//------------------------------// // 9.0 If you don't control your Mind, someone else will // Story: Prey and a Lamb // by Lambs Prey //------------------------------// Prey's consciousness arrived in his outer mindscape and was immediately under assault. Prey'd rarely had to fight while within his own mindscape. Usually it was him doing the invading, not the other way around. His victims' defences were always pitifully weak, if they even existed at all. Most simply didn't know what was going on or how to defend their minds against the foreign touch, getting overwhelmed before they even realised. But now it was him doing the defending, as red tendrils of thought stabbed at his consciousness. --- Prey's Outer mindscape was completely different from his Lower one, the plane formed of a bottomless ocean. This one, his Outer mindscape, was easier to define and manipulate. It was where Prey came when he meditated. When not directly being shaped by conscious thought, his outer mindscape usually looked something like a grey, foggy, poorly defined and burnt out jungle. Vaguely tree shaped husks sprouted everywhere like spines. A band of darkness sat in the distance, bordering on the edge of this desecrated forest. Prey had no time to note what shape his Outer mindscape currently took, because by then he was having to fight back against Night Watcher's invasion. Summoning up walls of thought, Prey defended against the spreading invasion of tendrils stabbing down from a purple tinted sky. Fighting mind to mind wasn't a matter of mental visualisation. No summoned armies or imagined fiery spells. It was all willpower. The sheer dominance of one mind over the other and the ability to bend them to your will. Of course, those with experience in any fight will have the advantage because, by nature, a mind is hard to control and discipline. The average mind flits all over the place and cannot marshal any solid defence. Anyone who's tried to concentrate exclusively on only one concept and nothing else will realise how hard this is. You cannot afford even a single moment's distraction or uncertainty, or all will be lost. --- Prey's walls of thought jumped into place, sealing off his outer mindscape. He had to stop Night Watcher before he pushed in any further, he'd invaded too far already. Prey just needed a moment to properly marshal his thoughts, and then he would begin his counter attack. Night Watcher didn't seem inclined to give him that moment. A smashing blow of cold willpower crashed into Prey's defences, then another and another, coming so fast that Prey couldn't adequately harden his will and repair his walls between each successive strike. Prey fell back, hastily summoning up additional barricades as the first cracked, formed from his determination. 'I shall not let you in.' The walls promised. 'You are weak. You cannot stop me. Give in.' Came the return command, like a cresting wave of red. It splashed out, seeping into the cracks, searching for any weakness. Prey hardened his will, then split his mind, breaking off a piece and holding both halves within himself. It was a feat of balancing more precarious and delicate than walking any knife edge, and far more dangerous. Leaving one half to fend off Night Watcher's hammering blows, the other half of Prey gathered itself up and flung out an attack volley of barbed thoughts. Images, bright flashes of memory, impossible concepts and paradoxes peppered Night Watcher like a swarm of wasps. Annoying, painful, and above all distracting. They constantly niggled away at Night Watcher focus, exactly like they were supposed to. Prey's walls repaired themselves in the moment's breathing room he'd managed to buy himself. But already Night Watcher was already adapting, hardening himself to Prey's distractions and forcing himself to ignore them. Gathering his willpower back up, Night Watcher flung it headlong at Prey's defence again. 'Give in, you cannot stop me.' Prey summoned up another barricade. Then another and another as Night Watcher smashed through them one after the other. But each time the unicorn did, there was already another in place to meet him, each one fuelled by a slightly different concept than the one before, making it impossible for Night Watcher to break them with the same attack more than once. Prey's attacking thoughts continued to buzz and hum, flitting like insects and parting like smoke around Night Watcher's powerful strikes. Yet all the while those vicious little thoughts continued searching for any weakness to sting. This battle continued for however long it was, seconds, minutes, hours, who knew? You could only focus on surviving the moment. Prey had to win, he couldn't afford to loose. He knew what the alternative to victory was. Unfortunately Prey had to admit, Night Watcher was good. The cultist's attacks and defences were stubbornly strong and rigidly controlled. He was almost academic in his execution, like advancing pieces one after another on a gaming board. Night Watcher masterfully controlled himself too. He never let anything distract his focus for more than a moment, and never more than once, before brushing it off with pure belligerentness to press forwards once again. Prey sprung his trap, the one he'd been setting up since the start of the fight. As Night Watcher smashed down yet another wall, the unicorn no doubt expected to find another fall back defence behind it. But what came