//------------------------------//
// 33.2 Building a Nest of Lumber 
// Story: Prey and a Lamb 
// by Lambs Prey 
//------------------------------//

The Oak Quarter Lumber Yard of Canterlot was not the small affair which might've been found in a town, or even another city. Although perhaps the term 'Lumber Yard' was misleading. That name implied the yard was devoted exclusively to wood and timber. This was not the case.

Maybe at some stage, it had been a timber processing site only, but no longer. Canterlot's hunger for building materials was enormous and seemingly insatiable, and it would be silly to think its appetite was restricted exclusively to wood.

Timber was only one half. The other was masonry. Stone of all different types, cuts, seizes, colours and quantities. Marble was always in demand in Upper Canterlot, for example, but there was plenty of demand for other types. Slate roofing tiles, limestone slabs, basalt pavement, granite cladding, all these were needed too.

At one point in the past, the Oak Lumber Yard had been just what it's name said. But over the years, the business had boomed and expanded, changing to meet demand. The only thing which hadn't changed, for some reason, was the name. Now, the Oak Lumber Yard and its buildings covered almost an entire street.

And Canterlot required two such enormous lumber yards. The unicorn's of Equestria's capital were never satisfied to leave things how they where. They were always striving to build something new, bigger, and better.


------


The Oak Quarter Lumber Yard was close to the outside ring of Canterlot, meaning it was on a lower level than the city's center. As a result, Prey got a brief, moonlit view over the sprawling lumber yard as they ran towards it on their approach. It reminded Prey so much as of a giant mushroom infestation, what with the way it had spread to cover the entire street.

The glimpse also showed the Lumber Yard had its own high wall encompassing the premises. In the dark, that wall somehow seemed a lot taller and more solid. 

No light came from within the lumber yard. 

Other buildings outside of its walls were pleasantly lit up, but inside, the sprawling compound was dark.

Its only illumination came from the distant stars and moon far above. It was quiet as the ISND and their three other Night Guard companions approached. Almost too quiet. It was like the empty cobbles of the street circling the walls was nopony's land. Nerves taut, everyone was on guard as they the hurried across the empty street and came to the tall, iron gates.

"I don't see anything sir." One of the thestral Night Guards whispered, double checking up and down the dark street. There was no one else about. No one that they could spot, anyway.

"I don't smell anything either sir." Crimson said.

"And I don't hear anything." Prey muttered, finishing off the assessment. He was staring through the iron bars, straining his eyes to make out any movement in the dark. 

Knowing that the thestrals around him had far superior night vision and would probably spot anything long before he did was of little comfort. There was a murderer loose somewhere on these premises.

"Hm." Gloom rasped, eyeing the sprawling compound. His thoughts showed that despite being almost certain that the griffin had fled to the other lumber yard, he wasn't ready to risk anything by dismissing the immediate lack of signs.

"Are we going in sir?" The second Night Guard asked, flexing her wings.

Gloom peered through the gates. The lumber yard extended far in both directions. Massive stacks of shadowy lumber and stone sat everywhere, some over two stories high, creating a pseudo maze. He could count at least seven major factory buildings too. 

"It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be." Gloom said plainly.

The thoughts of the three thestrals that'd come along showed Prey that the sentiment was shared. They had't realised the Oak Lumber Yard took up an entire street. It raised the same worry in all of their minds. 

'There's too many buildings and hiding places to search them all.'

Gloom had a choice to make, and he did not like it. "Split up. You three start at the far west end and work your way back towards the gate. By the time you arrive back, hopefully our reinforcements will have arrived. We, the ISND I mean, we will start here and move in eastwards." Gloom said quietly, gesturing to the path he meant to take.

"Splitting up is a bad idea." Prey said, repeated his advice from earlier.

"No choice." Crimson grunted.

"It's a tactically poor decision." Prey insisted. He tried to entreat Gloom to see sense, "Sir, we'll only be playing into the griffin's claws."

"We're splitting up. There's no choice." Gloom repeated firmly, but obviously unhappy about the decision.

"But Gloom-"

"Be quiet Prey!" Gloom snapped. 

This was the second time he'd had to order Prey to stop questioning his orders tonight. Prey might have legitimate concerns, but he was the Sargent and it was his job to make the best call in these dangerous circumstances.

Gloom purposefully turned his back on Prey in favour of the other three Night Guards, "We don't know where the griffin might be, if he's here at all. He might have help. Stay unseen and in the air. Search for anything which seems out of place. If you do find any, don't go in for a closer look unless you are sure it's safe. Wait for back up. This griffin's already murdered one pony tonight, and I won't let him make it two. He doesn't have the crossbow anymore, but don't let your guard down."

Three pairs of yellow eyes bobbed in the dark as the heads they each belonged nodded in unison, "Yes sir."

"Good. Stay safe." Gloom nodded back. '-I should say something more. We're about to risk our lives-' 

"Always watching." He added, rather lamely.

The three thestral's did not share any further words. They spread themselves out and unfurled their leathery wings for take off. Near silent wing beats lifted their hooves from the road, and they gained height and flitted over the walls. The last one over the wall looked back and gave a single wave.

The ISND watched them go. Now they were alone outside the gates.

"Alright. We're next." Gloom said. He turned to Prey, "Niceties or no. We need to carry you over the wall. If you don't want me to, Crimson can do it." 

"Don't touch me, I don't need your help." Prey backed up, "And forget it, I'm not going in there. Three is far too few of us. It's too dangerous."

"They went in just fine."

"They can fly. They can easily get away if it gets dangerous."

"You're not staying out here by yourself." Gloom said.

"I won't try to run away if that's what you're thinking. But there's a murderer in there. The griffin's already killed at least five people, five! I'm not going anywhere near him." Prey insisted. He might've been prepared to go into the lumber yard before when it was six of them, but after splitting up like this and with the state they were all in? Not a chance.

"That's precisely why you aren't staying out here!" Gloom hissed, "We're not leaving you behind out here where anypony can get you."

To the side, Crimson's eye's flicked back and forth between the two of them as they faced off.

"I can hide out here. No one will find me unless I want them to-"

"And put you in danger? Not happening." Gloom denied flatly.

"You're the one trying to put me in danger. What happened to your assertions back in the cellar that a child shouldn't be involved in things like this, huh? I'm not going in there."

"I'm not letting you get yourself killed!"

Gloom only just kept himself from shouting; "I'm not stupid, I know this is dangerous. Do you think I want to bring a lamb into a potential combat situation? And after all of this I'm going to make damn sure-Never mind. But you'll be in far more danger if you stay out here by yourself. I'm not leaving you behind."

"I will not either." Crimson said, unexpectedly breaking from just silently watching the back and forth. His look of indecision was gone, now he looked certain.

Prey stared at both of them, "What about this are you not getting? The danger is in there, not out here."

"The danger is wherever we're not there to protect you, Prey."

Prey could see that logic wasn't working. Gloom was being irrational in his want to keep Prey, a subordinate entrusted to him by Luna, close and safe. In some ways, it was understandable. Better people had made worse calls under less pressure.

Prey tried changing tack, "If you won't let me stay safely out here, then why can't we just wait until the reinforcements arrive?" Prey said, sitting right down on the dusty stone to show he wasn't moving for either of them.

Gloom grimaced, "I did not want to say in front of the others, but I don't know if the Captain has any free thestrals left to send. Not without leaving the Palace unguarded, which cannot happen. At most, after dealing with the mess we left back there at the flat, and after splitting the remainder between the two lumber yards, we can only expect about five or six." He said.

"Well then I'm definitely not going in there." Prey snorted derisively.

