//------------------------------//
// 34.2 Flames of a Feather fall Together 
// Story: Prey and a Lamb 
// by Lambs Prey 
//------------------------------//




They stared at the locked door. Only the sliver of lighter darkness under the jam showed where it even stood. It looked like hopelessness.

They were locked in.

They were trapped. In only a few minutes, the griffin's salt workers would return, all armed, ready to silence their Night Guard captives. They would be bringing back unicorns too.

Prey's legs started to shake, acidic fear building in his gut, rising up his throat and feeling like it was going to overflow. 'Why why why? I knew I should've stayed to watch the door!'

"Look for another exit!" Gloom ordered, all need for quiet and stealth now gone, "There's got to be another way out of here."

Gloom's loud voice made Prey jump, reminding him that he was not trapped in here by himself. He may as well have been. Gloom's order was useless. Prey knew there was no other door, they'd all seen that on entering. And now he couldn't see anything.

The sound of Gloom and Crimson bumping about in the office as they tried to find an exit sounded in his ears. Prey didn't move, remaining where he stood frozen in the dark. He heard one of them trying to buck door, then the walls, but the dull *thump* told him solid brick lay behind the cracked plaster.

"I'm trying the ceiling." Crimson called, and there was the sound of feathers rapidly beating against air. 

'It'll be no good either.' Prey already knew. His breath was coming in quick, short little gasps.

Sounds from above, Crimson was knocking against the ceiling, more *thumps* coming as the pegasus tried to punch through it. But it was at the wrong angle, and trying to break their way up would never work.

Above them lay the floor of the third story, built to support heavy stone blocks and timber. It wasn't going to be broken, at least not without tools. 

They'd have a better chance of trying to dig through the floor down onto the first floor. 'Not enough time. The sentry would have returned with the rest of backup long before we dug through. And we don't any tools.'

Prey was helpless. His runic magic was useless to him here. That had always been the way of it. Whenever his runes would've been invaluable, he never had the time to use them.

A unicorn could've lit up their horn and melted the door's hinges. Prey could do the exact same thing, provided you needed the hinges melted in an hour's time, and not right-now-escaping-this-instant, because that's how long it would take to make the runic array.

Gloom was trying to kick the door down, but that wasn't working either. 

'-why couldn't the architects have been shoddy?-', Prey heard Gloom frantically thinking. Prey felt like giving in to panic. He needed to find someway out of here, and he needed that way out two minutes ago. 

'Stay calm, breathe, think clearly. I've been trapped before.'

"It's no good sir," Crimson had finally given up bashing on the ceiling, "But we can barricade the door." He suggested, landing loudly somewhere to Prey's right.

"The other Night Guards!" Prey shouted out his realization in a voice gone high pitched, "We just have to hold out until they can come to save us." 

It wasn't much of a realization, more of an unlikely possibility. However it was only those unlikely possibilities that got you out of these sorts of circumstances. Because if you gave up, you were already dead.

The problem was that the word; 'unlikely'.

"Help me move the crates. Push them against the door." Gloom ordered.

"You two can use the crossbows too! They were strung, weren't they? And there's bolts in there."

"There are, but it's too dark Prey-"

"You can still cock them by feel and load the arrows, can't you?" Prey did not have the strength to draw a crossbow himself, but they could.

"Alright, good idea. Barricade the door first. Crimson are you ready? Push." Gloom called into the dark. Prey head heavy crates scraping against the floor, and that last faint worm of light coming from under the door vanished.

While Gloom and Crimson shoved and heaved crates towards the door, working by touch alone, Prey tried to force his mind to come up with anything else that could help them in the few moments they had. One of those emergency alarm crystals like the Solar Guard had used would've been a life saver right now. Instead, Gloom had rushed them into this situation unprepared. It was very easy to blame Gloom right now.

And then unexpectedly, there was a splash of faint light again as one of the crates was dragged away. The illumination, despite being so weak, immediately drew three sets of eyes as they all stopped.

"There's a hole-"
"In the wall-"
"Move that crate-"
"Push it-"
"Out of the way."

All of them spoke at once, converging on the hole.

It was just a small hole, with uneven brick edges, in through which the lighter shade of darkness from the corridor spilled. Gloom and Crimson wasted no time in bracing their backs against the last crate and shoving it aside with a rumbling scrape to fully uncover the hole.

Prey practically heard Gloom and Crimson's hearts fall into their hooves at the sight. 

"It's tiny." Gloom muttered in despair. He kicked at the exposed bricks, but they didn't even shake, "We'll never be able to widen it far enough to fit through."

"Us, no. But Prey might." Crimson said.

Nobody had to tell Prey twice, he was already crouched in front of the small hole, trying to see if he could fit his head in. 

Gloom's eyes were eyes riveted to Prey's attempt. '-if Prey can get through...-'

"You can go around the side and unlock the door." Gloom finished his own idea.

"That's the plan." Prey grunted. Hard, blunt brick pressed against Prey's cheek as he tried to get his shoulder in behind his head, dust falling into his face. Prey shoved with his back legs, and then jerked back with watering eyes as he bashed his head.

"Is it too tight? Can you make it?" Gloom asked urgently.

"Maybe." Prey managed to coughed, already back to squeezing his way through, heedless of the scrapes he was accumulating. This was a much tighter space than the front gate. But he had to make it through.

"Come back, we'll try to kick some bricks free." Crimson ordered. Prey didn't listen. There wasn't time.

The wall was three bricks thick, a pipe or vent had probably run through here before it was removed. The hole was too even for anything else but deliberate placement, but it'd still been messily cut. Prey accidentally crushed his ear against the uneven side of the hole, and it immediately began to throb. Prey just pushed harder, ignoring the strands of wool which got torn out as he tried to work his way past a jutting brick end.

The problem wasn't his head, he could fit that. It was his shoulder blades. 'This Zoma'Grika brick! If only it were an inch shorter.' It was just this one jutting piece, blocking him from escaping. The hard edge dug into his back as he pushed .

'Am I going to dislocate my shoulder?' Prey thought in panic. He shoved harder anyway. Gloom and Crimson were trying to say something, muffled. He ignored them, he could see freedom, just out of his reach.

A horrible thought occurred to Prey just then about what would happen if he got stuck. 

He imagined the salt dealers breaking in and finding him trapped like this. They could cut him in two, leaving the other half stuck inside the wall, dribbling blood. He wouldn't even be able to see them coming with the knife to hack him apart from behind. He'd only be able to hang here and blindly scream. Prey struggled harder, scraping his skin raw as he shoved. Blood was pounding in his head. It felt like his upper body was caught in a vice.

Something gave. Perhaps it was his ribs, or maybe he'd finally squirmed past the narrowest point, but his head and front legs popped free. Gloom gave a muffled exclamation through the wall, probably encouragement, Prey wasn't sure.

Prey wriggled and twisted onto his back, so he could better drag himself through from this side.

Prey heard something, and he went as still as a statue, listening.

'Zoma'Grika.' Prey cursed again, and resumed struggling even more furiously. Sharp edges dug into his back, grating painfully on the whip scars. Teeth gritted, Prey pushed harder.

What he'd heard was hooves approaching, still a ways off, but enough of them that the noise still carried to his ears. They were galloping from the next corridor up, where the locked door was set.

'I've got to move.' Prey thought, redoubling his efforts, headless of the blood and wool he left behind.

'Come. On!' Prey strained, 'I did not. Escape Dreverton. Just. For. This!' 

With no warning, Prey's hindquarters somehow scrapped past the squeeze point and he fell out, banging the back of his head on the floor. He took a deep lungful of air and started coughing.

"Prey," Gloom hissed through the hole, only his yellow slit eyes visible, "Quick, go round and open the door."

Prey jerked his head up, staring up the corridor towards the corner where the rapidly approaching noise was coming from.

"We've moved the crates. Go open the door." Gloom repeated, urgent.

Prey scrambled to his hooves, scraps and bruises forgotten. He look at the corner, and then he looked back down the opposite corridor, towards relative safety.

Gloom had also heard the approaching ponies. Prey would've known it from the way Gloom's eyes widened even if he couldn't read his thoughts; '-ponyfeathers-'

"Prey go open the door."

'I don't owe you anything.' Prey thought, but he was still already running for the corner and locked door, picking up speed. The door was bolted, he'd heard the bolt go across. But what if it'd been locked with a key too? He might've missed the sound of it turning in the lock. What would he do then?

It only took five seconds for Prey to reach the corner. He skidded round it, legs splayed for purchase. 

Time seemed to slow as Prey took in a number of facts. 

At the other end of the corridor, the first ponies the sentry had called were rounding the corner, same as him down this end. The difference was there were more of them, and they had crossbows and knives. He saw two unicorns, levitating wildly swinging lanterns. No griffin.

This simple equation presented itself in Prey's head. 

The distance between the side corridor he'd just emerged from and the charging ponies side corridor was about twenty yards. The locked office door was nearer to his end of the corridor, about five yards from Prey. He could get to it in five seconds.

The salt dealers had fifteen yards to reach the same door. They couldn't fire their crossbows while running, but they were also moving a lot faster than him. They would reach the office door in about ten seconds.

If Prey ran to the door, he would have less than five seconds to pull the bolt back before he had to turn and run away again, so say four seconds.

Four seconds to pull one bolt back. He could do that. Easy. If the door was only locked by a bolt. But he had no way of knowing if that was the case. Didn't matter, he would still only have four seconds. It was simple math.

Five seconds there, tour to undo the bolt, and a one second head start in running away.

He could make that.

Prey pivoted, back hooves leaving the ground he turned so sharply, and raced back down the corridor he'd just exited, ribbon streaming out behind him.

He ran away.

It was simple math. It would now take the ponies fifteen seconds to reach this side corridor. Fifteen seconds in which he could disappear. That's assuming they didn't just stop completely to kill Gloom and Crimson first.

Prey didn't slow as he passed the hole in the bricks. He didn't see if Gloom was still crouched on the other side. He didn't know if even now they were both pulling at the door, waiting for it to open and thinking it would be him.

It was simple math. 'I can't help you two.'

Prey took the fork in the corridor and fled deeper into the buildings darkened interior, looking for a safe place to hide.


---<>---

A tiger does not change its stripes. 

---<>---


Prey closed his eyes and listened. He was situated in a crawl space between beams of rough cut lumber, each more than two hoof square. They'd been poorly stacked, allowing Prey to find this dark gap amidst them.

He was listening for pursuit.

No one had chased him when he'd fled down the corridor, leaving Gloom and Crimson behind. He wondered if they were both dead yet. Could they possibly still be alive? Maybe they'd somehow loaded the crossbows and shot their way out, or re-barricaded the door in time?

No. He would only be deluding himself if he thought that way.

They were almost certainly dead. The griffin would not show mercy, and neither would the unicorns under his command. Gloom and Crimson might be able to fight off Earth ponies and pegasi, but not unicorns.

'Dead. Two more deaths. Add it to the pile of guilt.'

But he'd survived. He was still alive, that was all that mattered. Because even if he'd managed to unbolt the door, Gloom and Crimson would've only had a moment to prepare before the salt dealers reached them. Against superior numbers, crossbows, and unicorns, what could they have done which would've changed the inevitable outcome? Nothing. Prey wasn't going to risk his life for one extra second.

'I ran away.'

And now he was on his own. Good. That was good. It would be easier to avoid discovery. Prey knew how to survive on his own. It was what he'd done in the forest. 

This wasn't the Deeper Green though.

Prey could survive in the wilds, he knew how to move silently through brush and leave no tracks. He was aware what signs to look out for and which plants were dangerous. But this was different. This was an urban environment where he only had limited experience. 