rushing out to meet him was a roaring scream of glistening blackness that shot towards Night Watcher in his moment of surprise. Prey's will pierced through Night Watcher's solid wave, drilling past it before the unicorn could summon any walls. And suddenly it was Night Watcher on the defensive, struggling to protect his own mind. Prey squirmed in, working his way into Night Watcher's consciousness. A thought moment later Prey was through and fighting into the borders of Night Watcher's private mindscape. Prey caught a flash of a well defined, starlit courtyard, the moon huge overhead. The reversal of tables had Night Watcher panicked, Prey could feel it as the unicorn desperately tried to keep him out, 'No! I shall not let you in here!' A twisting mass of redness ever refolding on itself, like bubbling quicksand, rose out and upwards to absorb Prey's punishing assault. The spike of blackness that Prey wielded drilled and stabbed, slicing bits off Night Watcher's defence even as his attack lost pieces of its own self in the assault. Back and forth, both of them teetered on the brink, swaying on the border between tipping over and finally breaking into Night Watcher's mind. One... Two... Three... Four... Four times Prey almost broke through, and four times Night Watcher managed to blunt and deflect the assault at the last possible second. Prey was loosing momentum, already he felt the strain. Night Watcher's sheer stubbornness refused to be broken. The nightmare worshipping cultist simply refused to be beaten. Prey drew on his mental reserves and gave it everything he had left. Prey's thoughts were like the raging storm, a thousand angry voices howling and biting. Night Watcher's walls were a unified fortress in the face of it. A strong, indomitable mountain. Prey's defence was a shroud of stinging smoke, stabbing thoughts like black shards of shrieking glass, slicing and gouging anything they touched. Night Watcher's attacks were like that of an iron smithies hammer, striking away on a red anvil of forged steel. Prey gave it one more push, a last twist of malicious thought that ripped into Night Watcher's defences, seeming to come from all sides at once. Night Watcher shuddered, crumpled, folded down, compacted, and came back up harder, stronger, reformed with that same sheer stubbornness of will. It was the mental equivalent of bracing your back under a loaded cart, and with teeth gritted and jaw clenched, giving it your all in one last, great, heaving shrug. Night Watcher's will collided with Prey's own. Prey lost. He was too weak. The inhibitors still took too much from him. Prey had vicious experience on his side, but Night Watcher had theory and strength. And when you came down to it, a unicorns natural magic will always give them an edge. Not to mention the magic of Night Watcher's special talent spearheading that strength. Prey had no magic of his own, only stolen secrets and runes. It wasn't enough, and Night Watcher beat off his attack. The assault turned once more in an all engulfing wave of furious red than rushed in like the iron tide, eager for revenge. Prey was beaten back, bowled over and out from the borders of Night Watcher's mind, back into his own Outer mindscape and then back again and even further back. Prey struggled and snarled, forcing Night Watcher to fight for every inch of Prey's burnt, purple lit territory, 'You cannot come in here.' 'You cannot stop me.' Came the response as Night Watcher plowed slowly but relentlessly on. Closer and closer to the dark border that lay at the edge of Prey's outer mindscape. Closer and closer, slower and slower Night Watcher's advance came, until it was barely moving as the mind mage strained against the mind leech. Prey held him there, 'I will not let you in. This is mine and mine alone.' Came Prey's grim promise. 'It will be mine.' Was the answer. Prey knew what was going to happen. Night Watcher was going to break in. Prey couldn't invade his mind, the unicorns defences were too strong and his assault too relentless. He'd tried his best, but he was never as good at taking over minds as he was at breaking them. And currently, that was locked beyond his capabilities, and oh, how he hated being this weak. Night Watcher was going to get through. Prey accepted that, dropped his defences, and let him in. In a great tidal rush of red thought, Night Watcher came pouring in, trampling over the abandoned remains of Prey's tattered walls. With a roar of triumph, he dived head long into Prey's mind. ---[][][]--- Night Watcher crashed into something like an ocean. It spread out in every direction. Up, down, left, right, backwards, forwards, the whole of the world was filled with silent water, fading away into the distance. 'What's this? Where is my prey?' Gone were the commands, it was too late for them to matter any more. Night Watcher was already in and now they were too close for him to be denied. 'I'm here. I'm everywhere.' Came Prey's answer, echoing against Night Watcher's consciousness, a voice without any source or sound. Prey could feel Night Watcher casting around, trying to find his mental representation, his avatar of self. Night Watcher was a ball of red tendrils, small in the vast emptiness of the ocean, keeping his defences tight, unsure just exactly what all this was. 'Another type of wall, a last ditch defence? Clever, not something I've ever seen before. I will remember it, once I am through with you.' Night Watcher's thoughts came. 