Gloom looked Prey dead in the eye, "A pony died in my hooves today. I'm not leaving you out here alone. You're coming in with us, and that's final."

"Not a chance-"

"Shut up! Follow my orders!" That time Gloom did shout, and it echoed in the night before it went all quiet again. This made it the third time tonight Gloom had given Prey that order.

Gloom was being irrational, and it was easy to see why. Gloom still had smears of blood on his chest plate from trying to save Oyster Pinion. Two days ago, he'd lead them into a quadruple murder scene. They were all exhausted, Corporal Humming had been shot down, they were on a shrinking time limit, and now the Sargent was possibly having to lead his whole team into a murderer's lair. 

'-I may feel like I'm drowning under the pressure, but Luna help me I am going to do right by Her Majesty!-'

Gloom had made his choice. Gloom thought he was right. In fact, Gloom was certain that right now, with all the information he had, and with what his gut was telling him, he was making the only correct decision.

Whether he would feel the same in the morning wasn't so certain. But that was little comfort to Prey when Gloom was trying to force him to go in there tonight.

Worse, Crimson was siding with Gloom, his feathers bristling with impatience.

But just because it was two to one and they expected Prey to respect their authority didn't mean a thing to him. He spoke slowly, as if Gloom was a particularly dumb child, "You want me, a lamb, to go in there, right now, with a murderer? Not a chance."

'-why can't he understand I'm trying to protect him?-', Gloom seethed, "You are coming in, that's an order."

"I'm trying to stop you from getting us all killed. Wasn't finding four bodies in the cellar enough for you? Wasn't holding Oyster Pinion as he lay dying? Is that it? You won't stop until it's one of us under the sheet?"

Gloom's hoof struck the pavement, making Prey flinch despite himself. He'd been purposefully provoking Gloom and trying to illicit a reaction, but not what came next.

"I'm ordering you as a Night Guard. This is a situation with lives at risk. If you are not going to follow orders, I'll have no choice but to take this to Princess Luna." Gloom threatened with the most serious threat he could think of.

Prey felt like someone had sucked all the air from his lungs. For a moment he forgot how to breathe. 

'No no no! He can't tell Luna!' 

How had Gloom guessed his weakness?

As a Night Guard, the threat of Luna was of course the means of ensuring ultimate obedience, but Prey thought he'd been so careful in distracting Gloom from remembering how much power he really held over him. And now Gloom knew the power he held. From now until forever, Gloom could just threaten Prey with Luna, and Prey would have no choice but to comply or face death.

'Maybe I could pretend his threat doesn't scare me to lessen its perceived effectiveness?' Prey quickly thought. But what if Gloom called his bluff and really went to Luna? Prey quailed at the very idea.

Or perhaps he could fake cry-? No, that was just as likely to have the reverse effect, and he didn't think Gloom or Crimson would actually buy it, not after his reaction or lack thereof in the cellar. And that wouldn't stop Gloom telling Luna anyhow.

Gloom misunderstood Prey's silence. 

'-even that's not enough? I thought Her Majesty's approval meant so much to him-'

Gloom glanced anxiously at the waiting lumber yard, '-we're wasting time, the griffin could be getting away-'

'-thirty seconds-', Gloom decided, '-that is all we can afford to waste on trying one last time to convince Prey, only one last try. Otherwise I'll just grab him and go, 'don't-touch-me' be damned-'

Gloom stared at Prey, and the lamb stared back, each trying to read the other while Crimson looked on helplessly from the sidelines.

"Prey. Do you really think you'll be safe if we just left you here outside?" Gloom asked, raising a wing to stop Crimson from protesting the idea.

"Yes." Prey answered immediately.

"But if you stay, we have to stay too. It's all or none of us, and it's your choice. But if we do stay, and the griffin gets away, it's going to be your responsibility to explain to Princess Luna. So do you want us to remain here, or go in?" Gloom asked quietly.

Gloom was putting it like it was Prey's decision, but Prey was a mind leech and he knew better. Gloom was only giving him the appearance of choice to try and prompt him to make the 'correct' one. But it was just an illusion. Gloom was determined to do his duty and go into the lumber yard one way or another, but also not to leave Prey behind.

If Prey said "No, I'm staying out here", Gloom would forcibly try to drag him in.

Those thirty seconds that Gloom had secretly allocated for him to make his choice were almost gone. Prey had ten seconds left to decide on what to do.

There was no good way out of this. 

If Prey made the choice to go in, as Gloom seemed to think was their duty, he was risking his life against the griffin.

Yet if he tried to stay out here, Gloom would attempt to force him along in a misguided attempt to protect his life. Prey didn't think his self control was good enough to refrain from lashing out and mentally killing the Sargent if Gloom tried to fly while carrying him. And then Luna would kill him.

The option to memory wipe Gloom and Crimson both was also out. Even if he could get both Gloom and Crimson at the same time, those three Night Guards who'd gone on in ahead had heard Gloom give his plan to go inside too. Prey wouldn't be able to get to them to alter their memories as well.

'And after all I did to make sure you didn't break down after Oyster Pinion, this is the thanks I get?' Prey thought angrily.

Damned if he did, and damned if he didn't.

'Now I remember why I hate being on the hunt so much. Because something always goes wrong.'

"Okay, you're right. Let's go in." Prey said, turning his face away to look into the dark. If his life was going to be thrown into peril either way, he'd choose the option which was least likely to draw Luna's ire.

'Why do I have to keep fighting with Gloom to protect myself at every turn? Fight and also fail.'

Gloom didn't gloat over Prey's capitulation like one of the Resistance would've done, not even privately in his mind. This situation was so far removed from anything the thestral might've felt pleased over. All his thoughts showed was relief, followed immediately by misgivings about what they were getting into.

"I, I mean we, that is, we will protect you." Crimson offered to Prey. 

Prey glared back. Crimson wasn't being condescending or even just offering false comfort, he really meant it, but that wasn't a promise Crimson could keep.

Crimson did not react to Prey's filthy look. He instead extended a hoof, "I will fly you over the wall, if you want." He offered.

Prey completely ignored his hoof, turning his back on the pegasus and began to eyeing up the gate's bars instead.

"Prey, don't be stubborn about this." Gloom sighed.

Prey ignored him too, and stuck his hooves through the iron bars. The metal was cool from the night. Prey sucked in his breath and started to squirm his way through, twisting his head almost completely sideways at one point.

"You're going to get stuck, don't be foalish." Gloom hissed in concern now, hurrying over.

"Don't-" Prey gasped as he held his breath and kicked his back legs. 

"-Touch me." He finished as he finally fell through. Only someone foal sized could've fitted through that. Or a runt.

On the other side now, Prey sat up and checked he hadn't lost his ribbon, before looking back at the other two still behind the gate, "I don't need your help."

Gloom gave Prey 'a look', then jerked his head upwards to Crimson, and they both spread their wings. It didn't take more than three powerful beats for each of them to clear the wall and join the lamb on the correct side.

By prior unspoken arrangement, they all made straight for the closest pile of timber, pine by the smell, and crouched behind it. It had been quiet outside on the darkened street, but in here completely cut off behind the wall, it was even more silent. All those quiet background city noises you didn't notice until they were gone had ceased.

The motionless and dark lumber yard, with its piles of stone and hulking buildings, now stood all around them. 

"From here on in, whispers only." Gloom murmured. Prey viciously hoped that their Sargent did not survive the night. Who cared if Gloom only thought he was doing the right thing? He was forcing Prey to risk his life being in here. Alright, perhaps not quite wishing all the way to death, but if Gloom got his throat clawed open and lost his voice completely this time, Prey would be satisfied.