Prey opened his eyes, blinking in the darkness. He'd heard nothing. Yet. So, how to proceed from here?

Once, he would have given almost anything for this opportunity. But that was before Luna had locked these golden tracers around his legs. There was no point in escaping now. Luna would find him, and when she did, she would want an explanation for why Gloom and Crimson were dead.

'What am I going to do?' Prey thought, hugging himself. How was he going to explain this? Instead of dying now to the griffin, he was going to die later to the moon alicorn. That may even be the worse fate.

'No, enough panicking and fear.' Prey berated himself. He was scared, exhausted, and hurt, but none of that helped. 'Prioritise. Work out what I need to survive, and go from there.'

Alright. Step one, survive the night. If he could make it through till morning, he would probably be safe. Nighthawk and the Night Guard would definitely have come by then.

Step two, survive Luna's displeasure at losing his squad. To do that, he would need something else to pacify her with. Something to prove he didn't just run away like a coward, and had actually made an effort. If not, he would be just as dead as if one of the unicorns found him. He couldn't run. The tracer bands would track him. He had no way of tricking or removing them. They were made from alicorn magic. 

Prey squeezed his eyes shut, biting his tongue. He felt awful and vile. 'So, that means the question is, what will Luna accept as sufficient evidence of my continued loyalty?'

Slaying the griffin? Rejoining with the Night Guard at the gate when they arrived and then acting as a guide back into the lumber yard? Discovering the names and faces of as many of the salt workers as he could? Prey didn't have a clue what would satisfy Luna.

He would just have to see what he could find before morning came. Either way, he would not prove himself hiding here. He would have to leave.

'Gloom and Crimson are certainly dead.'

Prey did not want to leave the comforting blackness of his hidey-hole. He didn't know where any of the salt dealers had gone, or what they would do now they'd been alerted. They might be sweeping the rooms for more Night Guards even now. Prey was scared, but then, when was he ever not?

Would Luna really dispose of him if she suspected him?

'Yes. Yes she would. She's Celestia's sister. Anything she can't trust or control is dangerous.'

Prey sat for a long minute in the quiet of his hiding place, gathering his courage and forcing thoughts of Gloom and Crimson from his head.

'I really hate the hunt.' He thought.


---


Prey pressed himself back into the shadows behind the work bench. At the other end of the isle, two ponies, an Earth pony and a unicorn, hurriedly pushed a loaded cart out into the corridor. The unicorn had a crossbow, and both of them were in a rush.

"Hurry up."

"Then stop hitting the walls idiot."

"You're the one steering this-"

"Will you just shut up and move?"

"Steer straighter then."

"I said shut up and move!"

Prey listened to them clatter off down the corridor, cart wheels squealing. They took the pool of light with them. Prey waited until he was sure they'd gone before looking around the corner again.

Those two weren't the first salt dealers Prey'd heard entering and leaving the building, but they were the first he'd nearly run into, and his heart was still pounding. 

The ISND had really kicked over the ants nest. Now the ants were swarming as they tried to get everything out. It looked like the griffin was trying to get as much of his salt production moved tonight as he could.

And the griffin was not happy about it either, if the fearful expressions of the two ponies who'd just left was anything to go by.

Prey checked no one else was coming, and then hurried to the door, hugging the shadows. They'd left it open. Outside, the night time lumber yard sat dark and silent. Prey peeked through the crack, ready to jerk back. Across the open dirt, the far building's door was still swinging shut. 

Prey took a deep breath and slipped out the door, feeling horribly exposed. He fervently wished he'd been born with black wool, not white, to blend into the night.

By Prey's estimation, the griffin probably thought he had some time. At least a few hours, or possibly all the way until morning before the bulk of the Night Guard realised Gloom and Crimson weren't returning and arrived in force.

The griffin knew he hadn't been followed flying back from silencing Oyster Pinion. After all, hadn't he shot down the only pursuit which'd managed to get into the air? That meant the Night Guards who'd found this place did so by chance. If not, surely the Night Guard would've swarmed the whole Oak Quarter Lumber Yard by now? While that still meant his salt operation was compromised and he needed to leave again, he had a little time.

However, Prey guessed the griffin didn't know about the other three thestrals somewhere out there searching in the lumber yard. Although that didn't mean they would be of any help to Prey. There was still the matter of the illusionary veil hiding the salt dealers activities, so it was likely the Night Guards would simply pass on by.

Prey couldn't confirm any of his hypothesis with one hundred percent certainty, but it seemed the most reasonable assumption from what he'd observed so far. He needed to scout and find out more about what was happening. Find a position from which he could observe what was going on.

Prey craned his head back, looking up at the blacked out building. It was a long way up.


---


"Grab everything. I want it all shifted, no evidence. And youz'!" 

The addressed pony flinched. 

"Stop standing there uselessly. You go guard the front door, yez'? Who know'z' what other bat'z' are snooping around outside?" The griffin shouted. He was no longer smiling, although his eyes were still hard and bright.

'I told Gloom not to go into the lumber yard. I told him what would happen. I warned him and Crimson both. But they wouldn't listen. It's not my fault.'

Prey watched as below him, the griffin continued giving out orders and making threats. Prey had seen at least a dozen new ponies down there already, raising his previous estimate. Not one of them noticed Prey up here, just a small bundle of wool creeping along the walkway. His goal was on the other side of the work room, but there was still the issue of getting down to the ground floor once he got there.

'Don't look up, don't look up, don't look up.' Prey silently chanted in the back of his head.

"You!" The griffin was shouting at another one of his workers below, whirling this way and that in a frenzy, lion tail thrashing and snapping out orders and questions.

"M-me boss?"

"Yez' you! Get Batton and Truffle from up stairz', go be look outz' on the roof. You see any bat poniez' out there, shoot them straight away, yez'?"

"You want me to kill somepony?" The stallion gaped.

The griffin rounded on him faster than the unicorn could react, grabbing two talonfuls of the stallions bushy mane and dragging him eye to eye. "Yez', shoot them, stick them, kill them. I want them dead, just like I shot Oyster Pinion tonight-"

Gasps of horror went up from all around the room. Evidently, Oyster Pinion had been a friend to many of them, or at least a work acquaintance.

"-Stop squawking like chickz' the lot of you! Oyster waz' talking to the Night Guardz'. A traitor! I don't like traitorz'. You iz' all my friendz', yez'? But if my friendz' won't follow my orderz'..." The griffin's bright gaze swept around the room, "...Then that meanz' he iz' no longer my friend. If you're not my friend, you iz' a traitor instead. Wouldn't you agree, yez'?"

No one dared to answer or meet the griffin's bright gaze. The griffin's grin grew wider, "See? There is no need for unpleasentnezz'. We are all friendz' here." 

The eagle lion gave the frozen stallion he was holding a friendly pat on the back as he released him, "You go get Batton and Truffle quickly now my friend, yez'?"

The unicorn nodded vigorously, "Yes, I'll go get them straight away Garrow, I'm your friend." He said backing away, eager to get out of the room. 

'So the griffin's name is Garrow.' Prey thought as the ponies below scattered to their tasks. And Garrow was crazy too. He'd grabbed that unicorn, completely unafraid of any retaliation. All of his workers probably knew he was crazy as well, which was why they were too afraid to shoot him the moment he turned his back. Because they knew if they missed, they wouldn't get a second chance.

Or maybe they knew something Prey didn't. The griffin already had one illegal enchanted box, perhaps he had some other charm or dark magical artifact on him too? There was no way to tell.

'At least, with fewer ponies in the room it'll be easier to avoid detection,' Prey thought, steeling himself to begin the climb down, 'But it also becomes more unpredictable with ponies rushing in and out.'

He'd reached the intended corner of the balcony by now, furthest away from the activity far below him. But more importantly, this corner was where his way down began. Parked like a broken down wagon on the ground floor below, there was an old piece of crane machinery, half covered in thickly stitched tarp. The crane had been compacted up to preserve space, but it's folded arms still reached up nearly to the height of the second floor.

It was Prey's way down.

'Alright, step two without joining Gloom and Crimson.' Prey thought, licking his dry lips. He backed up to the balcony's edge and lay down on his belly, letting his back legs over the edge. The open drop below him made his stomach swoop dizzyingly. Prey shuffled further back until he was just hanging by his front hooves from the guard rail. 

Prey didn't weigh much, but nor was he strong. Supporting his own weight when he was already so tired and battered made his muscles quiver as he hung there. He didn't let himself look at the hard ground three stories below in case he froze up. If he froze up he would die.

'So far so good.' The back of Prey's wool itched. He couldn't see what was happening behind him as he began to swing himself back and forth, nor could he turn his head far enough around to see, no matter how desperately he wanted to.
Backwards, forwards, backwards and forwards, Prey built momentum. His grip felt horribly weak, like it might slip at any moment. Backwards-forwards.

On the next forward swing, Prey let go. 

Gravity immediately grabbed ahold and pulled him down, but the horizontal pipe running along the wall he'd been aiming for was that direction too. Prey's teeth clacked together as he landed. All the breath was driven out of him as he impacted the metal pipe hard, far harder than he'd intended. Prey scrabbled for a hold before gravity could realise what he'd done and drag him off. There was blood on his tongue.

Prey managed to haul himself atop the pipe, and crouched there breathing heavily. He wobbled, precariously balanced, but stabilised himself. The moment he was confident enough to look away, he glanced anxiously towards the frantic salt dealers all rushing in and out to check if anyone had noticed. He blinked. Garrow had disappeared. Prey hadn't seen when or where he'd gone.

No time to spend worrying about that. Prey resisted the urge to swallow and started to wobble along the pipe, balancing on top. This was one of those few instances where being a lamb runt was to his advantage. Prey's center of gravity was low, he was small enough to fit on the pipe, and his cloven hooves offered better stability than a pony's would have.

Still, he nearly fell off twice before he reached his destination, which was the point where the tarp shrouded crane arm was closest.

Gathering his strength, (and his courage), Prey first double checked the distance, then leapt.

The tarp deadened the sound of his landing, and because of the way the tarp was spread and the angled, Prey was now cut off from view from anyone on the ground floor, even if they did look up.

That meant Prey could take a moment to spit out a of saliva and blood onto the dusty tarp from where he'd bitten his tongue. He swallowed, trying to get rid of the horrible coppery tang. 

Prey began clambering down the far side of the crane, hooves finding tiny holds in the sloping tarp. In front, the salt dealers continued to hastily pack up their equipment. From what Prey pieced together, they intended to temporarily abandon the Oak Quarter Lumber Yard, and come back in the future once the Night Guard investigation died down.

There were things however which couldn't be rushed in their packing. The burners over which they'd been simmering the salt were still hot. Trying to pack them away would result in a fire, so they could only be left to the side until last.

Prey reached the ground safely and peeked through a hole. There was a pegasus, about ten paces away and out of Prey's perception range

"C'mon c'mon," The pegasus was muttering, scraping out a flat pan of hard baked salt crystals as fast he could, "Don't have time to deal with this manure." 

He didn't notice as Prey crept along behind low benches and circled around him, making his way towards the temporarily abandoned burners.

The burners worked off magically charged crystals placed in the bottom of the frame. Prey didn't know exactly how the crystals were made or charged up, but he was willing to bet it wasn't cheap. However the salt dealers could hardly use normal wood fires in here to boil off the excess chemicals and water. That would leave too much evidence come the morning, like ash and smoke stains. 

Prey cautiously raised his head above the table level, eyeing the closest burner. He looked around. The coast was clear. Undoing the silk ribbon from behind his ear, he wrapped it around his hoof and took out the slightly smoldering crystal from the bottom. The heat did not burn the silk.