'You'll have to find me first.' Echoed the silent reply from all directions. 'Now that I'm in, you cannot force me out. I've already won. It's merely a matter of time.' The red tendrils promised as they started to spread out, growing and searching through the still waters. 'Fool. You do not understand. I am not here, I am everywhere.' Echoed Prey's response, a silent, mocking laugh that carried to Night Watcher through the vast ocean. 'Then you are nowhere,' Came the blunt dismissal, 'And if you are nowhere you cannot hope to stop me, for I am strong and concentrated right here. You are too spread out, thin and weak. You are powerless as you are now.' The red tendrils thought, still expanding and probing further into the infinite ocean. But in infinity, that red stain in the silent water was very small. Night Watcher's consciousness noticed the shapes floating in the water below. Images and flashes on panes of glass, and he knew them for what they were, just as Prey did. 'Your memories. I was right, a clever ploy, but this is not an endless expanse, it just appears as such. And now I have found what you thought to hide. Run and hide little ewe, cower in some dark corner while I pick apart your life, or take form and face me one last time. I will win either way.' There was no response this time from the ocean, just the silence of deep water. Prey felt Night Watcher's irritation at his refusal to come out and face him, but Night Watcher put it aside and delved down deeper, the memories and floating pieces of life rising up to meet him as he dived. With a suddenness, Night Watcher was in the middle of them, everything floating and twisting silently as it hung there, suspended in the ocean about him. 'Now let us see little ewe, what are your deepest, most private secrets.' A shard of memory floated past. A red tendril shot out and ensnared it. }~~~{v}~~~{ Prey lay on the dirt inside of Snake's tent. The voodoo witch had left. He had no energy to move. Through half closed eyes that couldn't even cry anymore, Prey stared at the canvas tent wall. It was stained and streaked with dirt. 'How much longer?' Prey thought. 'How much longer in this hell until I die?' }~~~{^}~~~{ The memory ended. 'What is this? Real or imagined memories?' Night Watcher's question came. Still, there was no answer. Another shard drifted into range, and once again Night Watcher snagged it with a thought. }~~~{v}~~~{ Prey crouched behind a screen of bushes. A little way away, Snake was almost invisible in the shadows, sharp eyes glinting through his snake mask slits. Prey's very wool seemed to vibrate with the violence of the shivers that wracked his frame. He felt sick. He wished he were dead. The muffled 'whump' and 'crack' from the runic traps he and Snake had carved into the stone shelf the path meandered across had stopped a while ago. The screams had also stopped, or been stopped after the Resistance swept in to finish off the crippled patrol. 'I've killed someone. I've killed someone.' It kept going around and around in Prey's head. He couldn't think of anything else. His head hurt, his chest hurt, his stomach hurt. He didn't even notice the tears dripping from the end of his muzzle. It wasn't what he'd expected. It was so impersonal. Just a trap, a contained internal implosion that would shatter the lower leg of any living thing that laid hoof or claw upon it. Prey hadn't wielded the spears that skewered the downed Border Guard ponies as they'd lain screaming, but it was still him who'd killed them. 'I've killed someone. I've killed someone. I'm a murderer. I'm one of them.' Prey heaved into the bush, not that he had anything left to throw up. He hadn't eaten before Snake had dragged him from camp, he hadn't been able to, not when he knew what was coming. He didn't think he would ever be able to eat again. "I'm a murderer." Prey sobbed to himself. Prey looked up blearily as Snake came over, the feathers and bones on the witches cloak clinking slightly, "Congratulations. You have earned your face. This is now yours. Change it as you wish." Snake said emotionlessly, holding an object out to Prey. It was a wooden mask. It was roughly formed and crudely hacked out of thick tree bark, a large crack running along the top edge. It was a symbol, something that showed he was now one of the blooded Resistance fighters. They all received their masks after their first kill, to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies. He was now one of them. The empty eye's of the horrible thing stared up at Prey. 'I'm a murderer.' }~~~{^}~~~{ Nigh Watcher's tendril snapped back as the memory petered off. 