Prey bit the inside of his cheek. That thought had been a little too close to home. He was just as much at risk as Gloom was right now after all.

"I do not see anything to indicate where we should start searching. Do you sir?" Crimson asked quietly, still scanning the darkened area.

"Me neither. But we're sticking together. No splitting up." Gloom whispered back, looking up at the buildings which loomed in the night.

"No wise guidance from your cutie mark? Sir." Prey asked. Refusing to work together might get all of them killed. Prey wasn't going to let a grudge impact his chances of survival.

"No, nothing." Gloom answered. He hadn't even considered that Prey would hold this against him. He was too focused on their mission and his desire to stop the griffin for that.

"You two have night vision, I don't. My ears are better, yet I don't hear anything near by. The griffin's probably taken cover in one of those far buildings." Prey whispered.

"If he's here. We still don't know." Gloom muttered back, yellow eyes scanning the night. 

Prey didn't insist that he was certain. He didn't need to. Even if Gloom believed the griffin was hiding in the other lumber yard, they were still going to proceed as if they knew he was here. That was why Gloom had been too scared to leave Prey behind at the gate. Because there was a decent chance Prey was still correct. Prey seemed to have a knack for guessing these things.

'Hang on, Gloom was scared to leave me behind?' Prey realised. 

But why? Did the thought that Prey would try and run away worry him that much? Had Gloom forgotten about the golden tracer bands?

Distracted, Prey almost missed Gloom's order when he gave it. 

"The other three Guards are searching the far half and working their way back towards the gate. We'll cover as much of the second half as we can. Let's start with that building there." He whispered, carefully starting out from behind their cover.

As quietly as they could manage, Prey and Crimson followed after him. They kept to the shadows as much as possible, hugging the piles of timber and stone blocks.

All three of them were proficient at remaining silent. Neither Gloom nor Crimson's armour even offered more than a faint 'tink' once or twice, but even then it was so faint in the oppressive silence of the lumber yard it should've been missed.

That didn't mean Prey wasn't tensed to bolt at a moments notice.

Prey would've missed the side door on his first pass, so nondescript was it in the night. Gloom and Crimson however could see it clearly, and lead him unerringly to the entrance. Prey hated the feeling of being half-blind.

Cautiously, Gloom reached out his wing and slowly tried the door handle. It depressed all the way and the door softly 'clicked' open with no resistance.

All three of them shared a look. Gloom pointed at Prey and mimed listening, ear perked. 

"Anything?" He silently mouthed. 

At least that's what Prey would've assumed he mouthed in the dark, but he picked it out from Gloom's thoughts anyway. Prey listened intently for a full fifteen seconds, but even his large ears couldn't pick out anything.

"Nothing." He mouthed back, shaking his head.

Prey didn't like this. The door shouldn't have been open. It was probable the workers just didn't feel the need to lock this side door because the main gate was locked, but Prey didn't trust anything that was this simple.

Gloom inched the door open, making sure it didn't creak. Inside it was even darker.

"We need a light," Prey whispered, "Even you two can't search the building in this."

Prey was right. It was too dark, but, "We've no light. We will have to go in without." Gloom said.

"No light, no tools, no back up, no weapons, and no emergency communication crystal either." Prey muttered. This was what happened when you rushed into things without preparation. You got yourself into situations with no good options, only bad ones.

This was dangerous and all three of them knew it. They were going in essentially blind.

"I'll go first. Crimson, you next. Prey, stay at the back. If something goes wrong, hide." Gloom ordered in a low voice, stepping inside.

Crimson flexed his wings in readiness for anything and followed, although perhaps it was just him releasing tension from  rather than actual courage. Prey certainly wasn't feeling brave. 

He was scared. Prey had no problem admitting that to himself. He couldn't see more than two paces in front of him, and had to rely on Gloom and Crimson to lead the way. Even they were operating half-blind in this near blackness. Anyone could be waiting around the next corner. Or possibly even anything.

Every single second stretched painfully in the loud silence as Gloom lead them slowly through the first room. There could have been sacks of salt or black magic materials hidden away in here, and they wouldn't have known. It was too dark to see anything but outlines, and they couldn't stop to search. The only goal was finding the griffin.

The tension continued to mount as they ventured deeper into the innards of the silent building, ears and eyes straining. 

It was exhausting, and adrenaline could only do so much. Prey's eyes felt hot, and he kept rapidly blinking, but he could still see nothing no matter how hard he peeled them. Did the shadows creep closer the moment you looked away?

Yet despite all this, nothing throughout the whole building triggered any of their senses. Prey couldn't see everything in the rooms they entered, but he could still hear, and more than that, feel the large rooms they entered. On his mental map, Prey had a fairly good idea of when they'd covered the whole buildings interior. But none of the rooms held their target.

Gloom pushed the side door shut behind them as the slunk back out into the night, having come full circle. However there was no sense of relief for having cleared the building.

This had only been one unlit building out of many. 

There was a whole maze like Lumber Yard still waiting to be searched.

Prey knew the griffin was here. The only question was, which team would find him first? The ISND, or the other three Night Guards? The sick feeling in Prey's gut told him it was going to be the ISND, because that's how life worked.

'Please let me be wrong. Please let it be the other three poor suckers.'

This was like the Resistance all over again. Being thrown out into the line of fire as bait, with no idea when the ambush was coming, only knowing that it was. The terrible fear filled wait, with the promise of impending violence and possible agony was almost worse than any fight. 'I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate the hunt.'

"Come on. We need to check the rest." Gloom whispered, glancing up at the dark sky.

"Sir, there's too many. Buildings, I mean. We could easily miss the griffin at this rate." Crimson said, looking out into the huge sprawl of black outlines that made up the Oak Quarter Lumber Yard.

"No alternative. We've just got to keep searching." Gloom answered, keeping it short. His tufted ears kept swivelling every which way, hoping that if something jumped them, it would be from the direction he was listening too at that very moment. Crimson was similar.

Prey had to suffer through the opposite. While drooping, his hearing was superior, but not being a thestral, his night vision was poor. Each of them silently languished in their own personal sensory deprivation as they waited for an ambush that didn't came.

Crimson suddenly froze, "Did you see that?" He whispered.

"What? See what?" Gloom hissed.

Prey hadn't frozen or even hesitated. The moment Crimson had stopped he'd dived for cover, heedless of the dirt and grit he rolled over. His heart thumped wildly. He didn't care whether whatever it was had been an actual person, he needed cover.

If it'd been a wild predator, Prey would've frozen. Against a person however, that reaction could be all it took for them to finish lining up their shot.

"I thought I saw movement, around the corner of that building." Crimson whispered, pointing.

Prey couldn't see what the pegasus was pointing at, and he wasn't about to poke his head out from around his safe stack of granite blocks to look.

"I'm not seeing it." Gloom murmured, yellow orbs narrowing in the night as he squinted.

"It's gone. But I'm certain I didn't imagine it sir."

Silently the two of them shuffled sideways until they were behind the same granite stack as Prey. "Alright, how do you think should we should proceed?" Gloom asked, never looking away from the building over the top of their temporary cover.

"We go in. We need to stop this griffin tonight." Crimson said, no hesitation.

"We don't know what's in there. It's very likely to be a trap. There are too few of us, and we've no magical support. Or any support. We've got to wait." Prey hissed, also no hesitation.

"If it's the griffin, we're going in. That's not the question. But how to get in without getting spotted?" Gloom muttered.

"Of course sir. But going straight in looking for a fight is not possible," Crimson said, surprisingly being a voice of reason, "Not with Prey, I mean sir. He might get hurt. Or...killed. We will have to try and sneak in instead."

