Prey withdrew from peering down into the Sewer's Heart, turning himself around in the flow of water to begin heading back topside. His hooves and lower legs were slightly numb by now from the cold water, and slimy brown tendrils brushed disturbingly against his legs as he waded.
He'd come down here to observe the wickerwatch's growth, and to make sure there were no problems other than those he’d left for intruders.
Prey... was not satisfied. The artificial plant form was growing, but not nearly fast enough. He needed it fully grown and he needed it fully grown now. Not in a week's time, but now. The wickerwatch didn't need sunlight to grow, just water, ambient magic, and trace nutrients.
'Is there not enough ambient magic down here?' Prey worried, 'Or did I make a mistake in creating it? Lemon stole the memories from Hard Baked on kindersnatches, but I deviated when trying to improve. It's possible I could've made a mistake.'
This was just supposed to have been the prototype, but there'd been no time to try and create a new one. Prey was never going to recreate the kindersnatches, but the theory of the dark magic involved, no matter how vile and reprehensible, had seemed both useful and sound in principle.
Prey stumbled on a suddenly slippery bit of tunnel. Momentarily on three legs, he lost his balance and almost fell. After briefly flailing and splashing himself more than he would've liked, Prey did manage to get himself stable, and without dislodging the lantern balancing on his back. Small mercies, but he was now a fair bit wetter, filthier, and grumpier than he'd been only ten seconds ago.
'I need to find a better light source for travelling here. And for use down in the cave tunnels too.' Prey thought. But such a concern was far less pressing than the need to stay alive and survive the inevitable coming confrontation.
Prey and Lemon had gotten a ping earlier, signalling that the lair had been visited again by the invaders, but nothing indicating they'd actually gone back inside, or if the special bone rot mines he'd left in the tunnel had worked as intended or not. He didn't know, and he couldn't risk going back to check himself or sending Lemon Pink.
Tunnel warfare was the stuff of nightmares. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, only one path, single file, traps around every corner, bad air, darkness, and with the constant threat of being buried alive at any second.
It was like trying to fight inside a coffin.
Prey took a turn at a tunnel split, following the map in his head. Shadows danced on the walls, but the gurgling water remained matt and dull, no matter how the lantern light hit it.
Another twist, a second left, squeezing under a low grill, following a line of yellowish pennynick bricks in the wall instead of the normal brownish burnt clay ones, and then he turned a corner and his lantern light was abruptly swallowed.
A huge shadow on the sewer tunnel's wall moved, black on black. The lantern's sphere of light shrank in on itself as the looming bulk pressed in, cutting off the surroundings and any retreat. The tunnel walls, the way back or forwards, it was all blocked off.
Prey hadn't been satisfied with the wickerwatch. But he was very impressed with the veropede's ambush. Except it wasn't an ambush, because the veropede wasn't trying to attack him, this was just how it moved in the tunnels, encircling everything to get a closer look.
The sack cloth swaddled head came out of the gloom to Prey's right, hanging above him. Prey still felt a bitter shock of anger every time he saw the damage done to his veropede.
'No one steals from me.'
Three black barbed and hooked tendrils, mockeries of the near perfect antenna the veropede used to have, quested towards Prey and he had to swiftly reach out mentally, 'Stop. Slow, gentle.'
He had to be careful around his weapon now. The veropede wasn't whole anymore. Those antennas weren't natural and didn't have tactile feedback. One clumsy slip could tear Prey open like a feather pillow.
'They stole one perfect weapon from me, and ruined the other. No one steals from me.'
But the raiders had stolen from him, and had mostly gotten away with it too. And now they were coming back for a second round, looking to finish what they'd started. Prey brooded on that as he looked over the veropede, checking the injuries he'd previously fixed or closed, and examining again the permanent damage under the sacking to see how it was being handled by his rune work.
The huge veropede remained quiet and still throughout his examination. Water swirled beneath its bulk, through the fence like rows of its spiky legs. It was like a statue under Prey as he clambered over it and held the lantern close.
A missing chunk of smashed carapace needed his attention, the missing hole of muscle underneath having broken open again. Prey took the time to tend to it, before letting himself slide down the veropede's side rear hooves first, splashing back down.
Prey took a moment to look up and down the length of his veropede again. He could feel from its mental state that the veropede was interested in hunting, as it was getting a bit hungry again. Not ravenous, just what you might call 'peckish', if such a soft term could be applied to the unholy maw of centipede and teeth.
It'd been very impressive just now, to witness how it seemed to appear out of the shadows like that. It was deceptive how much space the large veropede took up if you weren't aware it was there.
His observations helped lessen the sting of losing his other veropede somewhat, to know he still had this one to prowl and guard the Sewer's Heart. Even if it was damaged and twisted.
'But beggars can't be choosers.'
---
Prey met Lemon Pink under a dank and slimy pipe archway, the pipe narrowing here into a thicker joint. At some point in the distant past, there must've been plans to add another pipe here, but it'd never happened.
Now it served as a recognisable way point.
The glow from the crystal lantern showed the dark circles under Lemon Pink's eyes as they exchanged nods of greeting. Prey didn't bother hiding his own tiredness either. They were both up late into the night for every hour they could get away with. There just wasn't enough time to do everything they needed to.
Time. Never enough time. He was always lacking in time time time time Time!
"It'll need feeding by the day after tomorrow." Prey said without prelude, referring to the veropede.
"Yes, Prey." Lemon nodded tiredly. She shifted, and a couple stray drops of cloudy water slid off the short rain cloak she was wearing over her withers.
"How many pigs are left?" Prey asked.
"Eleven. Sunny n' Smiles will hold and feed our bought stock of pigs." Lemon answered. She'd never gotten the chance to buy out the Sunny n' Smiles business like they'd originally intended.
"Eleven pigs. About two months worth. Should be plenty. I don't think whatever is going to happen is going to drag on longer than that." Prey muttered, thinking about how if he still had two veropedes, both uninjured and unaltered, that would only be enough for about two and a half weeks. He wished he was still dealing with that problem instead of this one.
Prey wiped an annoying droplet trickling down his foreleg, but at least it was just water and not sewage. He was remembering, of all things, Fallen Leaf and the deer holt. The deer had fled the reaper king and Hard Baked's presence, but no one knew if they'd lived or died. The Guard had found no bodies, but there were plenty of dangers in the forest just as bad as the monstrosities the warlock had created.
'Whatever came out of the Wolfing Wood was roaming around that same night...'
Prey hurriedly shook himself free from the grip of those thoughts. Down here was definitely not a safe place to have those memories. He shivered, the sodden fur of his legs cold and unpleasant.
'This isn't helping me right now.'
Prey looked at Lemon, seeing the disguised electrite choker hung around her neck, representing nearly two-fifths of all the electrite he'd stolen. It never left her throat now, not even when she slept. Who knew when an attack might come? And although far from finished, the few runic arrays on the choker were better than nothing. It went without saying Prey never removed his ribbon, either.