'What is this?' The red mass of thought seemed to hesitate for a brief moment. More memory's and shards of objects slowly floated and swirled around Night Watcher in the water, waiting for him to reach out and read them. Night Watcher gave himself a mental shake. Almost hesitantly, wary of a trap, Night Watcher reached out once more. }~~~{v}~~~{ Prey stood beside the body of a earth pony, over six times his size, where it lay, half submerged in the sucking mud. Prey was also spattered in the freezing muck, and a light drizzle trickled through the trees. For some reason, Prey had a filthy ribbon tied behind one ear, where it hung beside the wooden mask. Prey had not done anything with the mask, had not personalised it at all. It was still just a crude wooden construct that would hide his face. And his eyes. Two black circles that stared out at the world and down at the dead pony, who's swollen tongue was extruding from his twisted features, eyes blood shot and bulging. He'd died clawing to breathe as his lungs tried to suck air through a windpipe swollen shut. Prey wondered what it had felt like. What had the dead Guard's thoughts had been in those last few moments before the poison had finally suffocated him? Prey hoped he never found out. Prey tilted his masked head and looked down at the body, "You shouldn't have come. None of you should have come. You should have stayed away. I should have stayed away. I should have killed myself before it came to this..." Prey's voice trailed off. Prey shook himself, he had a task to carry out, before Snake came looking to find out what was delaying his witch experiments. Or a predator was drawn to the fresh corpse. Prey didn't want to do it, but he had no choice as his trembling hoof uncorked the dirty jar he'd been given. 'I am not who I am. I am now someone else. There is no Gossamer anymore. He's dead and safe. Gone from here. I'm wearing this mask, so it's not even Prey doing it. It's not me.' Prey told himself as he shakily withdrew the small knife from its sheath. He had to grip it firmly between his hoof cleft and jerk it free, the water having swollen the wooden sheath. "I would say I'm sorry for what I'm about to do, not that you can hear me. But I'm not, because this me can't be sorry. Because it's not me." Prey repeated to the nameless Earth pony, bringing the chipped blade up to the ponies first eye ball and positioned the jar underneath to catch it. }~~~{^}~~~{ Night Watcher recoiled. His red tendrils of thought coiled defensively about his consciousness. 'This is wrong. That couldn't be real, it's just not possible. Do you hear that? I know this isn't real! You're not fooling me little ewe!' Night Watcher thundered out his defiance. The empty ocean absorbed his mental shout and remained just as it had always been, silent and empty. There was a long breath of time as the ocean waited. But in the end, with something like morbid fascination, Night Watcher reached out once again. }~~~{v}~~~{ "Why are you doing this?" Prey asked the donkey called Ruin, who wore a ragged toothed mask, painted red to resemble blood. Behind the donkey, the pegasus prisoner bound to a tree cried out the same question to the grimly smiling crowd as they gathered. Ruin turned around in annoyance to see who'd spoken to him. Then he looked down and spotted Prey, "Ah, the little lamb, or is it little ewe? Lovely day isn't it? Pathetic you're looking today is what you are. Perhaps you'd like to put an end to your uselessness and join him?" Ruin asked with a leer towards the sobbing Pegasus. Prey shrunk back down, the courage to speak he'd managed to scrounge up from somewhere deserting him. He knew what they were going to do. This was the second Pegasus Border Guard they'd taken alive. He hadn't known with the first one, but he knew what they were going to do with this second one. Prey tried to sink into himself and disappear. "That's what I thought." Ruin growled, "Beat it." He ordered as he turned back, gesturing for them to bring up the ropes. Prey started to slink away, when a heavy claw grabbed his ear and yanked him back. Prey yelped in pain as his head was twisted up and he found himself stating up into the sharp beaked grin of Torment, "Where do you think you're going?" She asked, viciously digging in the tips of her talons. "Nowhere, I'm not going nowhere. Please, please just let go." Prey gasped out, trying to free his ear from Torment's talons. Blood was starting to trickle from the punctures and down the inside of his ear. "Good, that means you can help." Torment enthused, shoving Prey to the front of the crowd. The prisoner was now whimpering, staring wide eyed in silent horror as a rope was tied around the base of each of his green feathered wings. The crowd were taking up positions either side, forming a line down each of the ropes, all grinning nastily at the Pegasus with something dark in their eyes. Torment shoved him to the front of the left hoofside line and pushed the rope into his mouth, "Here you go, have fun." Torment said, finally jerking her claws out from Prey's abused ear. Prey barely suppressed the cry of pain as his ear began to bleed properly, but he managed it. He'd had worse from many of these same Resistance fighters surrounding him, some of whom were watching him with sick amusement. "Please," Whispered the Pegasus, tears and snot running down his face, "Please don't, just don't. Please oh please no. I can't, I can't, no. Y-you can't do this. Y-you're just a foal, don't do what they say, please please. You don't know, you don't understand, just please don't." The prisoner begged him. Prey looked away, whole body drooping as blood continued to worm it's way down inside his ear. This poor Pegasus was right, Prey didn't have to do this. The Resistance fighters wouldn't even kill him if he didn't participate. They would certainly punish him, but they wouldn't kill him. He provided far too much fun and stress relief for them to do that. And oh, how they would love it if he ran away right now. Prey reached round the back of his neck, and pulled the strap around. He settled the crude mask firmly into place, then squared his thin shoulders and picked