Prey felt a surge of something like relief, like he'd had a stay of execution. Even if only by a few minutes.

"You're right. But how to get in, how to get in...?" Gloom repeated, eyes roaming over the building that Prey couldn't see, "Wait, in up though there."

Prey gathered up his courage and very, very cautiously peeked around the corner of the granite, but not over the top like Gloom and Crimson were. If they hadn't been shot at already, then either they hadn't been spotted, or the enemy was getting into a better position to flank them. 

'Please let it be the first.' Prey thought as he peeked at whatever Gloom was talking about.

It took Prey a second to work out exactly what it was that Gloom was referring to. He didn't know the device's name, and it took a moment to figure out its purpose.

From what Prey could see in the dark, it looked like a tall mobile ramp, stretching all the way up to a hatch set into the second floor wall. It was hard to pick out with his inferior night vision, but Prey could see the glint of what looked like metal rollers lining the downward sloping ramp. 

'It's supposed to be used to slide things down to the ground from inside.' Prey worked out.

And where there was a way out, there was also a way in. Prey would need to climb up the ramp to get to the hatch, balancing on the edge to avoid the rollers all without slipping, but it would be doable.

And Gloom and Crimson could just fly up. 

"Alright, we have our entrance," Gloom whispered, rising from his crouch, "Crimson, you go through first. Prey, grab hold and I'll fly you to the top of the ramp with me."

"Don't touch me." Prey shied away from the hoof Gloom extended towards him.

"Prey for Luna's sake, not this again." Gloom hissed, still reaching out.

"I'll climb up by myself."

Gloom was sick and tired of this, '-we are in a dangerous situation and he's still going on about something so petty?-' 

Gloom decided that enough was enough! He was just going to grab Prey and fly him up to the hatch.

Prey of course overheard Gloom's decision, "If you grab me, I'll end up screaming." Prey warned in a low voice.

Gloom froze, "You won't. You'd get us caught."

"I'm not threatening, and I'm not trying to make something up to avoid going inside. I'm telling you what will happen if you try and fly me up there." Prey stated.

"You think this is a joke?" Gloom asked incredulously, '-am I seriously hearing this right now?-'

"No, do you think this is a joke? That I'm lying about this? If you dare to touch me, I'll end up screaming. Or something." Prey warned, making sure Gloom could see he was dead serious.

Gloom glanced helplessly at Crimson, who looked like he had no idea of what to do either. But they needed to move. Now.

"You two fly up. I will climb up. I won't make a sound, I promise." Prey said.

What choice did Gloom or Crimson have?

"We will talk about this later." Gloom growled.

'You mean, 'We'll talk about this later if I'm still alive'.' Prey thought.


---


Crimson reached the open hatch, no problem, and soundlessly swooped in. A hoof had stuck out from the darkness a moment later, and signalled that it was safe. Already airborne, Gloom flew up to the hatch, going slowly to avoid making any noise.

There, he alighted on the top of the ramp, avoiding the dark metal rollers and waited anxiously for Prey. 

Prey didn't look up at his waiting Sargent however. He was focusing too hard on not stepping on one of the rollers. The only place he could set hoof was on the ramp's very edges, where the rollers didn't reach. Which meant he had his legs splayed far wider than was remotely comfortable as he shuffled his way up, trying not to misplace his hoof in the dark and slip.

If he did, the resulting racket would definitely alert everyone in the area. He felt horribly exposed climbing up here, and the ground was uncomfortably far away. 

Gloom was  going silently irate at the top of the ramp at Prey's stubbornness, '-of all the stubborn, foolish, dangerous, foolish things-'

But despite Gloom's worry, Prey made it to the top without incident, where he refused to waste even a second stopping to placate the angry thestral. Prey knew full well his escapade had wasted two precious minutes, but no one was going to touch him ever again if he could help it. He shoved past Gloom without the actual 'shove' bit, and slid in through the hatch. 

Once again, inside the building all was darkness. The smell of sawdust seeped into his nose. 

Prey couldn't see to the end of the room they'd climbed into, but he could tell all was silent and still. Stacks of what might've been raw materials sat at empty work benches, with another roller belt running down the middle of the room. It was hard to be sure in the darkness.

Two yellow eyes hovered in the gloom a yard away, the faint traces of moon light coming in through the open hatch just enough to reflect dully in Crimson's eyes. The way the rest of him was almost invisible made him appear as a spectre until Prey's eyes more fully adjusted enough for him to at least see outlines.

Except that wasn't completely right, for the reason that something was wrong.

"Something's off." Prey whispered, so quiet that Crimson had to lean in closer to hear. Behind them, Gloom was clambering in through the hatch, briefly cutting off even that faint source of illumination.

"What is it? What do you hear?" Crimson almost breathed.

Prey gave his head a half shake, "What do you see? What's in this room around us?" He asked instead.

"Benches, tools, sawdust, machinery." Crimson answered succinctly, yellow orbs swivelling in their sockets.

"What is it?" Gloom whispered, joining them. In his thought's he was still angry at Prey, but now they had bigger concerns.

"Prey hears something." Crimson answered softly.

"I sense something." Prey corrected.

"Sense what?" Gloom asked.

Prey chewed his lip in worry, because he couldn't give the honest answer without also having to provide an explanation, which was; 'Magic'.

He could feel it, the faint pull and unpleasant prickling in his hooves from the runes. Somewhere close by, there was either an active source of magic, or an ongoing spell. He couldn't be certain, because the magic's purpose was unknown, but he didn't think the source was coming from within this room. But it was definitely somewhere in this building.

If Prey hadn't been afraid before, he definitely was now. 

"I'm not sure what I can sense, but I can feel something is off in the air, like there's something hiding." He lied. His heart was beating unpleasantly in his chest, fear of this unidentified magic making his pulse race as he whispered.

Gloom and Crimson instinctively scanned the room again, trying to find what it was that was wrong. Crimson sniffed the air, "No blood. Too much sawdust to tell about anything else though sir." He murmured.

Prey got down on his knees in the dust and laid his ear out along the floorboards. He closed his eyes and focused. Was that something? No...Wait, was it? Vibrations, but no sound? Surely this floor couldn't be thick enough to fully block noise like that?

"There might be something below." Prey said.

"Something as in a machine, or something as in somepony?" Gloom clarified.

"I'm not sure. It's not right, not like people should normally sound. Like somethings blocking it." Prey said, lifting his ear away.

Gloom hesitated, trying to decide what they should do. '-my talent isn't giving me anything, so...-'

"Make our way to the door. Find the stairs. Don't get seen." Gloom decided, committing them to the danger.

Prey gulped and reached for his throat, surprised for a moment to find the steel collar he'd worn for fifty seven years gone. 'Of course it's gone. It's been gone for three weeks now.' 

Had it really only been three weeks?

Gloom lead the way towards the door which Prey couldn't see, Crimson creeping behind him in the darkness, wing's half spread to take off at a moment's notice. Prey also slunk along, feeling out each hoof step before he placed his weight down, making sure he didn't make a sound.

Out the door there was a short corridor, which, if possible, was even darker. Again, they crept along it even towards the exit. 

Gloom tested the handle, pressing his ear to the crack. He shook his head, "I can't hear anything." He whispered.

Prey held his breath as the Sargent cracked the door open. A soft whining creak came from the hinges. They all froze, door half open, and it wasn't only Prey holding his breath.

Nothing but more darkness beyond. Nothing moved.

Prey let out his breath out shakily. He silently glared at the back of Gloom's head as the thestral squeezed through the half open door. Gloom could've gotten them all killed right then and there with his carelessness.