Apprehensively checking he hadn't been spotted, Prey backed away until he was back behind the line of work benches again, before turning and and running off, carrying his new power source with him. And just in time too.

Prey heard, but wasn't in a position to see, someone rushing down the stairs in a panic.

"There's bat ponies out there, flying around and shrieking in the dark! They're trying to get Truffle and the others, up by the roof!"

Commotion and movement. Prey's legs didn't stop moving, but the rest of him did to listen. "Impossible. How did you get past then?" Prey recognized the voice. It was the unicorn who'd been powering that enchanted illusion box when the ISND had first entered above on the walkway.

"I wasn't out on the roof, I was just supposed to fetch-"

"Hey! Why didn't you help them?"

"I couldn't get near the door. You go help them, you're the pony with the crossbow!" The first pony shouted back.

"H-hey, let's not rush into things, we should go to tell Garrow first. And we don't know how many more bats there are out there."

"There were loads. All flying and screeching and swooping about with yellow eyes." First ponies shouted again. It seemed the three thestrals Gloom had sent to search the other half of the massive lumber yard had finally caught on to what was happening here.

More commotion, movement and shouting. Prey shrank down to wait it out. He was unable to determine which decision the salt dealers were taking, there were too many conflicting ideas being tossed around. Someone galloped off to look for Garrow. That was bad.

Prey didn't know what the thestrals were trying to achieve with their deliberate distraction up on the roof, but now they'd truly gone and tweaked the lions tail. 'Why're they acting now? What can they achieve? There's only three of them.'

They must be operating under bad information. If they really knew what was really going on here, they wouldn't have revealed themselves but flown off to get Captain Nighthawk as quickly as their wings could carry them.

Their sudden appearance had thrown the already deteriorating situation into chaos. Who knew what rash action the drug dealers would take now? Usually that would have been Prey's path of attack, shake everything up, but this situation was different. Right now, he was stuck in the middle of it while trying to find some scapegoat for Luna's inevitable wrath.

"What are you all standing around for you plucked chikenz'?!" Garrow's furious screech cut through the din, "We're under attack and you're flocking around like nestlingz'. Uselezz'!"

"Boss, w-what should we do then?" Someone was brave enough to ask. Stupid enough too.

Prey didn't know what the griffin did to the unfortunate, but he heard a shriek of pain. Prey had his own memories of the similar tactic Torment used to employ to scare everyone into behaving. Make one scream and the rest will do whatever it takes to not become that one.

"Stop wasting time. You three, and you lot, you and you too. All you unicornz', get crossbowz', get into two groupz', pull your tailz' out, and get up to the top floor." The griffin ordered.

"All pegasuz', you go out the door and round the back. Fly up nice and high, then dive down at them. Smash them into the roof if you can. If not, you drive them down the south side. Down the south side, yez'?"

"You unicornz', you flank them from the other stairz' and come up behind the batz'. Drive them towardz' the exit. All others follow me to the second floor windows on the south side. They will fly by trying to escape. Me and my friendz' will be waiting. Lotz' of easy shotz'."

From Garrow's words and his rudimentary knowledge of the building's layout, Prey was able to work out where the griffin meant. The three thestrals had gotten into the top floor, and had trapped the three sentry's Garrow had sent up there on the roof.

Garrow planned for the pegasi he'd sent up to stop the thestrals simply flying away, and the crossbow wielding unicorns would force the thestrals to dive down to building level to get out of their line of fire. Garrow was a griffin, and griffins were all natural predators. But Garrow was definitely a hunter. He didn't plan to chase his prey, he intended to drive it right into the exact spot he was waiting.

It was a simple plan, and Prey could see it working. 

'He's done this before.' Prey thought. In barely a minute the griffin had a plan to deal with the thestrals. What's more, he didn't hesitate even for a second.

Someone or possibly everyones face must have shown something, probably abject horror at the thought of killing another pony, because Garrow let out an angry screech that touched on some primal instinct that said 'Danger' and made everyone cower. "SKREEE! If'n I see any of you not up there, then you are a dead chicken, understand yez'?"

No one present, Prey included, doubted the griffin's threat.

Garrow was a murderer. He hadn't hesitated to shoot Oyster Pinion, one of his own people, to keep the pegasus from talking. In the last five days he'd killed five ponies, all of them his own subordinates. These thestrals who were getting in his way? They were going to die, just like what had happened to Gloom and Crimson.

Prey didn't have time to think about them two. 'I don't care. I'm the one that left them behind. I chose this.'

Those three thestral's were going to die. They probably thought they were helping, stopping the salt dealers from fleeing or something. They were only going to get themselves killed. At the range Garrow proposed, their armour would do little against crossbow bolts. And even less against unicorn magic.

'But just maybe, maybe they are helping. How can I turn this into something that works in my favour?' Prey thought fast. He'd been making a runic array behind this big pile of lumber, planning to use the crystal he'd pilfered as a power source to make something.

"Move move! Get out there you flying chickenz'." Garrow was cawing, giving out more orders.

Prey had an idea. He didn't like the idea. It made his stomach quiver.

But the only reason he hadn't been discovered yet was because he was hiding inside one of the two main buildings. It hadn't yet occurred to the salt dealers there might be someone in here under their very noes. If he was lucky, it wouldn't occur to them either.

However if he left this room...

Prey put that concern aside and forced another rune off his shaking hoof into existence, trying to speed the process up. He had to hurry, the ponies were already running out to complete Garrow's orders. He needed to follow behind them, at least until they passed his destination. Often the safest place in the forest from the cockatrice was where it'd just been.

'Just one more rune.' Prey thought, a splitting headache pushing away behind his eyes. He gritted his teeth, the cloying tang of blood still polluting his mouth.

'Come on, last one.' The final rune took shape, hammered into existence by his will and dropped into place, closing the array and completing it. This array would be his distraction. Immediately after, the headache began to fade as he finished.
Prey shoved the half charged crystal into the correct spot on the array and turned to go, but his vision grayed out for a second and he almost fell.

'Whoah.' Prey staggered. He squeezed his eyes shut until it didn't feel like everything was spinning. Creating those runes had taken more out of him than he'd estimated. 'I shouldn't be this debilitated already.' Prey thought. This didn't bode well. But he didn't have time to waste, he had to get after the salt dealers.

Prey pinched himself, hard, focusing on the stinging. It wasn't to wake himself up, no, the pain was to help him gather the courage to move. Like climbing a cliff face, if you stop moving, it's hard to start again. And to freeze up was to die. Prey made his way via shadows and under benches to the side exit and hurried out.


---


Prey pulled back, ducking into the shadows. Garrow and the crossbow wielding unicorns he'd selected were ahead, just at the bottom of the stairs. Why'd they stopped? They should be proceeding up the stairs to the ambush point.

Prey hadn't been planning to catch up with the crazy griffin's entourage. What where they doing here? They were obviously waiting on the griffin's orders, but what was the change in the plan? Prey had been very fortunate to be in a position to overhear Garrow's plan the first time around, this time he had not been so lucky and had obviously missed it.

And he couldn't get past them as long as they were waiting here, blocking the corridor.

Prey couldn't get a clear view, but it looked like Garrow was rummaging in a chest, attaching things to a belt he had slung across his chest. 'More magical items or weapons.' Prey guessed. He hoped it was only the second.

The griffin finished up a second later, swishing a large cloak out of the chest and over his shoulder.

The griffin straightened and looked around, until he spied the two earth ponies hurrying down the corridor towards them, sweating and pushing a cart. On it, a second enchanted box rode. Having seen the first, it was impossible to mistake this second one for anything else.

"Ah, good, good." Garrow said as they pushed the cart up. He bent to check something on the box, Prey couldn't see what. 

"Ah, iz' good for a little while yet. Unicorn magic, wonderful iz' it not? Now we are ready to go. You two," He pointed at the earth ponies, who flinched. 

"You carry it up. Make no noise. If you drop my box, I'll pluck out you eye'z and pack salt in the holez'. You can keep the salt. Fair, yez'?" Garrow threatened, grinning. The Earth ponies looked sick.

"You," Garrow spun on one of the unicorns in a flash of feathers and cloak, "You feed your magic to power my box, yez'?"

"Yesyes, of course boss, yes." The unicorn said, staring cross eyed at the sharp griffin talon half a centimeter from his nose.

"Good, good." Garrow grinned, eyes dancing, "And you other unicornz' all. When the batz' fly over, don't any of you shoot till I sayz'. Don't mizz' your shotz', yez'?"

All of the ponies looked like they wanted to do anything else but what the griffin was ordering, but none were dumb enough to rebel.

"Good good, now keep up, yez'?" The griffin lead the way, the rest of the ponies tip-hoofing after him. They were scared, unsure, afraid of following but afraid not to. 'Not blooded.'

Prey waited as long as he dared after the last tail disappeared, before dashing across the junction. He took the left turn, where as the griffin and unwilling followers had gone right, towards the south side windows to set the ambush.

Three minutes. That was how long ago it was that pony had rushed in shouting about dozens of bat ponies attacking the sentry's up on the roof. Three minutes was all it took for the griffin to execute his simple yet effective plan to drive the night fliers out of the safety of the dark and into a killing zone.

It was quite similar to a plan Prey might've come up with. The three thestrals were going to die. They didn't have any idea about the trap they were about to fly right into.

Three more deaths tonight. Prey remembered how the last thestral over the wall had waved back at them. 

'It's not my fault. If you get killed, there's no one to blame but yourself.'

Prey needed to get outside. He ran along in the dark, retracing his steps backwards until he spotted a familiar door. His destination was the metal walkway between this building and the next, the same one he'd trodden with Gloom and Crimson. Crimson had broken the lock, so he knew the door would be open. And now Crimson was dead. 

'Not my fault. It was simple math.' Prey repeated to himself.

Through the broken, half open door, the walkway stretched out in the night, silent and uninviting. Prey needed to get across without being spotted. Those pegasi Garrow had sent out, along with the flanking squad of unicorns to drive the thestrals would be arriving up there any second.

'When they start the attack, then will be my chance.' Prey thought, trying to peer up through the crack into the night sky. He would wait until they were distracted killing the three thestrals., then he would take the opportunity to slip across. No one would notice him then.

Prey knew when the flanking maneuver began. 

Aggressive shouts and neighs sounded above in the dark, coming from ponies no doubt more scared than the thestrals they were trying to drive. The salt dealers Prey had seen weren't killers. However they were lead by a killer, and for that reason they might be terrified into committing murder, but they were not naturals. It showed in their cracked shouts. They were afraid. But they were armed and afraid.

Prey jumped through the broken door and dashed across the walkway, the shouts of the pagasi as they swooped down from above the buildings roof suddenly far louder and clearer.

Prey shoved the opposite door open and shut it behind him as fast as he could, mercifully leaving the growing sounds of approaching murder behind him.

Now inside the next building, Prey retraced his earlier path and ran to where he knew the stairs leading down lay, taking them two at a time in his haste. It was a minor miracle he reached the landing without falling in the near blackness, but he did. Prey was just about to take off to where he knew the second flight of stairs lay, when he hesitated.

The office where Gloom and Crimson had been trapped was the other way. The corridor was dark and still. Empty. Like the intangible feeling that had seeped out from the cellar.

He could perhaps go see if perhaps they were still barricaded in-? No, he knew what he would find. No light meant no ponies left guarding the door. No guards meant only one thing.

Prey didn't hesitate further, he took off down the other corridor. He needed to get back to that storeroom in which he'd hidden first time. He'd come full circle. Now he needed to retrace his steps. There were still salt dealers in here, trying to hastily pack up up their equipment. Not as many ponies as in Garrow's building, but one was more than enough.