"I take it you haven't had the time to monitor the underground market lately?" He asked.
"No, Prey." Lemon said with a shake of her head.
Prey hadn't had any expectations otherwise, but he'd just been checking. He knew the thieves used powerful artifacts, and while it was highly unlikely anything of note would cross the underground market, you never knew. And indeed, he wouldn't know, because he didn't have time to check.
'Decades in Dreverton with nothing but time and now never enough damned time!'
There'd be no miraculously pulling something like another jade necklace off the underground market again. There'd be nothing with which to somehow solve all his problems.
"How's the wickerwatch growing?" Lemon asked, reclaiming Prey's attention.
"Slowly. If this whole stalemate does end up dragging into longer than two weeks, then it might be some real help. Every hour we can stall is an hour we can better prepare with."
"So can they." Lemon calmly pointed out.
"Yes." Prey had to acknowledge, and wasn't that what it all came down to in the end?
Who could catch the other group out first, and who could use the time better to prepare?
'The odds are not in my favour. There's only two of us, and at minimum at least four of them, not even counting the surviving diamond dogs. That's at least double the hooves, eyes, work load, and available time that Lemon and I have.'
How many out of the dog pack could realistically be left? After the heavy toll Prey and Lemon had reaped, how many bitter survivors bent on revenge could there be?
'At least one. One more than I want.'
One was more than enough to kill you.
This worrying and brooding wasn't revealing anything Prey didn't already know. Worse, he was wasting precious time.
"Walk and talk." Prey ordered, starting to retrace his steps so he could get back to the pipe junction. From there, they could begin the trip back up to the surface. Lemon sped up to get past him so she could lead the way, the directed light cast by her horn superior to his lantern as they fell into single file, hoof steps mutely echoing.
Their destination was the closest entrance into and also out of the sewers. A rarely used maintenance door, set into the face of one of the rising levels of Canterlot. The exit was overhung by a stone promenade and bridge, which made the site shadowed and hidden. It was a gloomy and cold spot because of all that stone overhanging it, and not even rebellious fillies and colts visited the boring spot.
An excellent place to emerge unseen, and from which to slip unnoticed back into the rest of Canterlot.
As they went, Prey continued asking Lemon about the latest news, both about the highly unimportant goings on of Equestria, but which nevertheless were still important to keep abreast of, and the much more dire information about how their preparations and back up plans were coming along.
They reached and climbed up a steel ladder, Lemon levitating the lantern up for Prey so he didn't have to carry it by the handle in his teeth.
At the top, Prey scraped off some dirt which'd stuck to his still damp wool, and accepted the lantern back with a nod, "There is also the matter of Lord Vanish and the maid I framed, Warm Hearth. It's not a problem we can do anything about right now, but if we get through this, it looks like it could turn into a huge headache in the future."
Prey would've swapped immediately for that headache compared to this current one.
"Yes, Prey. And Strange Happenstance?" Lemon both agreed and asked.
"Him. I don't know what he's up to or what he might be doing. Last I knew, he was working with Lilly's parents to try and get a case filed against the Night Guard. But that case isn't going anywhere. I doubt that stallion will be content to just wait and see." Prey gnawed at his cheek.
"It is not an issue for now, but if I ever encounter him, should I dispose of him?" Lemon asked, coldly indifferent to the possibility of killing a person.
Prey considered it just as coldly. "Maybe. I'm eighty percent sure he's just a self righteous pony, and not secretly a mimic, but until I'm certain and while this current problem persists-"
Prey almost got a pink rear leg in his face as Lemon jerked backwards.
A hooded pony had just appeared out of the steel door she'd been reaching for. Appeared, not entered, just appeared. They stared. The hooded pony stared back. Both sides were completely caught off guard at seeing anyone else inside the maintenance room.
Prey heaved the crystal lantern around and flung it at the unidentified intruder's face.
The flying lantern was only half way there when Lemon attacked with a lunge of her own, no time to cast, just looking to gore the pony in their hooded face with her sharp horn.
The intruder flinched, instinct making them jerk back but it wasn't enough, the hurled lantern was just about to clobber them in the head and Lemon stab them in the face.
They should've hit. They did hit. They hit and went right through the flinching pony as if he wasn't there. The lantern crashed against the back of the steel door with a ringing clang. Lemon's strike swiped through the pony's hidden face, hood and all, without any resistance. She jerked away as the intruder's hoof shot up to their own chest.
Prey's first thought was, 'An illusion!'
Desperately he flung his perception out, hoping the illusion's caster was within range so he could pinpoint them. It sort of worked. Prey felt a mind. He didn't have time to hear anything, just confirm the direction of the foreign mind which was-
-Right in front of them.
Prey meant to shout, 'It's not an illusion!' to warn Lemon. He didn't get any further than sucking in his breath, "-!"
The thing around the pony's neck was actually a gilded chestplate under the cloak. There was a glittering blue stone set in the middle. The pony hurled themselves backwards.
Their rear hit the closed door, and they slipped straight through it like it was made of water and they vanished. Prey and Lemon were left behind in the maintenance room, with the light from the fallen lantern now casting shadows up from floor level.
"Not an illusion!" Prey squeaked, "That's one of the real thieves. He has an artifact!"
Prey was going to shout more, but he didn't get the chance to finish. The mind which had just exited his perception range by running out through a solid door, had re-entered his perception range.
Coming from beneath the floor.
Prey spun around and pointed to a dusty spot in a dark corner of the room, "There!"
A moment later, the hooded head cautiously poked up from out of the floor.
Lemon Pink's red spell laced through the figures head before they could even flinch, but all the spell did was bounce off the floor and then *crack* the wall in a flash of red light.
The head promptly vanished back into the floor.
Prey belatedly realised he couldn't hear the pony' thoughts. He could feel the pony's mind, but not hear their thoughts while they were immaterial or whatever the strange magical state they'd entered was. The mind was clouded, just a buzz, but he could still feel it, and he felt it move sideways from under the floor and up towards outside, before it left his bubble of perception again.
How? How could they do that? What kind of powerful magic was this, and how could it be cast so swiftly?
"Where?" Lemon called, scanning the empty floor.
"They're back outside. I don't know exactly where." Prey was backing up towards the sewer's entrance while simultaneously trying to provide as much information as possible, "They're impervious to harm while immaterial like that, but they obviously can't physically see through stone."
What about breathing, could they breathe while phased like that? Prey didn't know.
'How do they even move when they're not touching the physical world?!'
Only now did the details lost in those first few blurred seconds of action and reaction start to properly align in Prey's head, facts filling themselves in. Prey had seen light armour on that pony under the short cloak, not including the obviously magical gilded chestplate. They were a unicorn too, Prey had seen a horn but not their face, damn the luck. And they were a stallion by their body type, not that it made any difference.
And then it clicked with awful clarity. The invader had seen both Prey and Lemon's faces. He could identify them.
Prey's mouth worked as he tried to find words to give orders he didn't have. They'd been seen. What should he do?