Apparently, the building had been a lot bigger than Prey'd realised from outside. Where it had looked like there were two huge warehouses along side each other, it was, in fact, one giant building joined together. Prey had thought the corridor would've lead them to some stairs down to the second floor, but no. Instead, they found themselves in another darkened work shop floor.

More familiar outlines of benches and tools cluttered this floor too, and once again too, and this was the most important point, no movement. Just space. 

Gloom waved them to follow him, already cautiously heading towards the next door. It seemed less used somehow, like a side entrance. 'But a side entrance on the third floor?' 

Slivers of pine sawdust crunched silently under Prey's small hooves on their approach, mixing uncomfortably with chips of stone, invisible to him in the dark. It reminded him horribly how they had no idea what they might be about to set hoof into. 

Just like all the others before, this door wasn't locked either, and revealed a walkway was revealed hanging in space, showing that they were actually high above the second floor. A glance left and right showed the walkway extending along both walls like a balcony, as well as straight out over the open floor far below.

Prey halted and squinted, just able to see over the walkways edge from his stand point. It was at least a sixty, probably seventy hooves drop.

'Is that movement? People working in the dark down there?' 

But what worker would still be here so late?

'-what the?-'

Gloom took a step out onto the walkway, and then flinched explosively, eye's snapping shut as he barely managed to contain a hiss.

"What is it?" Prey whispered urgently. This must be the magic he'd sensed! "Quickly, what does it do?"

Gloom jumped back smartly into the room and shut the door. Only then did Gloom fully open his eyes and face the two of them.

"Sir?" Crimson asked, coiled and tense as a spring.

Gloom blinked rapidly a couple of times, "Well, that I certainly wasn't expecting." He said shortly. 

"Sir?"

"There are ponies down below. There's some sort of magical illusion cast over the whole floor, and I stuck my head through just now."

"A bubble of illusion magic? Are you sure it's nothing else?" Prey asked, large eyes darting across what he could see of Gloom's face, looking for signs of any other magical effect.

"Yeah, it was exactly like a bubble actually. It's as bright as daytime in there." Gloom glanced back at the closed door, "When I went past the threshold, everything was suddenly all light up and I could hear ponies talking."

'A wide spread illusion of this size, and a silence bubble sustained continuously at the same time? That's far too powerful, we have no chance against a unicorn like that.' Prey thought in dread. They had to leave, right now.

"I'm going in for another look. I didn't see what they were doing down there." Gloom whispered.

"Wait-!" Prey squeaked, but Gloom didn't, cautiously opening the door and poking his head back inside.

If Prey had been armed with a knife, he might very well have stabbed Gloom right then and there for his stupidity. 

'Why is this all going so similar to that mansion raid by the Solar Guard?' Prey thought, bracing himself for the alarm to be raised.

By some dumb luck, it wasn't. Ten seconds later Gloom was back and shutting the door again to convey his observations. 

"All those ponies down there... They're working on packaging salt. They've got a production line going." Gloom stared straight ahead, like he was having trouble reconciling the reality he'd just said with what he'd seen. Perhaps after tonight, he simply didn't have a reaction left to give.

"The magic," Prey insisted, uncaring about the drug trade running just below them, "Did you see the source of the magic?"

"The source?" Gloom asked dumbly. He seemed to have not caught up yet, '-how did this slip right under the Guards nose?-'

"How many unicorns were there, who was maintaining the spell, where were they positioned?" Prey rattled off, voice rising in pitch and alarm.

"Prey, breathe and calm down." Crimson said quietly, catching Prey off guard.

"I can be calm when I'm not in danger of getting my head blown off or frozen solid. Do you have any idea how powerful a unicorn would have to be to cast both a silencing and veil of that size?" Prey whispered furiously, jabbing his hoof at the door.

"No, we don't." Gloom said. He paused, "Do you?"

"It's very." Prey answered, "Even taking into account how they could be specialised in this field, they would still have to be a mid or high tier five at the very least to be able to cast and maintain this spell indefinitely, unless they have a cutie mark that aids them. How long have they been casting this? An hour? All night?" He was talking too much. They didn't need to know all those details.

"That doesn't sound too bad." Crimson said.

Prey stared at him, "Do you even understand what I'm saying?"

"Illusion and silence aren't a physical threat. They will be easy to deal with if it comes to a fight." Crimson replied, not phased.

Prey was struck speechless. His wide eyed gaze turned to  Gloom's, and he found the exact same look there as in Crimson's. The lack of necessary fear. How could they not understand? Magic wasn't a joke, they were going to get killed if they went up against such a unicorn in a straight fight.

"Actually," Gloom slowly said, "I don't think I saw any unicorns casting down there. Isn't this the sort of spell that would need to be constantly maintained?" 

Gloom didn't think to question why Prey seemed able to provide the answers, only caring that Prey did. 

"Yes, no, maybe. It could be an enchantment, but they can't have set up an enchantment so quickly, and that would require an even more powerful and skilled unicorn. The salt dealers only moved here a few days ago, so there's just no way." 

Prey licked his lips, mind darting over the possibilities, "Either they have some kind of magical artifact that's fuelling this, or, or," He swallowed, "Or they really do have a unicorn on that tier."

"I'm going to take another look. Watch my back." Gloom said.

"Wait, don't!"

Prey's squeaky protest went just as unheeded as the first. But by the same miracle as before, the drug dealers down below were just as unobservant as last time and didn't notice Gloom. Hadn't they posted any sentries? They were dealing in illegal substances, how did they overlook something so obvious?

"I think you were right Prey," Gloom whispered, withdrawing his head, "I think they have some sort of glowing magical box down there on a cart that's casting this bubble. I can see a unicorn sitting next to it, channelling magic, but since I can't see him doing anything else, he must be powering the box." 

Prey knew that could not be all. There must have been magical markers placed around the warehouse somewhere to define the borders of the bubble, and there was no way of knowing if that was all the box did.

"How many other unicorns were there?" Prey asked with growing trepidation.

"Four, five? I couldn't be certain," Gloom whispered, "There's at least twelve ponies down there that I can see. I can't be certain who is what race."

'Four or five unicorns,' Prey thought in dread, 'Better assume five. Five beings who can kill us before we can scream. Who could have fireballs, lightning bolts, ice beams, or any other number of spells. How are we supposed to avoid their attention?'

A horrible thought occurred to Prey, and his head whipped round to face Gloom, ear's whipping along with the movement, "You're not going to try and confront them, right? There's no way we're going to do something crazy like try to arrest them all or something, right? Right?" He asked, grinning nervously.

Gloom shook his head, making Prey slump in relief. "There are too many ponies to confront. We need more Night Guards first. No, we're going to continue covertly searching this place instead. That's all we can do for now, and we don't know who else might be around. I didn't see the griffin down there for starters."

"But he's here sir. I mean, if there's ponies making salt down there, then this must be the right lumber yard after all."

"And we've flown right into the middle of it." Gloom muttered grimly, "This is far bigger and more established than we realised. An entire factory floor? A production line? Who know's how many other buildings here hold similar set ups?" 

Gloom shook his head, "Let's face it, we're in over our tails."


---


Prey had a piece of stone, a chip of marble that must've broken off from one of the half formed blocks as it was being shaped. He couldn't tell what colour the piece was, but he could still feel it just fine. He'd found it just now quite by accident, setting hoof on it in the dark without meaning to.

It wasn't important in the slightest, just a small chip of discarded stone, but he'd immediately picked it up.