the rope back up without complaint. The streaming eyes of the Pegasus met his own, just blank holes, completely devoid and detached. "No please!" Torment raised her talon, grinning with mad glee, "Pull!" She screeched, and let her talon fall. Prey put his back into it and pulled along with everyone else. }~~~{^}~~~{ 'What was that?!' Night Watcher demanded, red ball of tendrils quivering in distress, 'That was different. I felt it. The emotions were real, I was there! What did you do? That wasn't a memory viewing, I felt it. Stop hiding and face me you vile twisted spawn of incest.' Night Watcher's consciousness yelled into the empty ocean. No reply. The ball seemed to tilt forwards, as if finally looking down for the first time. The waters slowly fell away, down and down, fathom after fathom of deepening water to the black maw of nothing. Prey felt Night Watcher realise how silent it was. How quiet and empty it was in the open ocean. The red ball contracted, bunching up more defensively. Prey knew what it was. The beginnings of fear. The silence of the deep. 'Perhaps...' Came Prey's silent voice, creeping through Night Watcher's defences and crawling into his understanding, 'You are beginning to realise that you should have stayed out. This place is mine, and mine alone. You cannot take what is mine. But instead, I will give.' Prey's mental communication was saturated with baleful spite, a surging ripple through the vast empty waters, hissingfrom every side at once, 'You never stopped to consider, that to hurt you, I am willing to hurt myself.' With that, the floating shards of memories shuddered under some directionless force and began to stir, drawn by an unseen current through to circle around Night Watcher's consciousness. The ball contracted and hardened further, tendrils jabbing out at the shards without actually touching them, trying to keep them at bay. It wasn't enough, and one of the many windows of memory swirling in the water got past Night Watcher's defences and was dragged into contact. }~~~{v}~~~{ Prey was hiding at the foot of The Hill, as he would later know it, waiting with baited breath for the attack to begin. This was it, what those in charge of the Resistance said would be 'the battle'. The one that broke the Border Guard and sent them crawling back to their sun tyrant. This was the first time the Resistance had come out to fight head on in a pitched battle. Hidden all around, unseen in the trees, the Resistance stared up hungrily at the force of unicorn Border Guards, milling amidst their tents up on the crest. Captain Fire Strike was up there too. The Resistance had sworn that today he would die. It didn't go like that at all. "Attack!" Came the shout, and the Resistance swarmed out from every nook and cranny, flooding the bottom slope and rushing halfway up the hill in a matter of seconds. Prey stayed firmly hidden where he was, watching with wide eyes as the battle unfolded. It appeared the Border Guard had been expecting them. The unicorns formed up smartly, and then a huge dome barrier popped into existence, just as the first wave of arrows and javelins reached it. The projectiles all deflected and pinged off uselessly, as harmless as flies. The pink shield encircled the entire Border Guard camp, not a single chink left uncovered, the horns of the unicorns aglow as they sustained it. The Resistance screamed in rage, shooting off arrow after arrow, all to bounce ineffectively off the shield. The unicorns seemed unworried, in fact Prey saw few even talking amongst themselves as they kept the hoards of the Resistance at bay. The Resistance had completely underestimated just how powerful unicorn magic truly was. So far, they had only been raiding or ambushing patrols unawares, never giving any unicorn's time to bring their magic to bare. They hadn't recognised the overpowering might the horned ponies wielded. Magic was versatile. It was both close range and long range, offensive and defensive, targeted or widespread, the start and the end of any fight. And the Resistance had no way to counter it. Prey thought he caught a glimpse of one the unicorns even taking a break to drink from his canteen as they maintained the shield. Then Captain Fire Strike emerged from his command tent. It was the first time Prey had seen the blazing red maned unicorn, but he knew him immediately. There was no one else such a commanding figure could be. The Border Guard captain slowly surveyed the scene before him before coming to a decision. Prey didn't hear Fire Strike's order, he was too far away. But he saw it instead. The hind ranks of unicorns fell back, and tilted their horns up. A fiery glow began to build as they took aim. Prey read Captain Fire Strike's lips as he soundlessly sneered at the helpless Resistance below him, "Fire." It seemed the barrier only kept things out. It certainly didn't keep the fire balls in. Bolts of fire soared into the air with deceptive slowness, gaining altitude. Everyone looked up, pausing in whatever they were doing mid assault. Then the wave of fire balls came hurtling down. Fire exploded amongst the Resistance on the hills slope, scattering them amid an orange blaze of heat and screams. The devastating force of a full firing line of unicorns tore the Resistance's assault to ribbons. Donkeys and goats writhed and bucked, fighting to get out of the hungry flames. Zebra pushed and shoved their fellow deers and