'I only need one.'


---<>---


The pony was a watery blue Earth pony mare with a spiky yellow mane, or at least that's the shade it appearedd in the dark. Few of the salt dealers had been mares. Perhaps it was because she was an Earth pony trying to survive in Canterlot which had caused her to end up working for Garrow. Or perhaps it was something else entirely.

The reasons didn't matter. She was just rushing past the storeroom, a lantern's handle clamped in her mouth and a heavy looking box full of salt processing apparatus on her back, when she heard a cry.

"Help, please. Somepony." Came the weak call for help, pathetically hopeful. It came from out of the half open storeroom door.

For a moment the mare hesitated, but the call came again, sounding desperate, "Please don't leave me." It sounded like a small filly, hurt, alone, in pain.

The blue mare rushed to the door, shouldering it open. Her eyes cast about in the light thrown by her lantern, but she had to stop and spit out the handle to call out; "Hello? I'm here to help, where are you? Hello? Hello?"

"Please, help me. I don't care who you are, please..." Came the weak voice again, coming from between the heavily stacked isles of the storeroom, stuff packed right up to the shadowy rafters.

"Hold on, don't worry I'll help you. What's your name?" The mare soothed the filly's voice.

"G-Gossamer..."

"Where are you Gossamer? Can you tell me?"

"D-down here. It fell on my leg. It h-hurts."

"Don't worry Gossamer, I'm coming right now." The mare called, picking up the lantern in her teeth again and hurrying forwards. 

She wasn't thinking about what Garrow would say or do, '-I can't ever leave a foal trapped and alone-', She thought as she stepped over an upturned bucket.

Right as she did so, Prey activated the rune he'd placed on the rope and severed it. 

The rafters the mare had seen weren't actually extensions built out from the wall, they were only suspended from the ceiling struts to serve as extra pseudo-shelving.

The rope snapped. The end of one of the rafters, loaded with old timber off cuts, plummeted down, while the other end went up. The noose which had been hidden by the bucket whipped up, yanking the mare's hind legs out from under her. The mare's jaw impacted the floor on her way up, the lantern's handle flying from between her teeth and the glass breaking. The candle winked out. 

A groan escaped the mares lips, her thoughts showing her to be dazed as she swung on the rope. The box had tumbled from her back, spilling the paraphernalia on the floor as she slowly spun. 

'-what, how, happened? My teeth hurt, ow, what happened?-'

She shifted, looking up, or rather down. 

'-why's the floor up there out of reach? Why can't I reach?-', She thought, stretching out her front legs but coming just short as she continued to twist dizzyingly round and around.

It finally worked its way through her mental processes that, '-this was a trap-', At the exact same time the mares rotations were brought to a halt by someone behind her. Something with points lightly pressed into the back of her neck and something metal and glinting was brought up against the side of her throat. 

"Don't try and call for Garrow," A gurgly voice hissed into the mare's ear, "Or I might slip. We wouldn't want my little brother disturbing uz' now do we, yez'?"

The mare was not as slow on the uptake as she'd been to regain her senses and went rigid. 

'-oh my sweet Celestia butterscotch sugar please no!-'

The points in her back were claws she realised, and the thing under her chin was a knife, '-another mad slasher griffin!-'

'Good. She came to the right conclusions.' Prey thought. He was the one standing behind the mare, hidden in the dark. The points pressing into the back of her neck were actually just three nails Prey held in the cleft of his hoof, giving the impression of talons being lightly applied. The knife at her throat was just a rectangle of blunt metal, but since it was only visible out of the corner of the mare's periphery, it certainly looked like a knife. It wasn't even pointed.

It was just an act. Give a hint of danger and the mare's own mind did the rest.

Prey'd claimed to be Garrow's big murderous sister because he knew the immediate effect he would get. All of the workers here were terrified of their griffin boss. What better way to ensure immediate fear and respect than by claiming to be the psychopath's older sibling?

The only problem was the voice, which was why Prey was speaking in a hissing gurgle. It was the most menacing sound he could think to make that didn't also sound completely fake. He couldn't deepen his tone enough for a proper growl, which was why he'd had to claim to be a big sister.

Even with his best acting, his tone didn't sound very real or threatening. His throat and vocal cords were still and always would be a lamb's. And a lamb's voice didn't exactly do angry, everything either came out high pitched or childish.

However Prey was counting on the mare being too scared and convinced that if she said the wrong thing she would die to notice. Hopefully even if she did, it would only serve to cement even further in her mind that she'd been captured by someone insane.

"Good, good. Stay nice and quiet. You are going to answer some questionz' for me, yez'?"

The mare nodded frantically, the only thought running through her mind was that she didn't want to die.

"Good, good," Prey gave his best attempt at a coo, "First, where else has mine little brother started up more of hiz' salt drug ring?"

Prey didn't want to break into the mares mind, although that would've certainly provided him all the answers he wanted. Sorting through her memories would still take time, and he didn't plan on this interrogation being long. It was faster to ask her his questions and then read her thoughts as she thought of the answers.

Going into her mind would also mean leaving his body vulnerable, and besides which, he intended for his captive to be his proof to Luna. He didn't want the alicorn to notice the mare's mind had been tampered with, since he was sure Luna would have some way of detecting that. He needed her alive and well, and he wouldn't have risked absorbed her mind even if that wasn't the case.

"I don't know." The suspended pony whimpered.

Prey jabbed the nails in his hoof harder into her neck, "Liez'. Don't lie to me, yez'? I will know when you do. What other salt runz' does Garrow have?" Prey repeated.

"He, he doesn't tell us. A-all I know is that he's got another place f-for us to go n-now that the Guard have found us here." The mare stuttered. Her thoughts confirmed her answer. 

'-just told us to pack it all up. I don't know where-'

"Good, good. What iz' your name?"

"W-why do you want to know?" She asked, the blood rushing to her upside down head slowly making her whole face go red.

"I ask the questionz'. Your name, what iz' it? Something ponyish, so two wordz', a mare'z name."

As Prey spoke, the scared mare couldn't help but think of her own name, '-Sea Shores, after my grandmare-'

"Letz' see, you are blue, so a water name, yez'? After the sea side. Ah, I see I'm right." Prey exclaimed as she started, "Sea Shores you are called."

"H-how did you know?" Sea Shores gasped in fright before she could stop herself.

Prey completely ignored the question, he needed his own answered and quickly too. "Where are the escape routez' out of this building? I know my little brother mine does so love hiz' escape routez'."

'-fire escape, gate out the back, across the square-'. "There's the fire escape. You h-have to go out-"

"-Out the back, and round the side, yez'? The gate at the end of the lumber yard iz' your exit route. I see." Prey said, almost ending up coughing at the end what with maintaining the gurgling voice.

"How did-?"

"Shut up, yez'?" Prey interrupted cheerfully. Sea Shores' mouth snapped shut. 

'Right, I've got the route Garrow intends to escape from.' Prey thought. He had a prisoner, and a means to prove he'd done his best to Luna. What else could a member of the ISND be expected to ask in these circumstances?

"Which pony noblez' do you sell the salt too? Quickly now."

"I don't know. P-please, you've got to believe me." Sea Shores thoughts collaborated, so it was the truth.

"Where iz' little brother mine getting support?" Prey hissed.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Her face was continuing to grow redder as more blood kept rushing to her head, no doubt making it hard to think.

Prey let out the best angry noise he could, "Idiot. Who iz' helping him? Somepony powerful iz' lending him a claw."

"I, I, I don't know." Sea Shores answered, trembling. '-please don't kill me. Is she going to kill me? Oh Celestia help me-'

"Praying iz' no good. No one can help you now. Your only way out of this alive iz' to tell me the truth." Prey hiss gurgled. 

'-how did she know?! What's going on? What-?-'

"How many poniez' are in the lumber yard?"

"Uh, uh! Five. NO I meant thirty five!"

"Keep it quiet or I make you quiet for good, yez'?" Prey snapped, pressing the blunt piece of metal against her throat.

Apparently though, Sea Shores was at her breaking point, "No no no! Please, I'll be quiet, I'll be so quiet, I promise! I promise, don't hurt me please. I promise." She babbled, starting to struggle.

Prey almost lost his position keeping the mare's dangling form from spinning around on the rope. He couldn't have that or else she would see that it was just a lamb, not a murderous griffin holding her hostage.

"Quiet!" Prey hissed again, trying to steady both himself and Sea Shores form.

Just then, both of them heard the noise of someone hurrying down the corridor outside, the trundle and squeak of a cart wheels. Prey heard the hope soar in Sea Shores mind.

"Don't even think about it," Prey warned, pressing the piece of metal close again where she could feel it against her neck, "If you shout out, I'll cut your throat. Help iz' no use to a dead pony."

'-I can't die, I have to get back home, Tuppy needs me-', Sea Shores panicked. 

"Help!" She yelled, thrashing about, "Help! Help! Help Me!"

Prey could scarcely believe the mares stupidity. 

'What an idiot.' He thought in disgust. If he'd been holding a real knife, he would have cut open her jugular on sheer principle alone.

But he wasn't holding a knife, and her frantic thrashing about forced him to abandon holding her still. Throwing aside the useless piece of metal and nails, Prey jumped over the fallen timber off cuts and darted out of the line of sight as there was a call from the door.

"Who's in here? Who was shouting?"

"Me me! It's me Sea Shores, help me. Help!"

'Dammit.' Prey hared off between the packed shelves, mind racing. That was not how he'd intended for things to go. He couldn't have predicted the mare being such a suicidal fool. And now he'd lost both his prisoner and his excuse to Luna. 

"Get me down, quickly. Garrow's older sister's in here. She'll kill us all!"

"Garrow doesn't have a sister."

"Then it's some other mad griffin! Get me down-"

"What griffin? There was no griffin."

"Get me down! I'm not lying-"

"There was no griffin. You were caught by a sheep filly, I saw her."

Prey cursed silently. He'd been spotted before he managed to get away. Now they knew he was trapped in here with them.

"What?" Came Sea Shores disbelieving shout of outrage. Prey knew how quickly fear turned to anger. Terror for your life flew into rage as the tables flipped before the body and mind could keep up. "Let me down, I'm going to get that, that, that, graah!"

Prey didn't know who the pony was who'd come to help Sea Shores was, but he would have to proceed as if they were a unicorn. His heart raced, but it didn't do anything to speed his aching legs. But this was perhaps the one place where speed wouldn't matter.

The storeroom was packed, having served as a dumping ground for a lot of old parts and spare bits for years. Shelving ran everywhere laden with bundles of junk. Plenty of places to hide. But the unicorn might have some way of locating him magically.

'Damn it, why did she have to be a brave one?' 

Now he would have to fight. Prey didn't want to fight. He didn't want to die any more than Sea Shores had.

Prey skidded to a halt, almost over balancing as he came to a huge set of double metal doors set into the floor. If he'd run over the top, the echoes would have given him away. Piles of junk and shelves blocked him in on each side. Prey turned around to start back, but he saw a lantern light coming up the isles. He cursed again. The only way to go was forwards.

Stepping lightly, Prey started to hurry across the shutter doors, metal cold and thick under his hoof. More odds and ends had been scattered across the surface, showing it hadn't been opened in years. He glanced up. Above him, a hook dangled on a pulley in the gloom. It must have been used at some point in history to hoist things up from the lower floor into the storeroom.

Prey's eyes darted across the ceiling, tracking the pulley back down to where a disused looking box with levers sat. If that was there, then the controls for the metal doors must be there too, right?

Prey ran as fast and as silently as he could towards it. He jumped onto a barrel, then sprang off onto a stack of boxes, then over the ring of junk blocking off the junction box, almost catching his ear on a nail.