Now he was busy rubbing the chip with his hoof, feeling the one rough side and one smooth in an effort to distract himself from the danger just the other side of the door, and down. And how in just a few seconds the ISND were going to step out of said door, and trying to sneak across the walkway, right above the heads of all those hostile ponies. 

Five of which were unicorns. Five hostile unicorns. Five dangerous, hostile unicorns who's best interests lay in ensuring the ISND never told anyone about this place. Prey gripped the shard of marble tighter.

'At least I'm not crying like some crybaby again.' Prey thought bitterly to himself.

"Alright," Gloom whispered, "Let's go."

Prey took a deep breath to calm himself, the smell of sawdust strong in his nostrils. He tucked the stone chip into his wool and nodded once to show he was ready. 

Crimson also nodded and stepped up behind Gloom. The armoured thestral gently hooked the door handle with his wing claw. One of those unexpectedly unguarded thoughts came out from Crimson as their Sargent did so; '-I sorely wish I had my fathers wing blades right now-'

"Stay low. Remember, we're only trying to get to the door on the other side." Gloom whispered before pulling the door open. Prey closed his eyes to preserve his night vision against the glare that he knew was coming, and slipped reluctantly through.

A prickle raced through his hooves, like nettle stings, and brightness beat against the other side of his closed eye lids. For a moment, Prey felt greasy as he passed through the veil and into the bubble, and sound from below became abruptly audible. Heart beating hard, Prey shuffled to the side so he wasn't blocking Crimson, and cracked his eyes open to take in his surroundings.

The balcony bit of the walkway on which they stood was a solidly build construct, safe and solid. The walkway that spanned the drop was a lot more vertigo inducing. Thin metal railings suspended from the roof beams on chains, and a metal grate bottom so you could see through all the way to the floor below.

Gloom had exaggerated. It wasn't as bright as day. There were still plenty of shadows up here, since all the illumination came from the lights below, something Prey was extremely grateful for, since it meant that the three of them had a much better chance of remaining hidden for what they were about to do.

Gloom hadn't been exaggerating on the numbers though. 

There were twelve ponies below, working along two of the many production lines. But in contrast to the usual wood and stone those belts processed during the day, they now held simmering saucepans, chunks of coarse white crystals, and brown paper bags waiting to be filled. A chemical smell hung thick in the rafters up here from the rising fumes.

The set up was small, but seemingly very efficient in producing its drug. The ponies below were working at a fair clip, evidently knowing their jobs well. 

'Or are afraid of not meeting their quota.' 

Only seeing from above, the subtler facial tells and body language of the ponies below were lost to Prey, but he still got the impression they were all on edge. And not just because they were partaking in an illegal activity.

"Prey, come on we need to move." Gloom whispered. He was crouched and gesturing for them to follow him to the walkway, body hugging the platform. Across the open drop and on the far side, a single door could be seen in the shadows. Their next destination in the search.

Swallowing, Prey went.

He had a nice, long view of the unicorns through the walkway grating the whole way across. 

It was nerve wracking. Prey was keenly aware all one pony needed to do was glance up and the alarm would be raised. 'We should've gone back around outside.'

But not once did any of the ponies below look up during the tense crawl, and neither did Gloom nor Crimson bring down one of their cloud steel shod hooves too hard as Prey was secretly certain in his heart one of them would.

Just as they were about to make it off the dangerously see through grate floor to the door, they were brought to a freezing halt for what felt like the hundredth time that night. And the cause was the sudden entrance of a griffin below.


---


It was 'the' griffin, their griffin, the murderer who they'd chased all the way here. Even if their were any other griffins in Canterlot, and even supposing they might be this very lumber yard right now, Prey would've recognised those bright eyes anywhere from the single moment he'd seen them staring down the other end of the crossbow.

Even from up here, those eyes seemed to be alight with life. They sparkled. 

The didn't griffin walk in like a murderer either, he swaggered in with barely suppressed energy, a spring in his step, and a friendly grin on his beak.

"Ah! Prenez my friend!" The griffin called out cheerily, as if there was some secret joke that only he was in on, "How are you doing tonight?"

The unfortunate pony apparently answering to the name Prenez, the same unicorn powering the enchanted box, seemed to shrink in on himself at having the griffin single him out. The rest of the workers had all ducked their heads and speed up the moment the griffin entered. 

"I'm fine thank you sir." Prenez mumbled, barely audible from up here.

"Good good, that iz' good," The griffin said, speaking with an accent Prey had never heard any griffin from the Resistance use before. 

"And how iz' my salt line going. It iz' also good, yez'?" He inquired, still grinning as he strode over, lion tail swaying to its own tune.

Prenez shrank lower, and Prey fancied he could see the glisten of sweat start up on the unicorn's forehead, although that might just have been from sustaining the magic supply to the enchantment box.

"I, er, yes sir. I've just been taking my shift powering the veils." Prenez answered nervously, keeping his eyes fixed on the box so as to have an excuse to not to meet the griffin's eye.

"Ah, unicorn magic, wonderful thing iz' it not?" The griffin asked, suddenly standing over the box with a happy grin. His sudden movement and intrusion into Prenez's personal space, if that really were the stallion's name, made the unicorn's ears go flat and his breath catch, but to his credit he did not flinch backwards.

He probably knew there would be unpleasant consequences if he let the veil drop.

"But I don't think that iz' the question I asked. I asked, iz' it good, yez'?"

The griffin didn't asked it threateningly, or make so much as an aggressive twitch, but the ponies working around Prenez instinctively sucked in their breath.

"It's good, yes it's good boss. Production is right on schedule, you don't need to worry about it." Prenez hastily answered. 

"Good, good. You iz' doing a good job my friend. I will just be checking that it iz' going good now, yez'?" The griffin asked brightly.

Evidently Prenez was not required to answer, because the griffin sauntered away, and Prey saw the unicorn's head slump in relief. The other ponies didn't have the same luxury, as the griffin was now leaning over their shoulders to check up on their work, all the while keeping up that bright eyed smirk.

"What are you doing?" Prey whispered sharply. 

Gloom jerked up from watching the scene play out below to see that next right to him, Crimson's wings had slowly started to drift open. Gloom had been too focused on their target just below even to notice. Prey was already off the walkway and crouched by the door, ready to leave.

"You better not be planning on flying down there and trying to fight them all by yourself." Prey hissed.

Crimson's wings snapped closed, "No." He denied. He didn't sound certain though, "But he's just there. He murdered all those ponies and he's just standing down there-"

"Don't you see all their weapons?" Prey asked incredulously.

Gloom and Crimson cautiously peered back over the balcony's edge and looked closer. 

'-how didn't I spot those?-', Gloom thought. What they'd previously missed was that almost every pony down there had some sort of weapon close to hoof.

No spears, lances, axes or swords, although that last weapon could only really effectively be used by unicorns. But there were plenty of other, smaller, easier to wield by the unskilled weapons in evidence. A pair of hammer hooves lay on the table next to one stallion, with cudgels making up the rest of the armament for the other earth ponies. A wing blade on one pegasus's wing, a scattering of knives and daggers, but what gave the ISND the most pause were the crossbows.

Four of them, and all of them looked loaded. Admittedly crossbows weren't nearly as bad as the unicorns, but a crossbow represented a much more tangible and immediate threat in both Gloom and Crimson's eyes. To them, any non-horned pony would normally have to get in close to pose any threat, but the crossbows removed that safety net.

'-how in Luna's mane did they get so many crossbows into Canterlot?-', Gloom wondered, '-and how many more do they have? Never mind, that's not important right now-'

Prey could see that deep down. Gloom was just like Crimson. and would've liked nothing more than to swoop down there and arrest the lot of them, but they weren't crazy enough to believe that would ever work. Gloom's eyes bored hatefully into the griffin's back.