'Flee? Try and catch him?'
"Orders?" Lemon Pink asked.
"We can't run-He's coming back!" Prey cut off, twisting to face the door.
For a brief moment on the other side of the door, Prey caught a snapshot of coherent thoughts; '-go in again-'
Then the mind slipped away into a buzz, as the pony's orange muzzle phased through the door, then the head, then their whole body as they stepped through. They weren't trying to hide like last time, they came straight through the only door. That they could do so without the requirement of opening the door only added to the intimidation factor.
The cloaked stallion lifted their head and seemed to look down at Lemon, as if daring her to try attacking him again. Lemon's horn was glowing red and she was warily crouched, and Prey knew the silver electrite choker was helping focus her magic to the razor's edge. However she didn't try shooting recklessly again. Prey couldn't see the stallion's eyes in the depths of his unnaturally darkened hood, but he could feel them weighing him up.
The large blue stone set in the stallion's strange gilt breastplate still shone. The stallion's head turned away from Prey, dismissing but not forgetting about him, and focused on Lemon Pink instead.
And suddenly Prey could hear the ponies mind again as he faded back into being, '-must be her. She's here, she attacked, that's damning proof enough-'
The stallion spoke, "You-"
Prey's hoof twitched and Lemon fired on his signal.
It was nearly point blank, but Prey hadn't been fast enough in signalling. In the nick of time the stallion returned themselves to intangibility and the blast hit the metal door and dissipated into the steel.
'-how'd she?-'
Prey's hoof jabbed again and Lemon Pink fired, her casting speed boosted by the runes on the electrite choker. But once again, it was just a fraction of a second too slow as the stallion ducked to the side and the red spike lanced harmlessly through where his shoulder should've been.
The stallion dropped into a crouch, not returning to solidity, trying to bait out another shot from Lemon but she held on for Prey's signal.
Prey was holding his breath, heart racing. Stalemate. The moment dragged out agonisingly as they were baited, until-
'-there's no way she can tell when-'
Lemon didn't fire, instead she magically grabbed up the fallen lantern from behind the stallion and went to smash it on the back of his head.
Despite being so tense, the invader didn't see it coming. *Th-dunk*
The stallion staggered, but Prey instinctively knew it hadn't worked. The sound had been wrong, not the crack of a skull he knew.
'He has more protections too!'
Lemon's follow up spell streaked through the staggering stallion's head, but it was already too late. His thoughts had turned into a buzz once again and the red spike of light did nothing.
He must've been wearing some kind of helmet under the hood, or equipped with some enchantment against physical force. Lemon had almost gotten him, but almost never won any prizes.
This time, when the stallion straightened back up, he took no chances. When the thief's thoughts next flashed back into existence, he went straight for the attack.
'-she can tell! Too dangerous-'
His horn glowed yellow, and a platinum ring Prey hadn't seen resting around the horn's base lit up with power. Another artifact! How many of the damned things could he have and not combust? A crack of sparks rushed to the tip of his horn as he aimed for Lemon-
-And had to go intangible as Lemon's follow up spell blasted through his chest, aimed right at the blue stone in the breastplate. With the runic array on the choker helping shave off previous half moments, Lemon was faster. Only just. But that's all that mattered.
When the enemy unicorn phased out, his spell was cut off, discharging with a loud *crack* into the air.
'He has to be solid to be able to cast! He can't shape magic while intangible!' Prey realised with a thrill of hope.
'-I must be faster-'
The stallion phased in again and went straight for attack. He didn't even bother to duck for cover, trusting in his ability to not be there to keep him safe, simply trying to race Lemon to cast first.
The platinum ring lit up brilliant yellow, cracking lightning jumping to his horn tip.
The light stung Prey's eyes. His hoof flew to grab for the ribbon. Lemon raced to fire her own spell again.
For a second afterwards, Prey didn't know who had won. He was deafened and blinded by the *crack* and a surge of light. He staggered, hooves burning with phantom pins and needles, trying to blink his stinging eyes clear.
What had happened? He couldn't hear the thief's mind!
Prey saw the shapes and outlines. There was Lemon Pink, she had managed to fire first, but the enemy unicorn had also managed to finish his spell. The two spells impacted perhaps inches out from the stallion's face and exploded.
The stallion was on the ground, leg thrown over his hooded face. Something of the spells must've still hit him before he could phase out. A hit!
And the hit didn't matter. He was right there in front of them, dazed and momentarily stunned on the floor, but Prey couldn't take advantage of his weakness. All he would need to do was reach out, touch the stallion, and Prey would break his mind like glass. His enemy, one of those responsible for stealing his veropede from him was less than two paces away, down and on the ground... But he was beyond Prey's reach.
The pony was right there, but Prey was helpless to stop him, because he wasn't really there.
The thief had all the time in the world to recover, as he groggily shook his incorporeal head and slowly sat back up.
Only now did Prey realise that Lemon had not gotten away unscathed either. Her fur was gently smoking, and she staggered drunkenly to the left, then to the right, trying to keep her wavering horn centered on the recovering thief.
Prey was frozen. The ribbon dangled in his grip, hoof drawn back ready to toss, but he was rendered helpless to use it.
Lemon bumped into the wall and fired by mistake, her spell a noisy and unclean mess. It wasn't even on target and did absolutely nothing. Nothing, aside from getting the stallion to snap out of his daze.
The thief cast around on the floor wildly, looking panicked. His hooded head locked onto Lemon Pink. He could've attacked right then. He could've tried to phase back in and hit Lemon while she was weak. Maybe Prey would've been able to dash forwards and touch him in time, or throw the ribbon.
Maybe. Maybe not. Prey would never know because he didn't risk trying.
The cloaked pony rolled himself sideways, as if just rolling out of bed, and dropped down into the floor vanishing. Prey stared wide eyed at the spot. The mind beneath the concrete sped towards the outside again, moving through stone and matter like smoke. Why was the unicorn always returning back outside? Was there a time limit to how long he could remain intangible?
'How am I even seeing him like that if he can't interact with the physical world? How can I even sense his mind? It shouldn't be there if he's completely intangible.' Prey's thoughts raced, but any answer he came up with wasn't going to help him right now.
He dashed over to Lemon's side. He smacked at her face, shook her, "Hey, hey! Wake up. You need to get up."
"You... I do not..."
"Breathe. Your muscles aren't working properly. Concentrate on your magic, you can still use that. Breathe." Prey's voice was squeaky in panic. Lemon was the unicorn here, not him. She needed to be able to defend them.
Lemon groaned, tried to get her hooves under herself, and almost managed to sit up.
"Don't try and get up, you might faint. Just get your magic ready. He could be back any moment-"
As if on cue, Prey felt the buzz of the mind come into his perception range again. From above in the roof.
Prey made a snap decision.
"Lie down, pretend to be unconscious. But prepare your magic. Fire on my command." He hissed, then jerked away and turned to face the shadowy room.