He reared back on his hind hooves, trying to find labels for the levers. If he could drop open the doors as the two ponies were crossing, then it would solve his problem. Failing that, it would still separate him from them across the gap.

'Come on come on, which one is it?'

"...find her. In here somewhere..."

"...brought in by the Night Guard...?"

Sea Shores and whoever her rescuer was were arguing. Prey didn't look away from examine the leavers. There weren't any labels. Just obscure pictures which he could barely make out in the dark. Prey's eyes flicked left, right, up, down, 'Where would I logically put the opening lever?'

Prey looked down, and found the other simple lever below the pulley crane's controls. Would it still even work? No choice but to try.

He waited unmoving, hoof braced on the lever. The light was getting closer. Prey listened, he had to time this just right.

"...foal even doing in here? We should..."

"...No. Do what the boss says. I don't want..."

And then the sound that Prey was waiting for. The dull 'Clomp-Clomp' of horseshoes on thick metal.

'Please work.' Prey thought, and threw his weight against the lever.

It did work. The metal doors swung open with a grinding of gears. Very. Slowly.

"Woah! Oh sugar. Get off the floor!" Came Sea Shores shout.

"Back up, back up!" The other neighed.

Apparently, the doors had apparently been designed with a delayed opening safety feature. Of course they had, this was a pony built factory. Prey abandoned the lever and prepared to hide. And then a number of unforeseen things happened.

The lever Prey pulled had evidently not just been connected to the opening mechanism in the floor. 

Unknown to them all, there had been a second set of sliding metal doors, this one set in the wall to the outside. The pulley crane Prey had seen was on an extending arm could be projected out this second set of doors to hoist up heavy things from outside, not just from the lower floor. The reason these doors had gone unnoticed was because the wall had been piled floor to ceiling, hiding them behind a second wall of assorted parts. All of which promptly poured out as the doors opened for what was probably the first time this decade.

It was like a rock slide. The chain effect of which also took out most of the closest shelves as it destabilized with a rending crash.

"Aaaahh-!" Sea Shores yell of fear was cut off under the din as the surrounding shelves promptly collapsed on top of her and whomever her companion was. 

Prey backed up to the wall as a slew of shelves and tools spilled over and, much like water would've done, took the path of least resistance and poured down the newly opened hole in the floor. Prey covered his ears as the deafening crashing noises went on and on, until finally everything settled. 

The noise had been tremendous, and when it abruptly finished so was the sudden silence. It was like for a moment everything had paused to bear witness.

But it was only for that one moment, and it didn't last. 

Everything started to happen again, all at once and all way too fast. Prey's eyes were locked onto one thing and one thing only, out through the newly open doors in the wall. His breath hitched in his throat and his legs seemed to have been frozen.

Some one, or rather somepony, was screaming. It was muffled under all the shelves that had fallen on top them. Male, not Sea Shores. There were no screams to indicate she'd survived. The light they'd carried was also gone. But there was another source of light. 

Out in the night, the other lumber yard building was illuminated in flickering orange light. Flames licked from the windows of the entire ground floor. Fire.

'No no no, how did it get this big? This wasn't what I was aiming for.' Prey thought, feeling the wind whip a wash of heat across his face.

Prey had thought he was prepared. He'd been the one to place the runic array after all. Starting a fire was part of the plan. But only as a distraction. The salt dealers were supposed to spend so much time trying to deal with the fire on top of everything else, that they'd forget about him and his one prisoner. Garrow had already proven he was not above sacrificing his underlings if they were inconvenient, so he wouldn't wait around to check if one of them didn't get out safely.

But Prey hadn't meant for the fire to grow this big. He was no fool. He knew how easily fire could spread, especially in someplace like a lumber yard.

But he'd accounted for that. The old beams he'd set the crystal on hadn't been near anything else flammable. Then how had it spread?

The fire was going to bring the Night Guard, the Royal Guard, the weather teams, the fire brigade, everybody.

"Fire." Prey repeated numbly. There was no smoke blowing this way, not yet anyway. But he hardly noticed. He was still fixated on the increasing blaze. Inside, he was back cowering under the bush, watching the flames rise in the night.

It was unfortunate that Prey also failed to notice the other thing until it was too late. 

Naturally, all the salt workers were panicking. They'd congregated outside, and the pegasi were in the air, trying to get someone out from the second floor of the burning building by the look of it. One unicorn who knew some sort of water spell was ineffectively trying to help.

And naturally, when the doors had open and everything had fallen out with enough noise to wake the dead, they'd all stopped in shock to look. Some of the pegasi were flying on level with the now open doors, and could look into the storeroom unimpeded.

Too late did Prey spot the hovering forms in the air, fresh from their ambush and killing of the three thestral Night Guards. And they'd spotted the lamb standing there at the edge of the lip. One of the dumbly hovering pegasi turned out to not be a pegasus but a griffin.

Garrow's bright eyes met Prey's, and it seemed to Prey that he saw the base need to kill him reflected there, even across the distance.

Prey didn't know how the griffin knew the fire was his fault, or how Garrow had somehow zeroed in on him, but Prey knew that Garrow knew. Prey saw it all in a moment.

The griffin yanked the crossbow off his back and brought it up. The bolt went above Prey's head somewhere, he didn't see exactly where. He was already running back into the heart of the demolished storeroom to find cover.

Prey leapt over a pile of splinters that had once been a crate and jumped off an overturned jumble of tools, slipping and sliding as he jumped and crawled over the collapsed shelves.

Prey only had two goals in his mind. 'Get away from the griffin without falling down the hole', and, 'Get away from the fire'. 

And it didn't matter if the fire was in the opposite building. It was the smoke that killed you.

Dust and splinters caught in his wool. Prey glanced back. The griffin along with three pegasi trailing him had just flown in through the open metal doors. 

"I want to be eating her kidneyz' before the night is old!" Garrow screeched, an angry, twisted, eager grin affixed to his beak.

Prey ran faster, heedless of the dangers of tripping or falling. That was secondary to the danger swooping in behind him with talons outstretched. Prey had to reach the door, now!

The door was ahead of him, jammed open by fallen detritus. His eye's were streaming as he panted for breath. With his head start, he was almost there. But the beat of wings was almost upon. Prey ran up a part fallen shelf like a ramp and leapt.

He balled himself up midair and sailed through. 

Prey rolled into the opposite wall in a mess of legs, not knowing up from down for a moment. The door frame wasn't wide enough, and the griffin and pegasi had to pull up short or break their wings.

"Let me through idiotz'!" Garrow cawed, beating his wings in the face of a pegasus who was in his way. Prey jumped to his hooves, or more accurately staggered, yelping as his weight came down on his leg. He didn't even know when in the last thirty seconds he'd hurt it.

Prey gave the open storeroom door one frightened glance before he started running again, racing down the corridor towards where he knew the stairs lay.

Behind him, Prey heard the sound of claws digging into floor boards as Garrow exited the storeroom at speed, and felt those bright eyes lock onto the back of his neck. He didn't dare look back in case he tripped. Garrow had already fired the crossbow he carried, and it would take him a second to take another one from the other pegasi and aim. Prey had about two seconds to get around the corner.

Prey heard a faint whistling noise, of something tumbling through the air. On instinct alone he jumped right, sacrificing his speed to dodge. A bolas whipped past where he'd been a breath before, skimmed off the floor and clattered into the wall in a tangle of weights and cord. It was the weapon of a hunter, made to snare escaping prey.

Prey was running again, it hadn't been consciously decided. But Garrow had already whipped out another bolas from off his belt, and reared up on his hind paws to throw it.

Throwing something for a griffin was a completely different exercise to a equine throwing something. A non-unicorn pony didn't have the right means to grip an object to give it any speed or accuracy. The better bet was to buck something at your intended target instead, but that was very difficult to get accurate.

Griffins had different appendages from equines. Their claws allowed them to grip objects and release them at the height of their swing. Their front legs gave them a greater range of motion, to rear up and swivel to put their whole lower bodies behind the throw.

All of this added up to Garrow's bolas spinning through the air directly on target and faster than Prey could dodge. 

Prey felt the cords impact his legs, the shaped weights cracked sharply against his shins. Prey's legs suddenly stopped running as they were supposed to as the bolas tripped him up.

Prey'd been going too fast to stop, so when his legs no longer came forwards as they were supposed to, his face went down instead. With a yelp, Prey barely managed to twist with the fall, meaning he only bruised his whole shoulder instead of face planting and breaking his muzzle.

'Come on come on!' Prey pulled frantically at the cords and weights tangled about his legs.

His head shot up, eyes wide as he picked out the 'click' over the rest of the noise of ponies neighing and wings flapping. 

From down the corridor, Garrow had wrenched a crossbow off one of the three pegasi, and was now taking careful aim at Prey.

Prey's world shrank to only include the crossbow and the dancing, grinning, eyes behind it. Prey didn't feel the tears immediately forming in his eyes. His injuries and exhaustion didn't exist. All that mattered was that he was about to die. Prey shouted something. Probably begging; "No please don't shoot me!"

His plea did not affect Garrow in the least. The griffin pulled up against the trigger. The crossbow jerked and fired.

Prey didn't dodge. He couldn't. But someone else yanked him to the side.

*Shwwwick-* Thunk*

The arrow embedded itself in the floor past where Prey had been. Garrow screeched in aggravation, "Interference!" 

Prey blinked, finally realising he'd just been saved. He looked up. Crimson glanced down at Prey, with his familiar blank expression and tufted ears. Then Crimson blinked, and now his yellow eyes were fixed on the griffin and his company.

"You saved my life." Prey stated dumbly. No one had ever done that. It didn't even occur to him that Crimson should be dead, and not standing here saving his life.

"Hurry and get free." Crimson ordered, never breaking eye contact with Garrow. The griffin tossed the empty crossbow he was holding aside in disgust and eyed Crimson right back. The three pegasi behind Garrow seemed frozen, no idea what they should be doing.

"You saved my life." Prey repeated, still blinking up at Crimson. Not once during his whole time in the Resistance had anyone ever protected him. 

'And I abandoned Crimson.'

"Get yourself free." Crimson repeated, more urgent, wings spread in a combative stance. Prey spotted splinters in his feathers.

Prey finally snapped himself from his shock at seeing Crimson alive and started kicking at the bolas tangling his legs. No time to ask how Crimson was still alive.

Garrow spat on the ground, "Bah. You only brought one and think to stop uz', yez'? You iz' a fool." He said, tossing off his cloak in a swirl and reaching for another bolas packed into a pouch on his belt.

A jarringly loud grinding noise travelled out from the open door behind Garrow. It was the sound of many panes of glass popping and the deep *Whump* of flames leaping up that made even the dust motes in the air seem to shiver. 

It was a sound that conveyed a danger far too close to them all for comfort.

Everyone heard it, and they couldn't all help but pause. They were instinctively waiting for the other horseshoe to drop even if they knew that it was the opposite factory building on fire, not theirs.

Garrow's eye's narrowed, and now there was a separate fire burning in his eyes, a fire kindled by anger and fresh resolve. 

"Change of planz' my friendz'." He growled. He turned and grabbed the pegasi and shoved them ahead of him, "You three deal with thiz' guard. I am getting the little sheep."

The pegasi were too scared of the griffin to refuse. So with wide eyed looks at each other, the lumber yard outside catching fire, Garrow behind them and the Night Guard in front of them, they found their courage from somewhere and with a yell to bolster themselves, charged. 

Crimson changed stance and braced himself.