'-once again this is bigger than we imagined-', Gloom thought.

"No choice, we need to wait for back up. We'll keep watching from up here, make sure none of them..." He broke off. Down below, their griffin had finished talking, or terrorising, his workers to his satisfaction.

"You all keep up the good work, yez'? We are all busy, and no one haz' time they want to be wasting, yez'?" The eagle lion asked cheerily, and walked out the door without bothering to wait for an answer. He didn't need one. It was undisputed who was in charge.

"Change of plan," Gloom whispered as the griffin made for a doorway underneath their perch, no doubt heading for the outside, "We're following him. If that piece of filth is on his own, we can ambush and take him down."

Gloom turned and dashed towards their own exit, Prey falling back from the door to get out of Gloom's way.The Sargent pulled the door open, almost being careless in his haste, only remembering at the last second to take it slow so that the disused door didn't screech.

The horrible greasy feeling scurried over Prey's skin as they hurried out. Outside the veil, darkness returned, plunging him back into near blindness. They were back outside. High up. The chilly breeze told him that. Another metal grate walkway then.

"This way." He heard Gloom whisper. Prey couldn't see where Gloom was leading, but he could hear which direction the thestral's voice came from.

"I don't see him." Crimson said. Neither could Prey, but that was because he could hardly see anything aside from specks of star light, whereas Gloom meant he couldn't see the griffin. 

'-did the griffin go out another exit? No, not possible. But then where is he?-', Prey heard Gloom think as the Sargent cast about in the darkness below them.

"There. He just entered that building, I saw the door closing." Crimson said. Prey could see what was probably a hoof pointing. What was more of a clue was the big black outline of what could only be a building the leg shaped shadow was pointing at.

"Moon blight, we missed him. Quickly, follow." Gloom ordered.

Prey looked, and saw that the metal grate walkway they were standing on also extended over to the next building the griffin had just entered, forming a bridge of only about twenty hooves length.

Gloom and Crimson wasted no time and shot across the bridge, not willing to risk loosing this chance to corner the griffin in the next building. Prey was scared, not of falling off as he dashed after them, but by their single minded pursuit. They 
focusing too hard, fixating on the griffin. It was going to make Gloom and Crimson slip up.

Of course, the door on the other side just had to be the single one in the whole lumber yard which was locked. 

Prey caught up as Gloom was wrestling with the handle, trying to break it open without having to resort to bucking it in. '-need to hurry. Blast it, but if I break it we'll be overheard-'

"No good. It won't budge." Gloom grunted, still straining.

"I can break it sir. But I'll need one kick." Crimson whispered.

'-one kick. Can we risk the noise?-,' Gloom hesitated. 

Then the Sargent's thoughts turned to the griffin doing Luna knew what inside. "It's all yours." He said, stepping aside.

Crimson took a position to the side of the door, his armoured chest squashed against the safety rail as he lined up his back hooves. "Kicking now." Crimson said simply.

A sharp *Clunk!* resounded in the night.

The out of place noise made Prey wince. 'Did anyone hear that?' He worried. That was a silly question. It must've been heard, but would anyone think the noise bore investigation? It had just been one noise in a big lumber yard in the middle of the night. Surely such noises happened all the time with tools falling of benches and what not? At least Crimson's kick had done the job.

The door handle dangled brokenly. Gloom gripped it tightly with both wing claws and pulled as hard as he could. The door was dragged unwillingly open, something sticking in the door jam and making it stick.

Prey was poised ready to run if someone was waiting on the other side. He was crouched in a runner's starter position and everything. 

Darkness. An unlit interior. No ambush.

Gloom strained, and Crimson slipped in the moment the gap was wide enough. The pegasus's stance was lowered, and he was ready to attack the first thing that moved. But his readiness wouldn't do much against a crossbow bolt or a unicorn. Unwillingly, he turned his back on the black interior and began pushing at the door from his side until it was wide enough for the rest of them. Unhappily, Prey followed Gloom in.

Prey's eyes still weren't fully adjusted from exiting the illusion bubble, and by the time they were and he could see in the dark room again, Crimson had already found the next exit and was listening at the door crack.

A jerk of Crimson's wing gestured them up. That must mean he thought it was clear. And it was. Just another of those short, dark corridors. Prey hated those corridors. But at least he didn't feel any tingle in his hooves indicating nearby magic. Or at least he thought he didn't. What if it was concealed though?

Gloom and Crimson weren't concerned about that, they were already flitting like shadows to the far corner, somehow their armour failing to give them away. Around the corner, the corridor ended at some stairs. 

'-these must lead down to the second floor-', Gloom thought, yet Prey knew they hadn't travelled far enough up here to have already reached the end to the third floor.

Not that it mattered. They knew the griffin had entered on the first floor, so that's where they needed to get to. At least Gloom and Crimson hadn't been stupid enough to fly down and try following the griffin in through the first floor entrance. The front door was certainly guarded or patrolled, and they would be caught.

The staircase they'd found spiralled down and around. It made it impossible to see what was waiting past the curve. They all listened intently. 

Prey heard nothing, just the shallow breathing of three people desperate not to get caught.

"Go." Gloom whispered.

Treading down the stairs, they did lead to the second floor, but there the steps ended. They would need to find another stair case if they wanted to keep descending. The corridor now split in front of them, left and right, and shadowed indents showed where more corridors either joined or branched off each split.

"This isn't the same work shop floor plan as before." Crimson observed.

"No, these look like offices. Or specialised work rooms perhaps." Gloom whispered.

"This floor doesn't see much use. I can feel the dust in the corners, and the floor isn't worn smooth." Prey said, trying to figure out if he could hear anything coming from down the dark corridors.

The air felt dead, as if nothing regularly passed this way. 

Gloom wasted a second wondering why the griffin came to a disused building, before realising it was irrelevant.

"Which way will the stairs be?" Gloom asked, although he didn't think either of them would know any more than he did.
Neither of them did. That left no option but to search manually. Prey hated this nerve wracking tension, constantly watching every hoof step and every dead angle for an attack that never came. Every new turn was another potential battleground that had to be evaluated afresh.

Gloom took a deep breath that probably only Prey heard, and started them down the left hoof side corridor towards the nearest corner. Prey felt the floor boards bent alarmingly, like they wanted to creak, but weren't quite old enough for that just yet. This building felt like it'd aged badly. They passed cracks in the plaster walls, showing solid brick underneath. This was probably one of the Oak Quarter Lumber Yard's first properties, before their work had slowly spread out to the other, better equipped buildings, leaving this one empty and dark.

It was almost the perfect place for an ambush.

Prey stopped. He was at the back of their group. He had the worst night vision but the best hearing, making this the safest position to be in. Since he was having to face forwards to see where he was walking anyways, if someone tried to creep up on them from the rear, he'd be the one most likely to hear them. He hoped.

But now he looked back. There was no one behind them, and there wasn't enough shadows in this straight corridor to hide in. He listened intently.

The thought that he was at the back had come to him very suddenly just now. Why? Was his subconscious telling him something? 

Prey listened harder, trying to time his breathing.

Prey opened his eyes. Gloom and Crimson were already rounding the far corner, not looking back for him, trusting that he was following. Prey looked over his shoulder again, back towards the right hoof junction. Prey caught his breath. 

There was a faint light spilling out from the turn, flickering like lamp light, and growing brighter as its bearer approached the corner. Last of all, the faint sound of hooves finally reached Prey's ears.

The salt dealers weren't as foolish as they'd first appeared. The griffin did have patrolling sentries.