Out of the corner of his eye, Prey saw the enemy unicorn's hooded head phase in through the ceiling, dipping down as if the stallion were lowering his face into a pool to see what was underneath. Why did the hooded unicorn always keep the same orientation while intangible? Surely it shouldn't matter if he stuck his head out upside down or out sideways through the wall? Or did gravity still apply in some way? Or was it to stop him from losing track of direction?
Prey didn't turn, not letting on to the stallion that he knew the pony was up there.
Prey's heart was hammering. If it weren't for the runes engraved on the jaw of hearts, that should've been causing him agony right now. He swallowed, still forcing himself not to turn around despite the eyes drilling into the back of his neck. His hooves were trembling, just like they always did when it came time to fight or die.
"What do you want?" Prey called out to the room. His voice quavered all by itself without even needing to fake it.
Could he succeed in baiting the unicorn out? Prey couldn't let the thief go, they'd seen his and Lemon's faces. The hooded head watching from out of the ceiling stayed up there, not moving.
"What do you want?" Prey cried out again, trying to create a distraction, "Why did you attack my mother? What did I ever do to you?"
Prey was lying, trying to evoke a reaction from the pony up above. If the unicorn wanted to respond, he'd have to phase out of the ceiling and become tangible again to do so.
Out of the corner of his eye, Prey saw the head jerk, before pulling back up into the roof. The feel of the mind zipped above Prey and emerged back outside the room. Prey sensed the pony drop back down to ground level and phase back in.
'-buck, North Star would be better at dealing with this. Should I go back in or not?-'
That all but proved it, there was some kind of restriction on the magic of the artifact, one which forced the user to return to full solidity regularly. The stallion had retreated to safety outside the room to do so first for a reason. But what was the cause? What could it be?
And then Prey lost connection with the thief's mind as the pony came towards him. The hooded stallion stepped through the wall like a ghost, blue jewel set in his gilded chestplate shimmering.
Prey jumped, spinning around to face them as if he hadn't known of their approach. The stallion regarded Prey, but he hadn't returned to solidity just yet, perhaps sensing a trap.
Prey crouched, affecting wide eyed fear. It was no great acting feat. His legs were still trembling. The hooded head turned to regard Lemon Pink, who was still playing the part of being down and out. The hood must've had some obscuring enchantment on it, because there was no way shadows naturally collected that thickly. Prey couldn't see their face, but he could read anger in the unicorn's body language plenty clearly enough.
The stallion took three incorporeal steps sideways, putting Prey between himself and Lemon Pink. Prey's heart sank. Lemon couldn't fire now. Only then did the stallion drop back into the real world.
Prey was immediately hit with their angry thoughts; '-unrepentant greedy thief! Throwing her own adopted daughter under the cart to beg for her-'
"What do you want?" Prey demanded again, hoping he could get the stallion to start monologuing now that he thought he'd won. Prey still gripped the blue ribbon, tightly wrapped around his cloven hoof.
"Murderer," The stallion stated. His accent was clipped and precise, like a teacher's, "Murderer. Thief. Bandit. Traitor. That is what your mother is, little filly." He spat.
"What? We've never even done anything to you!" Prey lied, further baiting him.
"A liar on top of all else as well then. How much of what she told you was even the truth, if any? Do you even know what your adoptive mother has hidden under Canterlot mountain? Do you know about the diamond dogs she's murdered?"
'-Celestia this is disgusting. I hate warlocks like these-'
"No, no she wouldn't do anything like that," Prey protested, "You're lying! You invaded. It's your fault."
The unicorn stepped aggressively forwards, bristling, "Ignorant filly! You have no idea what we've been forced to do to protect the peace because of ponies just like-"
Prey dropped flat right in the middle of the unicorn's outraged rant. This was why you never attempted pointless talk. It distracted you from the reality of the kill or be killed situation you were in. Prey barely saw a flash of red light streak over his head as he hit the floor.
And for once, Prey heard it hit. A shout of pain, the clatter of the unicorn falling over, unable to phase in time. But he wasn't dead if he could shout.
That red flash was supposed to be lethal if aimed right. A concentrated spike of force, simple and uncomplicated, meant to just pierce a hole. It didn't have much stopping power, more like a red needle of magic than anything else. It took far more control than it took power to cast, making it ideal for the magically depleted Lemon Pink.
But it still hadn't killed the thief. Prey raised his head to find the unicorn clutching at his face under the hood. Lemon had aimed to kill him in one go, wagering on managing to score a headshot.
The force spike should've gone straight through his unarmoured head, but it hadn't. Whatever unknown protection enchantments the pony had on him must extend to magical attacks too.
'Zoma'Grika.'
Prey scrambled to his hooves and flung himself at the downed unicorn, going against all his screaming instincts to get away from the much larger and stronger enemy.
The ribbon snaked out from his hoof mid air, almost like it had a foul life of its own, eager to latch onto the unicorn like a snake.
It all happened so fast, and he was too slow. Prey thought the ribbon touched, but it didn't. The stallion had phased. Prey's ill advised lunge carried him skidding through the pony. For a moment he lost sight of the room as it all went dark until he emerged on the other side. Prey cursed, scrambling to turn around to face the unicorn.
The prone stallion returned to solid just long enough to lash out with a rear leg right into Prey's chest.
Prey instinctively tried to grab for the leg as he was booted away, but caught nothing. Whether he missed or just slipped straight through again he didn't know. Prey flipped over and smacked into the floor, hard. He hacked, doubled over. His ribs! His screaming rib!
Red flash, red flash, red flash!
Through watering eyes, Prey saw Lemon was casting again and again in succession as quickly as she could manage, not trying to connect, just trying to keep the thief intangible so he couldn't attack.
Prey managed to get to his knees, but no further. His chest hurt too much. He gasped out, "Air. Needs air."
Lemon abruptly stopped casting, although her horn still shimmered red. When Prey looked, eyes blurry, he saw the cloaked stallion had vanished again, sinking into the floor and retreating back out of the room.
"Where?" Lemon asked, back to her hooves finally, although still markedly unsteady.
Prey could only point to outside, the direction the mind had gone, "Air." He gasped again.
Prey didn't get time to explain further. He jerked his head to the left wall, eyes wide, "Incoming-!"
The thief barrelled through the wall in a dead charge, no subtle peeking through first this time. As his tail left the wall, the stallion's hooves struck the stone as he phased back in.
Lightning raced up the length of his horn as he continued his headlong charge at Lemon.
Her red force spike went through his center mass before he could finish. Instead of puncturing a lung, all it did was send stone slivers flying off the far wall.
The thief had to drop his spell with a crack of discharged lightning, but didn't slow his spectral gallop.
"Wh-" Lemon tensed, and he ran right through her and went on to vanish into the opposite wall.
Prey wheezed, "He'll be back-"
The stallion reappeared, charging back out of the wall coming from the opposite direction now. Once again Lemon's spell went off in the nick of time and the intangible pony ended up harmlessly galloping through the far wall again.