Prey knew Crimson was skilled, but unarmed, three on one, in a straight fight? Crimson was going to lose. The Night Guard pegasus may be the one wearing the armour, but his three rapidly approaching opponents were the ones wielding the weapons, and all of them were driven by desperation.

'Why hasn't he run away?' Prey thought as he feverishly struggled to get the last of the bolas untangled from his leg. That's what Prey would've done. Flee, find a better position, a bottle neck, fight them one at a time. 

It occurred to Prey in a flash that Crimson wasn't running because Prey couldn't run. He was defending Prey.

'Why? Why is he trying to save me? Why did he save me?' Prey thought, even as he kicked off the last cord and leapt to his hooves. Right then the first attacking stallion arrived.

The pegasus came in swinging for all he was worth with his cudgel. Crimson neatly side stepped and caught the stallion across the face with a wing strike, almost knocking the cudgel from his jaws. Crimson went to follow up with another strike to the throat, but the other two attacking pegasi waded in.

One had another club, and the second a hooked hoof knife looped over his fore leg. Crimson threw some more quick, conservative blows, keeping the pegasi at bay, but he couldn't focus on either of them. The first stallion recovered from the blow and joined in, the three of them crowding Crimson, shouting and grunting.

Crimson couldn't commit to counterattacking one without exposing himself to the other two. He didn't have the means of dealing a decisive blow in retaliation without a weapon of his own. Prey saw the grim set of his jaw and knew that Crimson also knew the bad position he was in, and Garrow hadn't even joined the fight yet. Because the griffin was coming solely for Prey, just like he'd said.

The three pegasi forced Crimson back down the corridor as they continued swinging away, and he had no choice but to give ground. 

Garrow stalked forwards as his underlings dealt with Crimson, moving exactly like the predator he was, closing in on some cornered rabbit.

Prey felt the open space of the side corridor behind him, begging him to flee down it. But if he did that, he would be leaving Crimson behind to fend off the three pegasi by himself. Again. After Crimson had just saved his life.

'I didn't ask him to save my life.' 

Yet Crimson had done it. 

'This is crazy.' 

Prey should just run. 

'I can't help fight off three armed ponies.' 

Unless he tried to break their minds. Maybe he could do that. Run away from the griffin and into the fight. Get in amongst them and close enough to lay a hoof. The griffin wouldn't expect him to do that. Garrow still had the curled up bolas he'd pulled out clasped in his claw, just waiting for Prey to turn his back and run.

Prey could stay, throw in his lot with Crimson and take his chances fighting alongside the pegasus.

Prey turned and fled. Again.

He ran away again, leaving Crimson behind to fend for himself. There was a crow of satisfaction from Garrow as Prey broke and ran, just like the griffin had expected him to, and then the whistle of the bolas in flight behind him.

But Prey was a coward, so he knew what happened when you ran away from an armed enemy. He was already tossing what he'd grabbed up off the floor over his shoulder before he head the whistle.

The spinning bolas met the hastily tossed bolas by Prey, the one he'd just disentangled from his legs. The first one's momentum was killed as it hit the second and both skittered to the floor. Garrow's caw of triumph turned into one of anger.

Prey didn't look back, but he hard the sound of claws as Garrow sprang after him. 

"Prey!" Crimson shouted.

Shame burned his face, but Prey didn't look back. He could only look out for himself. 'I'm sorry Crimson. I don't want to die.' 

Prey fled, and left Crimson behind. Again. And the griffin chased him.

Garrow was fast. Much faster than Prey. It was obvious what the outcome would be if the chase continued for any length of time. But Prey could hardly stop and fight the griffin. Prey didn't want to die. He was exhausted, but the fear of having his guts torn out by those sharp claws lent him energy he hadn't know he possessed.

Prey skidded round the corner, raced down another length of corridor crowded with noticeboards, saw the flickering orange light through the windows, and reached the flight of stairs at the opposite end.

Prey's weak, pathetic, traitorous eyes began to cry at the sight of the rapidly approaching stairs. Stairs made for adults. He was so tired, he didn't think he could out run Garrow trying to ascend those stairs. 'Weak, pathetic, crybaby runt.' But he didn't want to die. He would have to climb them and climb them faster than the griffin. Garrow was right on his tail. At any second Prey expected to feel talons slash at his ankles.

Prey somehow leapt the first three stairs, and started bounding up them. His lungs sucked for air, his chest burned, his legs hurt, and fear chased him.

"Why run? Catch you in the end!" Garrow crowed behind him, shockingly close.

Prey reached the third floor before he was ready, his burning legs still expecting to push for the next step but finding no step and the ground flat instead. He almost fell, righted himself at the last second. 

He needed somewhere to hide, something to dodge around, some hole to slip down! He shouldn't have run away. He should've stayed with Crimson. He had no way out of the factory from up here. The griffin could fly. He could not. Coming up here was a mistake. He was going to get killed.

A door, half open, Prey felt his heart jump. He didn't know what lay inside it, and he didn't care. He urged his legs to make one last mad dash. They almost didn't obey, his traitorous runt body felt so weak and useless.

But somehow he still made it, yanking the door shut behind him as he shot inside, but that wouldn't help him. He had no way of locking or blocking it. All he'd done was buy himself two seconds while outside Garrow dug in his claws to stop himself.

Prey frantically looked around the room, panting for air. Another storeroom. Dark. Much smaller. Also packed full of boxes and tools. No exits. Not as dark as he'd first thought. There was a large window, dust smeared. Fire light from the rising blaze shone through. 

'Hide.' Was what Prey thought.

Five seconds. Ten seconds. Still no Garrow opening the door. 

'What's taking him so long?' Prey thought in fear, trying to stifle his gasps for air. It was torture. Was he purposefully dragging this out because he knew Prey had no where to go?

Finally the griffin pulled open the door, and from the crack between the boxes of his hiding place, Prey saw why he'd delayed. Garrow had taken the time to stop and reload his crossbow. Prey would've held his breath if he were able to, but his body was still desperately trying to recover from running away. All he could do was cover his mouth, forcing his breaths to come through his nose.

Standing in the open door way, Garrow surveyed the room, eyes glittering in the dark. 

"Well now, thiz' iz' no good iz' it?" Garrow called. He didn't even look winded. Carefully, the griffin placed the crossbow on the floor where he could easily grab it, and reached into the satchel slung over his left hip.

The griffin pulled out a sealed glass vial the half the size of his fist, and gave it a vigorous shake. A yellow glow spilled out from between the griffin's claws as it was shaken, the light pushing back the gloom. 

"There now, that iz' much better, yez'?" Garrow said, gripping the glowing vial in the crook of one wing and picking the crossbow back up.

Prey shrank back further in his hiding place, not letting the glow reflect in his eyes and give himself away.

"Come out little sheep. I iz' no going to hurt you too badly. I want you to be my friend." Garrow called, stepping in and firmly closing the door behind him. Prey didn't make a sound.

"You think I am lying, yez'? You think, 'Oh, but boss Garrow, I iz' just a little sheep. You iz' going to pull my lungz' out between my ribz' and crush my hoovez' with a sledge hammer, yez'?" Garrow asked, bright eyes never ceasing to scan the room. "You iz' smart friend. You would be right." He announced brightly.

"Sadly I do not have time for that. Would take too long." Garrow said, sounding genuinely regretful, "And I need you to be alive. Be my hostage, yez'? So come out and I will not kill you. Promise. Sound fair, yez'?"

Prey didn't believe him for even a fraction of a second.

Garrow growled and lost some of his friendly smile when nothing happened, "Fine. There iz' more than one way to scale a fish."

Garrow hefted the crossbow in his sharp talons and began moving into the room. However he hadn't gone two steps when he stopped. His eyes lit up with mirthful light and his smile returned.

"I iz' just having a wonderful idea!"

Prey's stomach turned over at the horrible savagery that had just manifest itself in the griffin's eyes.

Garrow plunged an arm into his bag, and pulled out another vial. He held it up, tilting it so the liquid inside caught the glow coming from his light. The colour of the orange liquid mingled with the glow of fire coming in through the window, making it glisten and sparkle like blood.

"Unicorn magic really is a wonderful thing, iz' it not?" Garrow commented quietly, then turned and hurled the vial over the boxes into the corner. Whipping out another vial and then another, he threw them after the first, almost too fast for Prey to track.

The sound of shattering glass, then the soft, *Whuff* of a flame catching alight, followed immediately by fire light and dancing shadows rising against the walls.

'He's trying and burn me alive.' Prey thought in horror. The idea must appeal to the griffin. Prey had started a fire, and now Garrow was getting even. How they griffin knew it'd been him, Prey would never know.

Turning, Garrow snapped a padlock into place on the door's bolt, Prey hadn't even seen when he'd gotten it out of his satchel.

'Where's the key?' Was Prey's immediate concern. He didn't see a key. Every padlock needed a key. So where was the key?!

It wasn't a padlock Prey had ever seen. It had a dial, but no key. Then he lost sight of the lock as Garrow's wing blocked his view, but he distinctly heard the whizzing click as Garrow spun the dial and finally figured out how this padlock worked. What was the griffin doing? Now they were both locked in here.

Garrow casually raised the crossbow, aimed, and fired, but he hadn't discovered Prey. His target was something else. The bolt shattered the dusty window, and glass tumbled out into the night. The sound of rising fire outside mixed with the shouts of far off ponies became clearly audible as the tinkling sound of breaking glass ended. 

The fire inside was quickly starting to rise too, as it found an abundance of dry food to fuel its hunger.

"Nowhere to go now small sheep. Only way out of here if you do not want to burn iz' to fly out with me. You understand, yez'?" Garrow called, slowly stalking down the narrow isle towards the now open window. He passed within two hooves of Prey's hiding spot, but didn't even glance in his direction.

He didn't need to. The room was burning and the door was locked. Only Garrow knew the code for the padlock, and the only other exit, the broken window, was only one the griffin could utilise.

Garrow continued to speak as he went, "I am in a bit of a hurry, you understand, yez'? The fire, the Guardz', moving onto better hunting groundz', all that. However, a hostage to make sure I can safely wave goodbye to the Guardz' would be nice. With the big fire, they are certainly coming. Children make the best hostagez', perfect size to carry on the fly." 

Garrow stopped beside the smashed out window, the fire gradually spreading from its original corner. Its light danced in his eyes.

"Iz' good, all good, yez'? But I am in a bit of a hurry. I am busy griffin. come out now, or else I will be leaving without you. Iz' sad, I know. But needz' must and time iz' money." Garrow said, shrugging apologetically, but his eyes only sparkled all the brighter if that were possible.

Surrender and be my hostage, or stay in here and burn to death is what Garrow was saying.

"I iz' making you good offer here. Fire, not nice way to go, take it from me. In fact, I think I should be charging you for my generouz' offer. But I iz' not without charity. So I tell you what..." Garrow rubbed his chin, faux considering.

"One time special offer for ride out of here and not leaving you to roast like tender fish fillet. You made so much trouble for me, but itz' all water under the bridge. Final price for a ticket, only two eyez'. Very fair, yez?" He waggled two claws in the air.

"Hostagez' don't need eyez' to live." Garrow grinned, like an open wound.

Garrow planned to pluck his eyes out.

Stay and burn in here, or be Garrow's hostage and have his eyes ripped out. 

Some choice.

'No, not happening. Not me, not now, not ever.' Prey refused. But how was he supposed to get out of this?

Talking his way out of this wouldn't work. Garrow was a murderer, there was no conceivable way he could make this worse for himself if he did end up getting caught by the Guard. As such, there was no incentive for him not to torture his hostage, Prey. It made a twisted kind of sense. Prey would be a much more docile hostage if he couldn't see anymore.