rams. Panic was everywhere. Then the second salvo of fire balls arrived, and hot on its hocks came another and another, bombarding the Resistance fighters as they tried to flee, but walls of fire and burning trees barred their only escape route. It was surprising how quick fur could ignite. Within a minute, the horrible stench of scorched meat had filled the air. Screams rent the air. Prey couldn't look away as foul greasy smoke stung his eyes. He was frozen. Fire. It was happening again. Everything all over again. His world had burned the first time, and now this one was burning too. But he couldn't look away. Sometimes, all you can do is stand and watch. }~~~{^}~~~{ This time when Night Watcher broke free of the haunting memory, he didn't try to find Prey or demand answers. Instead, he immediately started to try and retreat, pulling his consciousness back. He didn't get very far, another shard swept in on the current and made contact. }~~~{v}~~~{ Something was out there in the dark, Prey could feel it. Beyond the safety of the fires weak light, something was watching him. It had been out there for the past three nights as well, every time he took his turn on watch, he could feel its presence. Watching. Waiting. Prey strained his eyes, staring into the dark trying to see what it was, and just as afraid that he would. But he couldn't look away, searching for whatever it was that hunted him. Somehow, Prey knew it had selected him, and not any of the others around him, who lay in exhausted sleep. He was small, fragile, and weak. He embodied everything his name said. Prey shivered, and huddled tighter in his mouldy blanket, his back to the fire so as to preserve his night vision. It was out there somewhere, hungrily licking its chops as it slunk closer. He was tired, so tired and scared. They'd been fleeing for three days now. Hunted by the Guard during the day, and hounded by whatever this horror was during the night. }~~~{^}~~~{ 'Leave me alone! Let me out of here, I want no part in your madness!' Night Watcher trashed, propelling himself up through the ocean of Prey's lower mindscape in an effort to get away. But the surface grew no closer and the shoal of memories swirled after his retreating avatar of self. Another memory struck home and stuck. }~~~{v}~~~{ It was quiet, too quiet. All the nearby night birds and insects had gradually drifted into silence some time ago. It was close. Prey didn't know if he was going to last until morning. The mental strain of a further two nights spent in sleepless fear even when he wasn't on watch was slowly driving him insane. His burning eyes drooped, but he couldn't sleep. If he fell asleep, he wouldn't wake up again. But he could barely stay upright. There was a sound behind him, on the other side of the fire. A wet, crunching sound. Prey didn't turn around. His heart hammered in his chest and his throat constricted so tightly he could scarcely breathe as he cowered in the dark. There was another awful crunch, and wet ripping sound from the direction of the sleeping Resistance fighters. Prey didn't look, he didn't turn, he was frozen. Seconds were hours, but he couldn't turn, couldn't look. 'If I don't look, it can't get me.' The primal logic of the terrified child. On and on it went, the quiet, terrible noises echoing in Prey's trembling ears. Eventually the noise stopped. That was worse. Prey started to cry as the deafening silence grew longer. 'I'm going to die.' Prey decided. He was just so tired, tired of it all. Still he couldn't gather up the courage to turn around. The dark ground on, minute by agonising minute. An eternity passed in that night. As the first light of dawn crept over the tree tops, Prey finally succumbed to exhausting and muscle cramping terror and collapsed. They never found out what it was that had eaten the doe Fleet Leaf. It didn't leave anything, except her four hooves, laid out neatly in a row on the blood soaked turf. }~~~{^}~~~{ Night Watcher's attempts at fleeing the ocean were proving fruitless. No matter how he thrashed and struck out wildly with his mind, his position in the ocean didn't change. The memories continued to come on, in more violent flashes and roiling emotions, forcing themselves onto Night Watcher one after the other. }~~~{v}~~~{ A twisted clearing in the dark trees, a shaft of moonlight illuminating the shape in the middle. Prey shuffled closer, tiny knife clutched tightly. The sound of rattling breathing grew stronger. A donkey. Eyes bulging and staring mindlessly, each rattling breath a laborious effort. Maggots the size of earth worms crawled through the donkey's lower half, squirming and bulging under the flesh as they crawled sightlessly from one weeping tear in the flesh to the next. The laboured breathing, each inhale and exhale an effort of unimaginable suffering, but the donkey wouldn't, couldn't, die. }~~~{^}~~~{ The memory snapped off, but more kept coming, faster and faster in a blur of forced recall pushed upon Night Watcher. The memories started to become unreal and disjointed from reality too. }~~~{v}~~~{ Hiding in the tree branches, wool painted and died in camouflage as the five pony patrol passed underneath. They'd seen his false trail and taken the bait. They wanted this war to be over, to finish off the last few remaining resistance fighters so they could go home. They were heading right towards the Bone Rot mine set at chest height just around