Prey tried to get out of the middle of the floor. His head jerked to the side, "There-"
Again, the galloping form of the stallion appeared from the wall, coming from a different angle. This time however, he didn't even try to cast. The red flash lit up the room again as Lemon was forced to fire anyway when he was almost on top of her, just to stop him from phasing back in and ramming her.
Again, he sailed soundlessly though her, and again, vanished into the far wall.
He was going to keep coming, keep charging through like this while invulnerable, waiting for Lemon to either tire herself out or make a mistake. Lemon wasn't a magi, she couldn't keep casting near forever. A crude, simple, but effective tactic.
From the left this time, the cloaked figure burst forth. Lemon fired, and the thief vanished again, but five seconds later he was back, coming in at another angle. He was smart and patient, wearing them down first.
A third, a fourth, a fifth time, Lemon casting her red magic at the last second, and Prey frantically signalling where the stallion was going to attack from just before he appeared. The hooded unicorn had rapidly taken control of the fight and the scales were becoming more and more unbalanced every second. He had them completely trapped in here.
They couldn't keep this up. Prey forced himself up from his knees, a groaning hiss escaping through clenched teeth. It was difficult to breathe, his lungs felt trapped in his too tight rib cage, 'Got to get to Lemon! Gotta' get to Lemon!'
Lemon had what he needed. He'd figured out what the restriction was. The thief needed air. That's why he kept reappearing outside between each charge, to grab another breath of air.
The magic of his strange chestplate may let the wearer fade in and out of existence on some level, but that level also excluded air. He could only take what he had in his lungs when he phased out.
Prey ducked, a red flash winged past too close to his head, trying to get closer to Lemon Pink, who was sweating with the strain. The stallion's attacks were coming from every direction now, jumping out from the floor and walls, and dropping out of the ceiling.
Prey finally managed to stumble up to Lemon's side, eyes watering with every step, but he had no time for pain. He bumped into her, grabbing at the inner lining of her cloak. She had it here somewhere, Prey knew she did. Where? Where?!
Fear made Prey's shaking hooves fly. He yanked out a square drawstring pouch and staggered away from her, getting clear.
"Fail on the next cast." He wheezed out the order.
There was a moment's hesitation, a flicker in Lemon's eyes where she obviously disagreed with Prey. The thief came bursting through the wall again and Lemon hastily whipped up her horn around. The spell flashed red-and promptly fizzled out as if she'd lost control of it.
The thief was almost on top of her, literally less than a hoof away. He was too close to reappear to cast a spell in time. So he phased back in and rammed her instead.
The thief was a stallion, larger than Lemon Pink, in light armour, not to mention whatever protective enchantments he had on him, and was travelling at speed.
The charging stallion hit Lemon in her chest with his armoured shoulder. Lemon Pink made a sound like a hiccup crossed with a kicked dog. Her hooves left the ground as she went airborne for a second. She landed ungracefully on her back in a tangle of cloak and legs.
The hooded stallion had barely been slowed by his impact with Lemon, and if he tried to stop now, he'd hit the wall horn first. So he didn't stop, vanishing through the wall, but he'd be back any second now before Lemon could recover. Prey reared back, drawstring clenched in his teeth to throw. He teetered there, ribs screaming, unable to breathe as he frantically tried to sense which direction the thief was coming from.
'There!' Prey whipped his head in an arc, letting go of the pouch, then fell over clutching his ribs.
Through the wall the hooded unicorn came in a phantasmal charge. Horseshoes rang on the floor as the stallion phased in, horn levelled at the downed Lemon Pink.
Then the fine orange powder drifting in the air from the thrown pouch got under his hood, and he completely forgot all about casting.
The stallion screamed, shockingly loud in the maintenance room. And what went hoof in hoof with screaming was breathing in to scream. He sucked in a lungful of the burning kerash root powder.
He howled like a wounded animal, staggering blindly into the wall, clutching at his face. He choked, gagged, and screamed, breaking off into a wracking coughing fit.
"Shoot! Get him!" Prey shrieked.
Lemon Pink wobbly aimed her horn at the screaming thief's back, clenched teeth bared as she forced her front hooves under herself.
The thief's choking howls of pain abruptly cut off. Prey looked. The unicorn was dragging himself through the wall, fumbling for something at his side, an amber gemstone.
A few moments later as Prey stared at the wall, the muffled hacking and coughing resumed from outside. Then there was a large wash of magic which stung Prey's hooves like fire-ants, and the unmistakable *clap!* of displaced air which came from classic unicorn teleportation.
Lemon Pink's magic faded from her horn. Prey stared, one hoof still clutching his ribs, "He... escaped?"
The thief had just gotten away. He'd just escaped, as simple as that. It had all happened so fast.
The hooded stallion had seen Lemon and Prey's faces. He could identify them. And he'd just escaped, and/or gone to get reinforcements.
The artifact wielding thief had waltzed into Prey's lair, killed one veropede, crippled the other, waltzed out, then stumbled across him and Lemon in blind luck, fought them both off despite Prey's tricks, and had still gotten away in the end.
Fury boiled up inside Prey, hot and thick. It dulled the pain of his ribs and almost made him forget how scared he was. Almost.
"No one steals from me!" Prey spat, striking the ground ineffectually with a hoof, "No one."
But they had. And Prey was scared.
---
It took a few minutes for the last particles of the burning orange powder cloud to all drift to the floor, and allow Prey and Lemon respectively to limp through it to reach the door. They did so, very careful not to kick up any puffs of the flour-fine orange granules.
Normally, Lemon would've cast an air bubble and swept up all of the powder back up to leave no evidence. But normally, blinding powders weren't mixed with ground up marinated kerash root. Standard unicorn magic had a hard time getting any sort of grip on kerash root, it being a naturally occurring dark magic saturated plant.
Normally, this still wouldn't have stopped Lemon from using a simple water cantrip spell to condense a half cup's worth of water from the air to sprinkle over the powder, dampening it into clumps. But normally, Lemon wasn't magically drained and exhausted.
And normally, Prey didn't have to worry about a diamond dog getting his scent. But the burning powder strewn across the floor removed any chance of that.
When they exited the maintenance room, there was no sign of the incapacitated thief, or anyone else beneath the grey concrete overhang for that matter.
They didn't linger, and hurried away as fast as they could manage. They didn't know where the thief had teleported to, but even if he retreated straight to his allies, it would be a while before the incapacitated pony was able to stop coughing and crying long enough to tell them about Prey and Lemon. They had to get out of the area before that happened.
Prey was betting that amber crystal he'd seen for an instant was actually a predetermined teleport destination. All it would've required was the raw mana from the user to activate. How else could the unicorn have been able to teleport whilst in his agonised and blind state?
