A corpse greeted them in a stench of mould and rot. A corpse that was still alive, thrashing, breathing, and trying to scream.

"Merciful Celestia!" Lilly reeled back in horror. Scenic spun around and covered his eyes.

'-no, this... no, this can't...-', Gloom couldn't move, Crimson neither, both frozen midway in pulling open the chest section.

Prey just felt extremely tired, seeing exactly what he'd feared. 'What's worth more? A pound of flesh or a gallon of blood?'

The kindersnatch had taken both from its victim.

In the oil lantern's shadowy light, the donkey's emancipated and twisted body was revealed. The jack's fur was missing in patches, matted and turned lifeless grey, the very colour leached from it.

But there was still life in the donkey, because the kindersnatch was forcing the jack's body to live on.

Roots grew into the donkey, grafted into veins, bulging beneath knotted and stretched skin. It was terrifying, wrong, disgusting to witness, but worse was the poor jack's head. The never ending gurgling was now even louder.

Prey realised what the kindersnatch was. A parasite. Not an evil spirit, but a magically created parasite.

'Black magic. Blood magic. Dark magic. Voodoo magic. Ritual magic.' Such a twisted creation could only come from one of those equally twisted branches of magic.

"No no nononono, this can't happen." Lilly was whispering in shock.

Prey heard Scenic gagging and retching, his stomach completely beyond his control, '-how can anypony still be alive like that?-'

The reason for the constant gurgling was finally revealed. The donkey's frame did not look like it had the strength to breathe for itself. So the kindersnatch was doing it for the victim.

Thick roots grew down the donkey's throat and nose, forcing his airways wide and keeping the donkey's jaw permanently wedged open. Bundles of roots inside the lung sacks forced them to inflate and deflate, over and over. That gurgling was air being dragged ceaselessly in and out of his lungs.

A constant stream of drool fell from the donkey's mouth, tongue strapped down by gnarled tendrils. And his eyes. Red, swollen, sightlessly twitching, webs of hair fine roots ensnaring the orbs.

Lilly had begun crying, struck dumb by the brutality. Crimson's wings were shaking violently, the rest of his body frozen as he stared down into the kindersnatch.

Prey's face was empty. His heart matched. He studied the broken veined flesh, and thought about how familiar this was, in a far removed kind of way, to something from within the Deeper Green.

Prey'd predicted this was exactly what they'd find the moment he'd heard the broken mind of that first kindersnatch back at the ravine. They donkey before them was insane. The jack's mind had been shattered by pain and erased by suffering. This was all that was left.

What they were seeing in front of them wasn't an enslaved captive, or a mind controlled pawn, or even a victim. They were looking at a torture device, all opened up and its inner workings put on mind scarring display.

Gloom finally couldn't look for a second longer and staggered back, taking long, ragged breaths. '-evil flourishes where good withers. Oh Luna, it's disgusting-'

"Sir?" Scenic asked in a trembling voice, finally finished vomiting, "Can we... Can we even s-save somepony like, like this?"

Gurgling, in out, in out, it never ceased, it seemed to be deafening now, the sound of agony.

Lilly couldn't look at the kindersnatch any longer either, she staggered over and with a choking heave, vomited up along side Scenic's puddle.

They were all stunned, minds backtracking to how they'd fought the kindersnatches, and how this was what they'd really been fighting underneath the wicker the whole time.

They may all have been frozen, but Prey wasn't. All of this, it was just one more horror and he wouldn't let himself flinch away from doing what he needed to understand their enemy.

Prey stood up on his hind hooves and stretched his hoof into the opened wicker cavity. He grabbed hold of one of the roots and pulled.

The root was tough, gnarled, and slippery. It was unwilling to come free, and took strings of flesh with it when it did.

The donkey weakly shuddered, his root infested eyes twitching about blindly. Crimson gaped at Prey, unable to even tell him to stop he was so shocked.

Prey ripped out another root, then a third, more blood and skin coming away as Prey ruthlessly continued.

