanation as to why he has lived this long.
10731954
Alternatively, the Jaw works on all organs and it only says stuff about the heart because going into that much detail would break the pace of a scene. At this point we just can't figure out anymore until later lol.
To quote famous words: "It's magic, I don't have to explain shit."
This excerpt from Chapter 9 is probably worth something.
Aaand chapter 52 goes into tons of detail with two of the three rituals, although it's worth pointing out that these might be two different situations where Prey used three rituals at once, although it's unlikely.
10732176
Yeah, it'll be explained eventually I'm sure. But still, it hasn't been mentioned that the jaw does anything more than just pump blood.
Massive creep factor with the song and bodies, well done. Now to see Prey off on his “holiday” Wonder if Discord will break free before he returns...
to shifted—> to shift
you're words—> your words
10731954
In D&D, liches keep themselves alive by binding their soul to a phylactery. Regardless of whether the world of Prey and a Lamb has things like souls, I imagine a lich would still operate by having an object that keeps them immortal/undead. If Prey is a lich, I don't think he'd ever let go of that object, and if it was hidden, be incapable of not worrying about someone or something stumbling upon it. However, there is an object that Prey takes with him everywhere he goes: the Jaws. It's perfect because its removal would kill him anyway. That doubly explains why he was so nervous about them scanning him in the hospital.
Edit: I guess in a sense Prey is already a Lich because he has a magical object keeping him alive, but usually a phylactery would function outside the body too.
10732572
Interesting theory, I think you may be onto something
I used to proofread this story.
Last New Year's Eve, I was hit by a car. While in the hospital, I got Covid-19.
Fortunately, it's a mild version & my life is in no danger. Unfortunately, aftereffects have affected both my judgement & my concentration.
In short, my days as a proofreader are probably over.
I still like this story & mean to follow it as best I can.
Well, I'm glad that Luna just wanted to congratulate him, I was starting to worry when she only recognized Prey for being 'good with paperwork' because that would make him replaceable...
I think they will approve his vacations ‘cause we need Prey out of Canterlot for Discord to show up (the same way the ISND went to Mayflower when the Gala happened). I’m glad that we will also learn a little more about what is on the List.
Now that I think about it, maybe whatever goes wrong in Griffonia is caused by the changes of the sun and the moon when Discord takes over...
I still can't think what excuse will be used to visit the clans the next arc 'cause I thought they would be considered as holidays for Gloom... but would they really approve of another vacation for Prey? And I'm surprised that Prey and Crimsom can take vacations with just three months of work.
Well, overall a nice chapter, I liked that we had a bit of Slice of Life of a 'normal' day in Prey's life.
Wait a sec... How does Prey grab the trays without Crimsom's help in the Mess Hall?! Now I need answers! 😄
This is good.
Usually it's keeping an eye out 'for' that annoyance, not of.
Good chapter, I quite like Doctor Clear Minds, even if Prey loathes him.