Plus, if the destination had been anywhere outside of Canterlot, the unicorn would've definitely needed a boost to get there. Teleporting was a high end and very complicated spell, and four out of five unicorns who mastered it still couldn't get further than about a mile. Plus, there were also all kinds of teleport blocking enchantments around certain places in Canterlot, like the Royal Bank, hospitals, the Guard jail cells, and the Palace.
Prey hated unicorns. He hated their magic. He hated them and how easy they naturally had everything. And he especially hated having to fight them.
The open streets of Canterlot, with their groups of happily oblivious ponies passing by, didn't feel safe. They felt like a sham, a falsehood, a pretty lie to the violent danger Lemon and Prey had just escaped.
There were ponies laughing. Why were they laughing? They shouldn't be laughing. It felt eerily wrong.
There shouldn't be anyone chasing after them yet, but what if? What if one of these chatting ponies was secretly trailing him and Lemon, just waiting for the perfect moment to strike? His enemies were unicorns, they could hide in plain sight in a city of ponies.
Every horn he saw passing by spurred him to fresh fear, so recently renewed.
This all felt so, so... Prey didn't have the right word. The fight had been so abrupt, so sudden, as violence often was.
For all he'd been expecting the danger and known it was inevitable, he still hadn't been expecting it. His stomach still lurched at every painful step, just waiting for the violence to pounce again out of nowhere.
"They now know about the sewer." Prey said to Lemon as he limped along, only taking small, short steps. He'd been hoping the pain in his ribs would settle. It hadn't. Every step hurt his chest.
"But they do not know where in the sewers." Lemon Pink said. She was also limping, favouring her front left leg. She was too magically drained to cast an illusionary disguise over herself, so her normal pink coat and tri-coloured mane were on full display to everyone who looked.
"But they do know it's somewhere in the sewers. They may have some magic to scan the tunnels and find our second makeshift lair." Prey returned.
"Yes, Prey. That is certainly possible. What shall we do?"
Prey was quiet for a while, thinking as haltingly limped/trotted along. They crossed the street between a gap in the carts, and under Silver Shoal's arch, a purely decorative engraved structure that held no functional purpose whatsoever.
Prey was scared, but he couldn't let fear rule his actions. He had to be objective and take the most logical course of action. He didn't know what to do, but doing nothing was definitely the worst possible choice. Sometimes there are no good options, and you just have to pick one.
Prey came to a decision.
"We can't move from the sewers. Trying to smuggle the veropede out now is bound to get us caught. And despite everything, the sewers are the best place to hide from the diamond dog trackers they have. You can't leave tracks in water, and the smell itself will hide any scent down there. Hopefully." He added with a groan.
"There is no chance of any dog obtaining our scent from back there either." Lemon observed, breathing shallowly, and referring to the burning blinding powder still scattered about the maintenance room.
And right now, they were walking down main streets, frequented by thousands of ponies every day, scents and paths all criss crossing each other.
Perhaps things weren't as bad as they seemed, Prey dared to hope. Then he remembered the strange but powerful magic artifact the hooded thief had wielded.
No, things were certainly even worse than they appeared, because Prey didn't know what was coming next, and his enemy now knew his face. And how many sheep were there in Canterlot? As far as he knew, just the one. He couldn't flee Luna's generous 'employment' either.
"We do the same we've been doing all along," Prey said, "Make runes. Prepare. Look for an opportunity to strike back."
Patience is what separates good hunters from dead hunters. But reaction speed is what divided live prey from dead prey.
------
It was late evening, just before twilight started to deepen, when Prey returned to the flat, carrying a small box and drained to the edge of apathy. He'd created yet more runes upon runes. The demand for arrays and runic defences was never ending, and the need had never been more pressing than now.
Of course, Prey did not go to bed without first knocking on Crimson's flat to check he was okay. The door was pulled swiftly open, and on the other side Prey found one of the two Night Guards assigned to Crimson staring down at him.
'-Luna damn it. I would've won that bet if I'd taken it-'
Prey offered the thestral mare a slow nod, "Good evening. Is Crimson around?" He asked politely. He didn't care what bet the mare was thinking about, he was only here to see his friend.
The mare's ear stud showed her to be clan Fellieon, and for some odd reason, she'd tied off her long warrior braid with a number of pink elastic bands. It wasn't any of Prey's concern.
"How many armour stands are there in the left alcove of the ISND's office?" The mare asked.
Prey raised one eyebrow, but it was obviously a security question to make sure he wasn't an impostor, because there were obviously hordes of imposter lambs roaming Canterlot, "Trick question. None."
"Just checking. And yes, Crimson's here." The mare nodded, stepping aside. Her griffin claw boots clanked softly on the floorboards.
'-really though, there's like, only one sheep foal in the whole of Canterlot, so who else could it be?-'
'If they only knew about the Mimics.' Prey thought, forcing himself not to limp as he walked in. Although the poultice he'd applied earlier and the herbs he'd eaten had helped, his ribs still hurt, but it wasn't as bad as he'd earlier feared. None of his ribs were cracked, and Prey was very good at medicine and healing, courtesy of Snake.
Out of the two of them, Lemon Pink had required more medical attention in the end.
Walking into the bare flat, Prey immediately looked for Crimson.
He didn't have to look hard, the red pegasus was in the middle of the flat, his wing blades out, and running through the movements of his training kata. With slow, but smooth precision, Crimson brought one wing high, rising up onto three legs, then transitioned into a kick of some kind, then a slow motion strike.
Prey watched Crimson for a moment, then dropped the box and sat to help relieve his ribs, glancing at the second Night Guard temporarily assigned to Crimson, who was standing guard by the window. Prey supposed that Taffy's obsession with curtains wasn't entirely without merit. If he'd had curtains, Crimson could've closed them instead of being backlit in front of an open viewport into his flat. Behind Prey, the Guard mare had shut the door and was standing at ease.
Prey waited a beat, then coughed to get Crimson's attention, although the pegasus definitely already knew Prey was there.
"Yes Prey?" Crimson asked, not halting his exercise.
"I thought I'd just check in before I went to bed. That, you know, you hadn't been attacked or anything." Prey said.
"Not today, no." Crimson answered, sweeping a low kick at the legs of an imaginary opponent.
Not today. That really summed up Crimson's feelings of nervous frustration. It hadn't happened today, but that just meant it would happen some other time. Crimson could only wait and try to be ready when it did.
"It may not happen at all." The thestral stallion by the window spoke up, keeping one eye on the falling night through the glass.
That was true. Maybe nothing would happen, but...
"Better safe than sorry." The thestral mare summed up nicely.
Prey tilted his head towards the two Night Guards, ear flopping, "I take it they're both getting relieved at some point tonight, right?"
These same two Night Guards had been here since this morning. That felt like such a long time ago. Between then and now, Prey had almost died. Inside, he was feeling a lot less composed about that whole affair than he was letting outwardly show. It was all a mask.
"Unless you're not actually sleeping here Crimson, but safe somewhere else...?" Prey trailed off, trying not to sound too hopeful. Safe inside the walls of the Palace would be ideal.