The griffin was on a time limit. Prey could either try waiting until he flew off and take his chances with opening the padlock, or he could come out now and try to fight Garrow.

Garrow began counting down, "Ten, nine, eight, z'even, z'ix, five-"

The flap of Prey's box opened and he stepped out. Dust and grime stained his wool, small scrapes and cuts trailed over his legs and body. Prey's head was hanging, and his drooping ears brushed the floor. He was shivering. It had nothing to do with any form of cold.

"Aha! I knew you waz' a wise hatchling. Come here." Garrow ordered.

Prey felt the warmth of the fire on the side of his face. He didn't dare raise his head to look. The ceiling of the room was filling with smoke, and it was getting sucked towards the broken window, the opening fuelling the blaze with fresh air.

In less than a minute, the smoke would grow so thick that it would reach all the way down to the floor. It wasn't the fire that killed you. 'All it takes is one or two breaths.'

Prey started shuffling towards Garrow and the window. "Good, good, you make good choice. Very brave." Garrow mocked. "Don't worry, this will only hurt...lotz'! But don't fret, yez'? Blindnezz' iz' only permanent." 

Garrow's laughing face morphed into that of Torment's. Garrow could've been her reincarnation they were so alike in that moment, the same cruelty shining out of their bright, bright, eyes.

"What's the code for the lock?" Prey asked, exhausted voice flat.

"Iz' no concern of yourz'." Garrow dismissed, the talons on his right claw curling and uncurling in anticipation. 

'-code does not matter. Need to hurry and fly away, but make time for taking out eyes-'

"What's the code?" Prey tried again, feeling desperation claw at the back of his throat.

Garrow didn't even answer this time, just grinning wider as he knew Prey was; '-just trying to buy a few more precious seconds of sight. Fighting off the inevitable. Oh it is so wonderful!-' 

The griffin was crazy. Completely crazy. He didn't even think about the answer to Prey's question, not even subconsciously, because it did not feature into the future Garrow foresaw. The only thing which mattered to Garrow in the whole world was what Garrow wanted.

Behind Prey, the fire was picking up speed as its appetite grew. And then something burst with a loud 'crack'. 

Both Prey and Garrow turned to looked. More 'cracks' and things popping, then a loud explosion. Physically it was small, but it didn't need to be big to be loud. Sparks showered from mini explosion, spreading.

Evidently it wasn't just old tools stored in here. 

Garrow stopped grinning. Prey knew what was going to happen next. No more stalling, the griffin wasn't going to waste anymore time in here with potentially explosive substances. Prey tensed.

Garrow's claw shot out, a fraction a a second after Prey raised his foreleg to cover his eyes. He'd heard the moment the griffin decided to strike, but the most he could do in response to Garrow's speed was raise a leg to take the blow instead.

Prey let out a shriek as the two claws meant for his eyes sunk into leg instead. The pain was sudden and savage, but he'd braced himself for this.

Prey's hoof touched against the griffin's claw. The runes activated. And something terrible happened to the both of them.


---


They were ripped out of the waking world and into an ashen one filled by a burnt forest.

Garrow only had time to think one coherent thing before a hungry hole of thought opened up; 'What-?'

Then the mouth began to suck, inhaling everything and Garrow was lost to screaming as his mind was stripped into ribbons, and sucked down the hole. It was wordless screaming, and there was nothing like it in the waking world. There is no physical sound to hear when a mind is stripped away. But inside the mindscape, you could feel it instead.

Soon, Prey's own mental wails of pain rose to join Garrow's, but of an entirely different sort.

Garrow screamed as his mind was drained away. Prey as the griffin's drained into his.


---


Prey had not wanted to do this. This was not breaking a mind, or conquering it, but a third option. Absorbing it.

Breaking a mind was simple for Prey. You did not go into it, you merely shattered it from the outside, like smashing an egg with a hammer. Once you did however, that mind was gone forever. There was no getting anything further useful out of it.

Conquering a mind like he'd attempted to do with Night Watcher in Vanhoover, (and failed at), involved overcoming the opposing mind's defences. It was slower, but once you won, you could do whatever you wanted with the conquered mind. It was more akin to cooking up the proverbial egg to eat.

Absorbing a mind was different from both of those options. It was slower than simply breaking it, but much faster than the time required to conquer a mind and trawl through it for the information you wanted. Rougher and far more crude too. It was like eating the egg raw in one go, shell and all.

Prey had only absorbed a mind twice before. The first time with Snake, before he really understood what he was doing. The second time was in desperate self defence against a Border Guard who cornered him, which was before he learnt to simply break minds instead.

The first time had almost killed Prey, and he'd resolved to never do it again. It...hurt. But to save his life he'd done it a second time against the unfortunate Border Guard. He'd known what to expect the second time around. 

The mental pain had almost broken him regardless.

When you absorbed a mind, it became part of you. The person merged with who you were, and you merged with them. Their memory's became your memories, who you were blurred as two people tried to exist within the same body. It would destroy a normal person, utterly shatter them.

The thing that came came out of the other end of such a melding process was often insane, and if they weren't, they were never the same. A third person existed to replace the original two.

For Prey, that outcome was the same as death, because he would no longer be him. He would cease to exist, and someone else would take over his body instead. That outcome was unacceptable. 

So he fought.


---


As Garrow's mind drained into his own, almost crushing Prey under memories and experiences, he fought back. Prey wrestled with Garrow's essence, beating it down and not letting it infect him.

'I am Prey. You are Garrow. I am the original. You are merely a shadow of a dead griffin.' Prey knew what he had to do, he'd experienced this before.

Prey began killing the memories as fast as they became his own, keeping his own mind pure. But even so, there were still fragments of experiences which got through and merged with his own precious memories.

Garrow's first flight, being taught by his father.

They stood on the ledge of sun warmed stone. A breeze ruffled his head feathers. 


<O>


This was the slope where all the fathers took their chicks for their first flight. Garrow gulped as he looked over the edge. It wasn't a far drop, and the grassed slope was gentle, but still, he did not want to fail. He refused to fail. He wasn't some loser, he was Garrow Stormcrow. He would not fail his dad. His father reached out a wing and gave him a nudge, "You ready for-"


<O>


That memory cut off there, the rest of it destroyed by Prey in time. 'Worthless. Corrupted. Not my memories. Not my own. Not me.' Prey thought. 

A voice was screaming that these were his memories, that the big griffin with russet feathers smiling down at him was his father, but Prey smothered the voice, 'Not me.' He repeated.


<O>


A grave. One of dozens more. Every time the sun set another one seemed to be needed to be dug by weary claws. The Blood Feather Plague had come to their region, stealing in on silent, plague riddled wings.

'Such a patient hunter. So fierce and cruel. A real hunter.'

The shallow grave didn't even have a cross. No proper sky pyre like a Stormcrow deserved, the smoke would only spread the plague. A few griffin's stood around him, silently mourning and trying to comfort him. Worthless. They were all so worthless. There was nothing for him here, all these worthless lesser birds and weak taloned weaklings-


<O>


There were others from periods of Garrow's life. Inconsequential. 'Not me.' Prey killed the memories, ignoring other agonised voice screaming at him not to do so. The more memories he destroyed, the weaker the voice became.


<O>


Garrow was laughing in a tavern. Older. He'd left his worthless home village far behind where it belonged. His head was filled with a pleasant buzz and his friend Creecaw was methodically betting on the dice. He kept betting on thirteen. He hadn't won yet, but that was all good. Everything was good. Life was good.


<O>


'Not me.' 

None of this was useful to Prey. It needed to die before it overloaded him. He kept going, refusing to stop no matter how much it hurt.


<O>


Garrow angrily slashed a claw at the tree, easily tearing off the weathered bark. Red stained the furrows he left.

Pluck it. Now he was going to have to leave before the sheriff launched another griffin hunt. And he'd just gotten into this frontier town too. He didn't fancy having to fly away in this heat. Why didn't that pony just keep her mouth shut? It was a simple instruction, 'Shut up', yet they'd been incapable of even that. Nobody ignored his orders. 

He'd been forced to take matters into his own claws. Garrow rubbed them together absentmindedly, feeling the slick blood coating them. Still fresh. Ripping her tongue out had been wonderful. 

Still, this was a massive drag. 

'Perhaps I should go back to Griffonia. Less ponies there...'


<O>


Another memory.


<O>


Cooking for the Low King. Garrow examined colouring of the venison stew critically. 'Hmm, need's another ten minutes to brown.' He decided. He adjusted the heat. 

"Stephan, you iz' keeping an eye on this, yez'?" He called.

Stephan nervously ducked his head, "Yes Garrow." It was obvious Stephan was scared of him. Garrow smiled brightly. Good. That was how things were supposed to be.

A personal chef. It was still surprising how he'd ended up with this job. And what's more, that he was good at it. Really, it'd just been a passing fancy to occupy his time while avoiding the-


<O>


'Not me.' 

The memory joined the rest as Prey ruthlessly destroyed it. His mind ached. His whole being seemed to shiver and quake as he in essence destroyed half of himself. 'Doesn't matter. They're not part of me. Not Prey.'

It was coming to an end. Garrow was almost completely gone now, both from Prey's mind and the griffin's own. It was all draining away into the void, the griffin's mental screams were now nothing more than weak mewlings.

Prey was fast coming to the most recent memories from the dying griffin, the last few months of his life. This was what Prey wanted to see. This is why he'd taken the agonising and potentially lethal route of absorbing Garrow's mind instead of just destroying it.

Prey had absorbed Garrow's mind for one reason and one reason only. It was very simple.

As painful and dangerous as this was, it was still much faster than taking the time to conquer Garrow's mind and then trawling through his memories to find the right one.

Prey certainly could have conquered Garrow's mind. The griffin was no mind leech, he would've had no idea how to fight Prey off. But still, he would've struggled. Prey knew not to underestimate the will power of someone within their own mind, that's what had lead to Night Watcher's end after all. This rule was especially true inside the mind of a crazy murderer like Garrow.

Prey was ninety-five percent certain he would still have won, but how long would it have taken? Absorbing was faster, and since this whole process was only happening in Prey's mind at the speed of thought, barely twenty seconds had passed in the physical world.

Garrow hadn't answered Prey's question; "What's the code for the padlock?" So Prey'd had to take matters into his own hooves and absorb the griffin's mind to find the answer. You could even call it efficient, if you didn't count the blistering mental pain.

It was like using a battering ram to crack a walnut, but at least it was fast.

Prey was still stuck in a burning room rapidly filling with smoke. He needed that code and he needed it as of two minutes ago. He didn't have time to be subtle.

And there it was, the code; 'Six, one, six, five, nine.'

It was one of the last memories that had made up Garrow, so a moment after finding it Prey succeeded in disposing of the last of the griffin's memories and hurriedly withdrew from his mindscape.

There would be a price for this. There always was for absorbing a mind, no matter how careful you were to dispose of the excess memories. What effect it had on you was not always clear at the start.

That was a concern for later. Prey had to escape the burning storeroom first.

Prey sucked in a deep breath and opened his eyes. Immediately he began coughing and his eyes watered. The smoke had thickened considerably in only those twenty seconds. Prey shook. He could've died while trapped in his mindscape dealing with Garrow's memories before he even realised.

The griffin's body stood looming over Prey, right talon still outstretched from where Garrow had tried to claw Prey. 

But that was it. Just the body. There was nothing in the eyes, no spark of life. The murderer Garrow was dead. The husk that was his body may still have been breathing, but Garrow was already gone.

Through streaming eyes, Prey looked down at where his hoof still connected to the griffin's talon. Spitefulness made Prey spare the body one last moment to give it one final parting order.

'Throw yourself from the window.' 