'Zoma'Grika.'

Prey dashed around the corner, "Gloom, Crimson!" He hissed as loudly as he dared.

Both of them jumped, spinning around with wings up ready for a fight. Prey didn't give them a chance to berate him for alarming them, "There's a patrol coming with a lantern, sounds like at least two people."

"Fight or hide?" Crimson asked, immediately summing up their options. They could of course try and hurry ahead, but that would be far worse than those other two choices. They'd be rushing head long into who knows what with enemies blocking their only retreat.

Gloom considered for barely a second.

"Hide," He decided unequivocally, "Find a door that's open, quickly!"

His urgency was clear, and completely unneeded. The next closest door was ahead of them, and they all ran for it.

"Locked, next one." Crimson hastily whispered, abandoning the handle after a tug.

"This one too." Prey said, letting go of the handle he'd jumped to catch and tip-toe running for the next door.

"Locked."

"Also locked."

Locked!"

"L-Open." Gloom whisper called, shoving the unlocked door open. Barely pausing to check that he dark room was unoccupied, they ran in. Gloom yanking the door shut behind them, only halting it at the last moment to prevent it from slamming.

The room was small and dark. Very dark. There were no windows or other doors. Prey had only briefly seen the room contained crates on one side, and a disused desk on the other before they'd rushed in here. Now he could see nothing.

They held their breath, backs against the wall, and listened.

Slowly, like the inevitable approach of the tide, the faint sound of hooves approached. Prey pointed to the bottom of the door. A ribbon of yellow light was growing brighter under the crack. Instinctively they all stepped back as the multiple sets of hooves trotted up...and past their door.

They all breathed again as the faint 'clopping' and worm of light slowly receded. 

'-that was a bit too close for comfort-', Gloom thought. They waited a full minute before Gloom slowly cracked the door back open. Prey picked up from the Sargent's mind that he couldn't see which turn the patrol had taken, just that they were gone.

"It's clear. Let's hurry. We don't know when or if another patrol is coming. If that was a patrol at all, and not just bad luck." Gloom whispered.

"We've no idea where the griffin is by now. He might be hidden in another illusion." Prey said.

"Then we'll just have to look harder." Gloom said grimly, opening the door further.

"Sir, do you think this is important?" Crimson asked in a low voice behind them. As the door had swung open, it had let in the dull light from the corridor to sweep over the closest crates and boxes. It wasn't enough for Prey to see anything by, but apparently it was enough for at least something to grab Crimson's attention.

Prey wanted them to leave as soon as possible, right now in fact. Gloom gave the open door an unsure look, and then went back to see what Crimson was talking about.

"What is it? That's not-" 

Prey heard Gloom sharply suck in his breath through his fangs.

Prey looked, or tried to look. Crimson had the cover of a crate propped open, and Gloom had brought his face down close to make sure of what he was seeing in the near dark. Prey anxiously glanced to the open door again, not wanting to put his back to the corridor, but also needing to see what they were looking at.

"What's in the box?" He whispered.

Crimson pushed aside shredded cardboard packaging and plucked at something with a wing pinion. Prey heard the faint 'twang' of something taut being plucked. 

Gloom reached in and carefully hooked out a curved 'T' shaped object, untangling it from a clump of carefully packed, '-crossbows-'

"Horseapples." 

"There's a load of them in here sir. Crossbows. And other weapons. And, what's in this side?"

Prey propped his fore hooves up on the crates edge so he could see.

Inside the crate was split into two. The larger half was filled with tightly packed objects, rolled in cloth. Prey caught the dull glint of what might have been a dagger's hilt, or an arrow head. But Crimson was referring to the smaller compartment, a box stored within the bigger box. The pegasus had flipped this second lid open to find stacks of what looked like small metal lock boxes, minus the lock. Instead, a simple catch was all that secured them shut.

Gloom was still looking at the weapons, mind churning over what horrible possibilities of what this could mean. Crimson pulled out one of the small metal cases without Prey having to prompt him, balancing it on the crates edge and flicking open the catch.

With a rustle of paper, a small sealed bag was dislodged and fell out and landed with a 'plop'. Prey's first reaction was that anything stored in a metal case was likely to either be toxic or dangerous, but the usage of paper bags disproved that worry.

Prey poked at the paper bag. It was probably brown paper, he couldn't quite tell in the dark, but it certainly wasn't white. He gripped it and ripped the corner off, already knowing what would be revealed.

"Salt." Prey said simply, as a small trickle of ghostly white grains drifted out. This was far more finely ground than what they'd just seen being made.

'-a crate full of weapons and salt, all packed up and ready to go-', Gloom thought. He looked at the other crates stacked in the small room. "What do you thing the chances are those hold dried daisies?"

"We should leave." Prey muttered, but he was also looking at the other stacked crates in the deep shadows, mind working.

"We need to check." Gloom said, putting the crossbow down and going over, Crimson moving to help. Prey didn't need to look inside to know those crates would hold the exact same as the first. He had a hunch what they were for, and where they were supposed to be going too.

'They look recently packed. That likely means they'll be being sent out soon. These boxes all look standard, meaning they're going to be transported by a legal freight company. So where would I leave a list with shipping documents in this room?'

Prey turned in the opposite direction from Gloom and Crimson, looking to the desk.

What looked like a an old abandoned clipboard full of papers turned out not be so old or abandoned. The pages weren't aged enough when he touched then, and held no dust. It wasn't a trigger for a magical trap either, he could tell, so he felt safe in lifting up the top page. However he couldn't read anything in the darkness, even when he angled it into the faint light.

Behind him, Prey heard a quiet word of exclamation, and knew that Gloom had confirmed what he'd already known. '-this crate too. All these crates must be filled with the exact same-'

"But for what purpose? It's almost like a basic start up kit... To infect Canterlot with more of those smuggler dens!" Gloom seethed in realization.

"Like the cellar?" Crimson asked.

"Like the cellar." Gloom confirmed.

"I don't think so," Prey said. He held the top set of papers out to Gloom, "Could you read this?"

Gloom sat on his haunches so he could use both his wing claws and  fore hooves to angle the pages up to the dim light, squinting.

"It's a list of numbers, wait, those are freight numbers. The shipment dates are set for two days time. Destinations to..." Gloom turned the page and tilted it to catch the light as best he could.

"All the other major Equestrian cities, right?" Prey asked.

Gloom went quiet for a long second, "Horseapples."

Crimson read aloud over Gloom's shoulder, almost like he was compelled to do so, "Manehatton, Vanhoover, Trottingham, Trottingham again, Cloudsdale, Appleton, Bridleham, Detrot times two."

"It's not a set up kit for more drug dens. It's an expansion plan for the rest of Equestria." Prey said with faux cheerfulness.

The smiling mask he worse slipped as he heard a noise. A noise coming from the open door behind them. A unicorn stood there, his horn clear and just beginning to light up, orange eyes widening with surprise. He carried no lamp, which was how he'd snuck up on them.

Prey saw the crossbow the stallion carried on his back, but that wasn't what the unicorn was reaching for.

"The door!" Prey squeaked, but it was too late. 

The last Prey saw was a flash of wide orange eyes as the unicorn grabbed the handle and slammed the door shut.

Before anyone could reach the door, Prey heard the unmistakable sound of the dead bolt being thrown across. Hooves pounded away down the corridor to raise the alarm. 

"Harp! Harp! Call the boss, intruders!"

The shape of Crimson skidded to a stop helplessly in front of the door, half a second too late. Prey couldn't see Gloom or Crimson's expressions in the dark, but their faces must have matched his own in the sudden silence.

They were locked in.


​---I---