"Nah, we're going to be replaced in about an hour's time." The window Guard answered before Crimson could. He glanced at the first stars appearing outside, "Maybe a bit less actually."
"That. What Kitesail said." Crimson agreed, doing some kind of rising lunge that Prey knew he could never have emulated even if he wasn't just a runt lamb.
"And did anything of importance happen today?" Prey checked, gingerly rubbing at his ribs.
"No. I mean, not really? I don't think the thing with the magpie and the paint counts as important." Crimson shot a glance at the thestral mare.
Prey could almost feel the smug amusement coming off Kitesail, the Night Guard standing by the window, as he laughed in his own thoughts, while behind him, Prey picked out a mix of embarrassed and resigned sounding thoughts.
'-oh come on, nopony could've seen that magpie coming-'
No doubt it had something to do with the pink elastic bands in the mare's braid.
There was probably a funny story in there. It could've been the greatest comedy act of the decade, and Prey wouldn't have found it funny right now. The forming bruise under his wool across his ribs made it impossible to forget an attack could come at any time.
But Prey kept his polite mask on, projecting polite disinterest, "Ah, okay."
Prey just so didn't care. He didn't care didn't care didn't care! He wanted to converse uninterrupted with Crimson, and these two Night Guards were getting in his way, and if they didn't get their useless hides out of the room right now-!
Prey smiled apologetically, tugging at one drooping ear in a distracted manner, "Sorry to interrupt your practice Crimson, but could I possibly talk with you for a minute? If it's not too much trouble."
Crimson paused in his kata, "What do you mean? We are talking right now-Oh, you meant alone."
Kitesail shifted at the window unhappily, "We'd be remiss in our duty if we were to leave you unguarded."
Crimson folded his wings, wingblades sliding away, "It's Prey. If Prey wants to speak with me alone, then it's in my best interests to speak with him. Alone. Trust me on this."
"That came out wrong. What I meant was, it would be the perfect time for anypony watching the flat to strike if we were to leave." Kitesail amended.
'-as if that's what I was worried about. Thestral warrior versus undersized lamb, ha! Actually, no, that wouldn't even be funny-'
Crimson remained as unphased as ever. "I would like to speak with Prey alone please."
The two Night Guards exchanged looks, communicating silently. He frowned. She shrugged.
'-well, Crimson Trace is probably a better warrior than me in any case-'
'-and it's not likely anything will really happen in only a minute when we're right outside-'
"Okay, we'll be just outside. Not that I think anything will happen, but it's our duty." Kitesail said, but he was still reluctant. It was his duty to voice that protest, and as everyone knew by now, thestrals took duty very seriously.
The door couldn't close on the two thestrals soon enough to suit Prey, leaving Prey and Crimson alone in the nearly completely bare flat.
"I-"
"Are you hurt Prey?" Crimson asked, head swinging towards him.
Prey fumbled, on the back hoof for a moment, "I-what? Why'd you ask that?"
Crimson took a deep breath, tilting his head back, "It's not that I can smell any blood, but, you smell a bit like hurt." Crimson awkwardly explained.
"Hurt has a smell? What's it like?" Prey asked, for a moment curious.
"It's not... How to describe...? I think, it's a bit like heated metal, or faintly unpleasant mushrooms."
"Really?"
"No," Crimson admitted, "I'm mainly just guessing. But you look..."
His amber gaze roamed over Prey from hoof to tail, eyes which hated lies and would rather see an unpleasant truth instead. He was a better person than Prey like that.
"Tired. Very tired. You're always tired Prey. Everyday, you come back from somewhere which you won't tell me tired and... empty like."
Crimson, quiet contained Crimson, always did see more than Prey would have wanted.
"I..." Prey couldn't lie, "I'm tired yes. Very tired. Sick and tired of all this..."
Prey vaguely waved his hoof, indicating nothing and everything at the same time, "...All this stuff. Constantly being under threat. Never being safe. I hate this place. I hate being here, I hate Canterlot, I hate magic, I hate being a runt, I hate being forced to risk my life, and I just want to go back-"
Prey quickly stopped himself. It wasn't that Crimson wouldn't understand, but Prey was skirting on the edge of saying too much.
Crimson's wings were twitching, but he hadn't anything to say to that. Words were cheap, and any he might voice would just ring hollow.
Prey coughed awkwardly, then regretted it as it made his ribs twinge, "Anyway, I didn't come to waste your time with pointless complaints. I wanted..." He stopped, shuffling his hooves, before squaring his shoulders and sitting up straight.
"Crimson, I've got a gift for you." Prey declared.
There was a beat of silence.
"A gift?"
"Yes."
"A gift."
"That's what I said."
"For me."
"Yes."
"A gift. Another gift. For me."
"That's right."
"From you."
"Yes."
"Another gift, for me, from you."
"Yes?"
"And... What is this gift?"
Prey pushed the small makeshift box over to Crimson.
There was a brief rustle of newspaper wrappings.
"This is another ring."
"Yes."
"Another mane ring."
"Technically it's an actual mane band this time, but yes I suppose so. It seemed fitting I should provide a replacement."
"And... This ring isn't going to be anything like the last one, is it?"
"No-"
"Not that I'm not grateful Prey, because I am! Very grateful. It saved all our lives. It's just, I mean... Look what's still happening because of last time."
"No no, it's nothing like that." Prey hastened to assure him, "I swear it's not magical to the best of my knowledge. It's just carved iron wood as far as I can tell."
Crimson's ears tilted apologetically, "Sorry Prey. I mean, it's just, you know..."
"It's just plain wood. Nothing like the jade necklace."
"I was just checking."
"Oh, and here's your second gift."
"...Pardon?"
Prey reached a forehoof into his wool scruff, and drew out a long metallic feather. The metal tines were impossibly fine, like a real feather, yet despite that, the hair thin metal didn't break. But for all that, it glittered and shone in the light like it was made of silver water.
It represented the entirety of the remains of Prey's stolen electrite. Or to put it into a gold value, tens of thousands gold worth of bits. Crimson stared at the brilliant feather, the exact length of one of his own pinions. "I, how did you even carry that in your-? No, forget that, what is this Prey?"
"Half my body mass is just wool. Runt here, remember? It's easy to line anything long and thin into my wool. I just have to keep it flat against my skin, for example a pencil-"
"Prey."
"Okay," Prey winced, "It's an artificial magical feather. And yes. It's probably exactly what you think it is."
Crimson stared at Prey's face, then at the feather held outstretched in the cleft of the lamb's hoof. "Who did you take this from?"
"No one."
"Prey, it's a magical artifact. Are you going to tell me you picked it up from a yard sale again?" Prey could hear the strains of genuine worry and fear in Crimson's tone.
"I didn't steal it, and no one is going to come looking for this feather like Lord Vanish did, I can assure you."
Prey paused, "Let me rephrase that, because it sounded way more sinister than I meant. No one is going to come looking for this because it was made specifically for you."