It wasn't an order giving in thought words, because the husk no longer had a mind and couldn't have recognised them. Instead, it was an impulse, a command Prey sent directly into what was left of its cognitive abilities.

The window lip was low, but even that posed a challenge to the husk. It sort of just... Walked into the lip, fragments of broken glass unheeded, and kept going forwards until it overbalanced out into the orange tinted night.

Prey turned as the body passed the tipping point and slid out, the limp tail trailing last.

The husk was of no use to Prey. It couldn't have carried him from the storeroom. It didn't have the memory to walk properly, let alone fly. It would blindly plummet until it splattered all over the ground three stories below. There was no making another Lemon Pink out of it, no matter how much he might've wished to.

'Let's get out of here.' Prey thought, covering his nose against the stinging smoke. 

He was exhausted, bruised, and sore. He'd almost died multiple times tonight, he'd left Gloom and Crimson to die, he'd cried, begged, and been terrified.

"But I'm still alive. Still alive." Prey muttered, starting to limp quickly towards the door. He was sweating profusely from the heat.

'Code for the door. Six, one, six, fiv-'

Something hit Prey in the front. Everything flashed yellow and white and he felt weightless. He couldn't hear.

'What...'s happening?' 

His face felt raw. Black danced in his head. Where had his breath gone? Why was the night sky below him?

No wait, that was up, he was outside. He didn't remember getting outside. Why did he feel like he was falling? And where had that explosion blooming out of the shattered window come from?

He was...falling. Prey was falling. 

Something in the storeroom had exploded and blown him out the wide open window. He'd blacked out for a moment there. 

And now he was falling.

He was three stories up. He'd just ordered Garrow's husk to commit suicide by jumping out this same window. 'I'm falling!'

Prey flailed like a rag doll. He couldn't drag any air into his lungs to scream. He couldn't hear, but he felt the wind tearing at his smouldering wool, furrowing his fur as he fell backwards.

He couldn't see the ground as it came up to meet him, he couldn't twist around, he couldn't do anything. The last thing he would ever see would be the distant stars in the flame lit night sky. Watching him fall to his death. Laughing at him. 

'No! Please, I don't want to die. Mama, Fleece. I didn't mean to. I'm sorry I'msoryyI'mSorryI'mSorrySorrysorry-'

Something came up and hit him in the back, and for a split second Prey thought he was dead, that it was the impact with the ground being transmitted to his brain in the moment before he died, and he screamed preemptively. But, where was the pain? He should've broken apart if-

Prey was yanked out of his fall as the forelegs which had caught him snatched him up into an armoured chest plate. His momentum was cut in half, and what little air he'd managed to regain left his body in a whoosh as gravity dragged it from his lungs.

He couldn't move, he was being clasped to some pony's chest as they fell. No, not fell, they weren't plummeting, they were pulling up at and angle. Prey's hearing returned, and he heard the rush of wind through fluttering feathers as his saviour's wings strained to level them off.

His face was pressed into the chest plate, he couldn't see, but he heard a strained grunt of effort and felt almost blisteringly hot air blast into them as the pony managed to bank above the towering flames of the burning lumber building.

'Lift. The hot air will provide us lift. We won't crash.' Prey's mind scrambled to supply him with facts. Whomever they were began to beat their wings and started to climb, the shouts and orange light dimming as they rose.

Prey was so shocked he was still alive, that someone had saved him, that he wasn't even struggling. It didn't even register that someone was touching him.

'I'm alive. I'm still alive. How? Who saved me?'

Prey could hardly see anything with his face mashed against a chest plate, but he saw a golden band around the foreleg grasping him, less than an inch from his eye. It looked exactly like the ones Luna had placed on him.

It took Prey far longer than it should've to make the connection. 

Shame and confusion washed through Prey, 'Crimson.'


---


Crimson brought them in to land on the unlit roof of the only other three story building, right next to the stair well and roof access door.

It was perhaps a bit faster than Crimson had intended, because Prey spilled out of the pegasus's forelegs as Crimson had to let go of the lamb to brace his landing.

Prey rolled. The roof was gritty and cold against his cheek. He smelt wind, mortar and old brick. His face felt flushed and raw from the heat of the explosion. Prey half pushed himself up on weak legs that trembled. He looked up, and saw Crimson refolding his wings on the edge of the roof, framed by dim fire light.

Ponies were shouting down below. There were other flying shapes wheeling near the blaze. They weren't important. They were just ponies.

"You saved me." Prey said. He hadn't even meant to speak. The words just came out.

Crimson had a bleeding cut across his left wing edge. Aside from that, he didn't look like he'd fought three enemies all at once. He blinked at Prey, "Yes I did."

"But I, you, you saved my life." Prey repeated, searching Crimson's face.

"Would you have preferred that I let you fall? It was very fortunate that I was there when I was. I almost didn't reach you in time." Crimson asked.

"But, I left you behind. I ran away!" Prey exclaimed. He didn't understand.

"What do you mean?"

Prey found he could no longer meet Crimson's eyes. He was familiar with shame, but this burned him. Why was he so ashamed? It had just been simple math. "I left you behind. You and Gloom. I ran away. I didn't go and open the door."

There was a long silence while Prey cringed, "I already knew that." Crimson said, as if it were obvious.

"But you saved my life!" Prey cried, "Why? I left you behind. You saved my life twice. Even after I left you behind. And then I left you behind again and you just saved my life again. I don't understand. Why?!"

"I wasn't going to let you die. We are on the same side. I won't let anyone die if it is within my power to save them. It's common sense." Crimson said.

"Common sense? But, but, but why? I don't understand. I left you to die. I ran away like the coward I am. You had no obligation to save my life."

Crimson's brow wrinkled, "Obligation? You were going to die. Of course I saved you. There's no debt or score being kept. This isn't some favour that's supposed to be repaid."

"What? But I didn't save you. So why save me?" Prey repeated, completely confused.

Crimson's head jerked back. A rare look of anger flashed across his face, "So you think it would've been within my rights to just let you die? Is that it?" Crimson demanded.

Prey flinched. An unfamiliar feeling began to squirm in his gut in response to upsetting Crimson. Why was that? It was another thing on the rapidly lengthening list of things he didn't understand.

"Well, yes. You didn't have to, so why should you? I didn't save you. You can only look out for yourself in this world. So what reason was there for you to save me? No one's ever done so before." Prey mumbled.

That didn't seem to placate Crimson, "That does not matter. I already know why you didn't try and save us. It's because you were scared, wasn't it? I know it was."

"Yes. I was scared. I ran away." Prey answered, "Gloom is still alive too, then?" He asked belatedly.

"Yes, the Sargent is alive. You left us behind but neither of us died. You were scared, so you ran away. That's what happens in a fight. Everypony feels fear Prey, it's perfectly natural. You were afraid and you fled. But that hardly means you deserve to die." Crimson berated him.

Prey blinked. That was obvious. Of course he didn't deserve to die just because he was a coward. It was because he was a coward that he was still alive. There was nothing wrong with being a coward.

But that's not why he was confused. What he didn't understand was how someone he abandoned not once, but twice tonight, would still choose to save his life. Twice. "But you-"

"You were scared Prey. It happens to everypony. Nopony will hold that against you. I can still see the tear tracks on your cheeks. What I mean is, you... Are you still crying?" Crimson broke off.

Prey blinked and realised that he was. He dashed the water from his eyes, "Stupid, weak, runt body. Don't mind it, I'm just a crybaby." Prey muttered. He was too exhausted to even be angry or embarrassed.

"Are you hurt? Well, I mean, are you seriously hurt? Crimson asked stepping forwards, "I should've checked for that first. Sorry."

"No I'm fine. Well, not fine, but nothing's broken. I think. And I'm not seriously injured. What about you?" Prey hurriedly asked in return as it occurred to him he should probably do so. And he actually cared to hear the answer.

"No. I mean, yes, but no. Same as you, nothing serious. I'll be fine too, I mean. And it's good you aren't crying about that. Good." Crimson was suddenly awkward again. They both looked at each other, feeling unsure.

"The...griffin. He came out of the window first. He is, he didn't fly. That's why I was in the air. I was flying up to the window which he'd fallen from. What happened in there?" Crimson asked, glancing across the fire lit lumber yard to the burning window in question. Fire was pouring out of the storeroom window. It was a bit overshadowed by the growing inferno just next to it, almost the entirety of the first building ablaze by now. They could feel the heat even from up here.

"He, the griffin Garrow, that was his name." Prey spoke jerkily as he tried to force his mind to come up with what he should and shouldn't say. 

"He chased me into that storeroom. I hid. He couldn't find me. So he locked the door with a padlock, and started a fire in the corner. He had these vials of something that burned. Then he shot out the window and announced I could either come with him and and be his hostage, or he would leave me in there to burn."

Prey paused as if to catch his breath, but it was really to think about what he should say next. He still didn't know why Crimson had saved him for splattering all over the ground, but lying to keep his abilities secret and his life safe was something second nature and almost comforting in its falseness by now.

"I didn't come out of hiding. Garrow turned to climb out the window. He didn't know it, but I was actually hiding on the shelf above his head. I had found a hammer. I jumped off and smashed him on the back of the head just as he was about to fly out. That's why he fell." 

After that fall, the griffin's body should be in far too poor of a state for anyone to confirm or deny Prey's claim. 

"I was just about to go and try to smash the lock, when something exploded and threw me out the window too. You know what happened next. You caught me. Thank you." Prey added quietly.

"Do you have any idea what started this other fire?" Crimson asked, staring across at the roiling flames.

"No, not really. My best guess would be those burners they were using to simmer the salt. Knocked one over in their haste to vacate the Lumber Yard probably." Prey said, sighing and letting himself sag back onto the roof, ignoring the dirt. He was too sore and tired keep himself upright any longer, especially on his wounded foreleg. Everything hurt in some way or another. He could hardly think.

"Did you...did you really think I would simply have watched you fall to your death?" Crimson asked abruptly. He looked pained, now uncertain about himself.

Prey almost said that's exactly what he would've done, but the thought of admitting that to Crimson caused him stinging guilt and shame.

"I...No, that's not what I thought, I know now you would've saved me. That you did save me." Prey corrected himself. Silently he added, 'Even if I can't understand why.' 

"Oh. Well that is good to hear." 

Prey couldn't read Crimson's thoughts, so he didn't know how the pegasus really took that. Crimson's expression was too blank to read at normal times, let alone shrouded in the dark like right now. 

After a minute, Crimson said, "I think we should move."

Prey didn't want to. He was so tired. He knew the Guards and everybody else would be wanting explanations, answers, reasons. His head hurt at the mere thought. Oh, wait, no, that was the ringing aftereffects of the explosion.  Crimson may have been so forgiving for abandoning them, but would Gloom be the same? What if the Sargent took his grievance up with Luna? Prey was so tired at this point he hardly cared.

He still had no idea what the shame and guilt swirling in his gut was for, or why it was there, or how to get rid of it. 

'Why? Why did he save me?' Crimson had told him it was just because he wasn't about to let Prey die. That reason made no sense. Nothing about tonight made any sense. 

Prey needed time to think, to work out what had happened. 

'Crimson saved your life and you're still alive. That's all that matters.' The small voice in the back of his head kept repeating.

Not just, 'You're still alive', but, 'Crimson saved your life' too.

All Prey ever tried to do was survive. But now there was something else there on his list. That was important somehow.

'Later,' Prey told himself, 'I can think about it later. If I'm still alive by then.'

Prey sighed again and forced his watering eyes open, "Okay, let's move. But down the stairs this time."


​---I---


End of Arc II


[[[Bonus Picture - Explosion Thinggy]]]