that thorn bush. Prey grinned sickly as the five ponies that made up the patrol passed underneath his branch. They'd taken the bait. They were headed right for the Bone Rot, just past that thorn bush. Prey frowned, 'What? Didn't they already-?' There was the sound of five sets of breath as the ponies passed under his tree, heading right for the Bone Rot trap. Prey did the sensible thing and ran for it. -<>-<>-<>-<>-<>- A memory of something on the other side of the stone wall of the cave he'd found. Or been led to. He wasn't sure which. He just knew that it held something. And that it also held nothing. The rough stone wall seemed to shift in the dancing torch shadows, as if something moved on the other side of its grey skin, pressing up against his reality. Prey's head hurt and his eyes swam. Lifting the sputtering torch higher, Prey continued on down into the earths dark mouth. -<>-<>-<>-<>-<>- An earlier flash of memory, before the doomed hill assault. Prey was covered in sweat and blood slicked back the wool around his face and dripped from his large ears. Not his. The goat's on the makeshift plank table. His head rang from the screaming as he hung on grimly to his side of the straps that held the goat down. Snake re-threaded his gore stained bone needle and stepped up again, "Tighter. Do not let him break free again. I didn't let him steal that egg infested loaf just so he could eat it and die after I got the first batch of cinder lava out of him. He still has at least another three harvests left before his liver gives out, and my stock of ingredients is running low." -<>-<>-<>-<>-<>- Prey hung in a ritual circle, blood and something worse dripping from his hooves and scrawny chest. Everything was wrong, twisted. The ground seemed to move out of the corner of your eye, a ringing filled your ears. Prey's shockingly white teeth in a sunken visage of exhaustion stood out frighteningly. "Finally. It worked, it was worth it." He whispered as his body started to spasm, his face twitching and jerking about without his control, "All those runes and preparations. Three rituals all at once. Ha!" He laughed madly, voice cracking horribly, "I must be mad!" He screamed shrilly to the grey sky. -<>-<>-<>-<>-<>- A pile of half dissolved bodies lying in a pool of spent Bone Rot. Two earth ponies, one Pegasus would been walking instead of flying, and even a unicorn. All swimming together in a mix of melted flesh and liquefied organs. -<>-<>-<>-<>-<>- The Border Guards launching wave after wave of fire as the whole world burned, ash blackening the sky and flames blotting out the sun in a roar of flame. -<>-<>-<>-<>-<>- A stolen book of dark knowledge, taken from one of the Border Guards enchanted chests used to securely transport dangerous artifacts. The locks hadn't been good enough. Prey put his hoof to the cover and the book grew teeth and lunged at him. -<>-<>-<>-<>-<>- '-letter to my wife-', '-uniforms filthy despite washing it-', '-need a break-', '-every Celestia damned day it's the same-', '-can't wait till I rotate out-', Prey clutched his head, trying in vain to block the voices from his mind. The Border Guards thoughts were too much, too many of them all at the same time. It hurt. He hadn't known it would be like this, he wouldn't have taken the runes if he'd known. -<>-<>-<>-<>-<>- Tightening off a wire mesh strung just below the tree canopy, stretching from branch to branch. Prey reached out from his perch and twanged it with a hoof. The fine wire web shivered and hummed, taut as a bow string and almost invisible. Just waiting for somepony to fly into it at lethal speeds. -<>-<>-<>-<>-<>- It was just him, he was the only one left. 'It's only me. Me against the world.' Bitter hate swelled in his breast, so strong he could hardly breath, "Then I'm taking everyone with me." -<>-<>-<>-<>-<>- '-the monster-' '-the phantom-' '-it's just a story-' '-it's real, it's out there-' '-how much longer-' '-there's only one of them-' '-there's a whole swarm-' '-a blank mask dripping with blood-' '-a little lamb-' '-a towering monster-' '-can never catch it-' '-why me? Why is this happening to me?-' '-the war was supposed to be over-' '-the war is over-' '-then why are we still here?-' -<>-<>-<>-<>-<>- A rotting corpse crawling from its shallow grave, an unhallowed moan on its lips as it clawed itself free from its burial ground. It morphed and twisted, teeth lengthening into canines as it gnashed its jaws at the moon in raging hunger. -<>-<>-<>-<>-<>- A stuffed doll in the shape of a sheep. A pin cushion on its back. Staring button eyes, straw poking out of the seams. The thread stretched, opening wide to let the darkness of the mouth gape open from within, hungry and empty and endless. }~~~{^}~~~{ "You should have taken my warning and stayed out Night Watcher. Now you're dead in the water." 'You're evil, pure sick evil! The Mistress will put you down like the rabid cur you are. Leave me alone.' Night Watcher's consciousness shouted in fear. The vast ocean mocked him as he continued to futilely try and reach the surface. Prey could feel the fear and mounting despair radiating from his thoughts. 'Give up, you can't escape. All that time you were viewing my memories, I was busy sealing the exit. You're stuck in a loop. Didn't anypony ever tell you it's dangerous to get lost in someone else's thoughts?' Prey mocked him from everywhere and nowhere. 