Crimson's gaze was sceptical, "How? Something like this must cost... I have no idea, but lots. How did you get it?"
Prey hesitated, "I know someone."
"You know someone." Crimson repeated.
"Yes, and I asked them to make it."
Crimson looked at the glimmering metal, "This is why you wanted one of my old feathers." He sighed.
"Yes."
"Prey, this is too much. I can't take it."
"But it's for you! I went to a lot of effort to get this made."
"A lot of effort," Crimson looked sharply into Prey's face, "What did you do? What did you promise? Prey, what did you promise them?"
"Nothing. There's no cost you need to worry about. No debt collectors are going to come to kick in my door in the middle of the night, I promise you." Prey assured him, trying to get Crimson to take the feather.
He didn't. "Prey, I...I don't know what you did to get this. But I didn't, I mean, I don't want you doing something dangerous or immoral for me."
"Please Crimson, I got this for you. And it's fine, it wasn't dangerous." Prey assured him, skipping over how the electrite was actually all stolen, "Take it. Please."
Crimson's gaze was wary as he scrutinised the feather, "What does it do, exactly?"
"Things," Prey answered evasively, "Stuff."
"Prey..."
Prey shrugged uncomfortably, "Alright alright. It doesn't do anything active. It's got lots of passive enchantments on it though."
Runes actually, but for Crimson's understanding, enchantments were functionally the same.
"It's supposed to help guard you against magic, it varies to what extent between different types. It also has some notice-me-not magic on it, and it's not going to fall out or get blown out by itself-"
"Fall out?" Crimson interrupted.
"Yes. It acts like one of your normal feathers. Just put it in your wing and it'll blend in."
"You don't just put feathers in, that's not how-"
"Just slip it between your pinions. It'll work, you'll see. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, it is also supposed to help you fly faster."
"What? Fly faster? Wh-How?" Crimson demanded.
The answer was a complicated one, involving passively channelling ambient magic in safe quantities into Crimson's pegasus circuits, thereby enhancing his instinctive weather and air mastery, all without requiring any conscious input. And that was only the surface, the feather also helped funnel air, create a better aerodynamic flow, lessen the strain on Crimson's muscles, better circulate blood through the wings during flight, and a host of other smaller effects.
Prey actually felt a bit jealous. But he couldn't make one of these for himself, because they worked off the passive magic inherent in the host's body. Ponies, even non-unicorns, were full of the stuff. Sheep? Not so much.
"It's complicated. The short answer is magic, and I really don't understand it all. But it works." Prey had wanted to give Crimson wing blades capable of slicing through steel and deflecting magic, but he couldn't. Anything big like last time would get noticed.
Crimson looked at the feather for a long minute. Prey saw worry there, leaking through the impassive mask. The jade necklace had exacted a heavy price from Crimson, and in the end it had been stolen from him. Once burnt, twice careful. But it had also saved them against the scarecrow and the kindersnatches while it was still in his possession.
"You don't want me to tell anyone else about this, do you." Crimson said. It wasn't a question.
"I would prefer it if you didn't. One of the conditions was I didn't tell anybody about who I got it from. Plus, it's my gift for you. It has nothing to do with anyone else. They don't understand."
"Don't understand what?"
"Understand what it's like to be hunted. To fight for your life, to be afraid and so desperate for a weapon that you'll use anything." Prey said grimly, not a trace of levity in his voice.
"Ah." Crimson turned to look at his wing blades, folded away but still attached, "I can understand that."
"So, could you please...?" Prey waggled the feather at Crimson, trying to hide how nervous he was. The two Night Guards waiting outside would be getting antsy. This should've been simple, but Crimson was being far more cautious about receiving a new magical artifact than Prey had predicted. He probably shouldn't have been surprised. The only reason Crimson was even entertaining the idea of using a strange, unknown artifact was because it was coming from Prey, and Prey's last gift had saved all their lives.
"Prey, be honest. Should I take this or not?"
"Yes." Prey answered with all the sincerity he could muster.
"Alright then." Crimson reached out, and Prey dropped the metal feather onto his waiting hoof.
Crimson looked at the feather as it shimmered in his hoof. It was very light, not like metal at all. "Alright. I've got it. Yes. Well. Okay. So now what?"
"Khe-he." The giggle escaped unbidden from Prey as he smiled, then winced and touched a hoof to his ribs, "It's quite simple. Here, hold out your wing."
"Does it matter which?"
"No, either should do. It doesn't work by strengthening only one wing, but rather your natural internal magic. So it doesn't matter which one."
Crimson spread out his right wing, the feathers played wide.
"Alright, so just sort of slip it between two pinions."
"Won't it just fall out?" Crimson asked, nevertheless doing as Prey had said.
"It'll be fine, see?"
And Crimson did see. The metal feather slipped in between two pinions, and then seemed to twist and slide over the organic feathers all by itself, fitting seamlessly into place. It shivered, and abruptly it wasn't shimmering silver anymore, but deep red, just like Crimson's normal feathers, perfectly blending in. It had a simple notice-me-not effect on it too, just in case anyone did somehow have time to count and notice the uneven number of pinions.
Crimson blinked, flexed his wing, folding and unfolding it. The feather moved completely naturally, just one of a dozen more. It really was completely indistinguishable in Crimson's wing. He tried flapping, and it didn't fall or shift.
"It doesn't even feel any different. I'm not even unbalanced." Crimson murmured, bending his wing to bring the pinion's up close for his scrutiny.
"Excellent." Prey beamed with delight.
"I... thank you Prey. I think. I hope we both won't regret this."
"You won't," Prey promised, "Mostly you won't even know it's there. It's more of a 'just-in-case' kind of insurance."
The feather certainly had a few hidden 'insurance' like effects. Hopefully, they would never be needed. But standing here, all the hours he and Lemon Pink had invested into the feather's creation were worth it. He'd been working on it since before the thieves had raided his lair, but the discovery Crimson might be a target had pushed Prey to rush its completion.
Prey looked at Crimson's wing, and couldn't see the metal feather even though he knew it was there. It was a miniature masterpiece. Prey's smile slipped away as his eyes caught the glint of unassuming gold on Crimson's forelegs, and felt a corresponding weight on his own.
'I can create such things, but I still can't discover anything more about how these filthy alicorn bands work.'
At times, Prey even forgot the two gold bands were there, at this point just like another unwanted piece of his runt body. But every time he woke up in the morning and stretched, or looked down, or reached for a page, or climbed the stairs, he saw the tracer bands and was reminded.
"Right. Well, I've kept you from practice long enough. Your two guards are probably just about ready to burst in to make sure I haven't kidnapped you or something." Prey said, getting up and enduring the pressure on his ribs the movement caused; "And thank you for listening to my request."
"Any time," Crimson cast around the empty flat, "I won't tell, I mean, I will keep this between us. And, sleep well Prey. Luna watch over you."
"Thanks. You too."
The last thing Prey wanted was the night alicorn watching over him. He feared it would be the last thing.
---I---