'You lie. It is possible to break into and out of every mind. You hadn't trapped me, I'll figure out how.' Night Watcher gave a massive blast of will power, stronger than any previously. Not even when Prey had been knocking on the threshold of Night Watcher's own mind had he fought so strongly. This was strength brought on by desperation, this was fear. The ocean shivered, from one horizon of water to the next. And then nothing else happened. Prey laughed, 'You're mistaken. This is not my inner mindscape, this is just the lower one. This isn't where I am at my most vulnerable, this is where I am nowhere and everywhere. I made this place, specially for keeping myself sane. This is where I store dark things.' 'This was all a trap.' Night Watcher realised. 'Well done. Too little too late.' 'I'm not finished yet! I'm not dead, you hear me?! You couldn't beat me before, you can't beat me now!' The ball of tendrils contracted and hardened, solidifying and growing denser and smaller, like an enormous red marble. It's surface was smooth and unblemished, no chinks to exploit. Night Watcher had given up any attempt at attack or even escape. He only meant to survive, to hold out against Prey's assault which he knew was surely coming. He waited, braced, ready. Prey did not attack. The frightening silence of the ocean slowly become unbearable the longer he waited, the strain building. Night Watcher curled ever tighter, 'Come on what are you waiting for?!' 'Not just yet. I have one last memory to show you Night Watcher.' It was a reflexive action, the desperate need to know what horror Prey had install before Night Watcher could clamp down on the impulse. It was hardly anything, just a slight twitch, a miniature crack in the marble, but that was all Prey needed. 'Made you look.' Prey taunted and shoved the memory shard through the crack before Night Watcher's could react. ~~~ And Night Watcher saw what Prey had found all those years ago. He saw the barren and warped earth of that forsaken piece of land Prey had wondered into. Saw the towering spikes of stone thrown up by something that had twisted down into the earth. He saw Prey travel down into the dripping dark and find it. ~~~ And Night Watcher realised why Prey was so good at breaking minds. He was just a runt sheep, with no magical talent, just borrowed and stolen strength from forgotten runes. Prey was weaker than almost everything out there. But he had something else. Prey hadn't used what he'd found burrowed down there into the earth, or tried to call forth more from where ever it had come from. No, his instincts of self preservation were far too strong to even consider attempting such an act of suicidal folly. Prey hadn't tried to use it, but he'd done something else instead. He'd kept a physical sliver of it in just his thoughts. Prey knew he wouldn't be able to overwhelm all those he tested his mind against. But when you have a link to unreality in your thoughts, logic and mental defences meant nothing. It was a piece of madness, suppressed and hidden, corralled and penned in by iron will power every minute of every day. It wasn't simple craziness, or even insanity. People often think they're the same thing. They're not. Madness is so much worse, so much more dangerous. Crazy doesn't make a calm, rational, happy family stallion design a spell to turn himself into a living fuel source to immolate the whole village in unquenchable spell flame. Insanity doesn't make a pregnant mare chew through her own belly to consume the unborn foal. Only madness did that. And madness is catching. ~~~ If Night Watcher had stayed out of Prey's mind, he would have been safe. The inhibitors on Prey were of the strongest variety known to ponykind. Prey couldn't bring the madness out, but Night Watcher had come in. 'You're evil, you're twisted! You're a threat to the whole of Equestria, to everything! That thing could devour us at any time. You're evil! Evil!' Night Watcher shouted at Prey, the word 'evil' seemed to be all he could articulate. Prey laughed bitterly as Night Watcher's defences dissolved and he bolted, the unicorns mind blindly making one last bid to escape from Prey's. 'Go to Tartarus!' Night Watcher screamed in defiance. 'Come with me.' The depths of the ocean rose up in a terrifying rush of hungry blackness, streaking towards Night Watcher. The vast terribleness of it was enough to blot out everything. Like a candle enveloped within the coming night, the whole ocean rose from beneath Night Watcher to envelop him with nothingness. Except there was something in the depths of the black ocean. Long shapes stretched and shifted down there in the silence of the deep where Prey never dared venture. Stretched and unfurled, looking up towards the surface with eyeless heads to see the tiny helpless speck of Night Watcher framed far above them, if they even were a 'them'. Prey withdrew, pulling back his oh-so-breakable mind from those things locked down there that could sunder understanding. They weren't his, he didn't control them. A flea does not control the manticore on which it rides. Hunger stirred, and opened its maw wide and rose up to meet the escaping mind. Night Watcher didn't even have time for one last thought. And then the ocean was empty once more, returning to the endless underwater stretch of empty blue silence. ---I--- [End of Arc 0 - Next time, Arc 1] [[[Sinking - Concept art only- The mindscape Ocean]]] https://imgur.com/TPmSKDp