"Stop it Prey!" Crimson finally managed to exclaim.

"I can't." Prey said, not looking up as he grasped the fourth root.

A barrier of feathers appeared an inch from his nose. Crimson's wing, blocking his view and forcing him to let go, "Stop it!"

"What're you doing Prey?" Gloom demanded.

Prey met their eyes, "What has to be done. We need to understand what's been done to these villagers. I don't want to do this anymore than you do, but this is the only way we can learn."

Gloom stared at the bloodied roots Prey had pulled out, bits of flesh clinging on. Everything seemed so inevitable. The deer and the holt, the scarecrow, their failure. They'd had no control over anything from the start.

"But you're hurting him. You're killing him."

"Look at him," Prey said tiredly, feeling that same sense of inevitability, "Hurting him, killing him? He's beyond hurt and should already be dead."

Prey was only speaking the truth as he saw it. The gurgling donkey should be dead. No one should be able to survive this. How could this count as life? This was torture. Crimson still had his wing shielding the kindersnatch's innards, blocking the view, unable to bring himself to look for the moment.

Gloom swallowed, "This... We can't help. Anything we do will only make it worse."

"Yes," Prey agreed, "This will certainly make it worse, because we don't know what we're doing. But we're trying to make it better."

Pulling the kindersnatch out of the donkey would kill him, almost certainly. Prey didn't have to say it, they could all see the truth of that. Scenic and Lilly stared ashen faced at Gloom, unable to think for themselves and just desperately wishing for their Sargent to take the lead and work a miracle.

'-the road to Tartarus is paved with good intentions-', Gloom's ears were pressed to his head as he stared down at the trapped villager. Then he looked back over at the other eleven captured kindersnatches.

'-this is already Tartarus-'

"Perhaps..." Crimson's voice was strained, hollow, "Perhaps...If, if we knew more, it might help us save the other victims."

Sacrifice one to have a slim chance of helping the others. That's what was being suggested.

Prey could hear the thoughts racing through Gloom's head, a torrent of them, like fish being forced through a funnel. Confusion, indecision, fear, horror, disgust.

'-but I don't want to be a monster-'

Guilt appeared and mixed into the shoal, '-but I'm willing to let Prey do it in my place? After how much I've already failed my squad and Luna? How is that any better?-'

It wasn't Gloom's call. Prey was going to do what needed to be done. But it would be easier if they would help, not hinder him. Because this was not going to be easy for anyone.

Gloom shut his eyes tight, "We try to help him. We try to help all of them."

It was terrible.

The three of them 'peeled' the kindersnatch away. It was horrible. Like pulling out barbs, the donkey's skin did not stay in one piece.

Gloom kept asking the donkey for forgiveness under his breath, even if it was clear the donkey was far past understanding.

Lilly couldn't watch for more than a minute before she vomited again and had to leave. Scenic had vomited three more times already, although by then he was doing nothing but emptily retching.

The Earth pony was now sitting on the ground his eyes tightly closed, covering his ears and humming as loudly as possible, trying to block it out.

Crimson sliced open the wicker beside the donkey's head. Prey pulled the piece away, and revealed more of the pale roots blocking the donkey's ears, looking like gnarled worms.

The gurgling now sounded more like crying and begging to their ears.

Prey didn't stop. He didn't need Snake to guide his hooves. He'd been forced to do all this before himself.

He kept pulling and cutting and peeling. And Gloom and Crimson helped.

They had blood on their hooves. The kindersntach's gurgling had grown even more strained, erratic. Bloody froth began to leak from the emaciated donkey's nose and mouth.

"Oh, Goddess!" Gloom had to turn away when he saw that, until he could steel his resolve again. Crimson was only breathing through his mouth, taking shallow sips of air, eyes half closed. As if that would help.

Prey didn't stop or rest. The sooner he could finish, the better it would be. Tainted blood seeped between his cleft hooves. He hated the sticky sensation. It was always nearly impossible to get out. Exactly like these kindersnatch roots.

They rolled the kindersnatch over, trying not to jar the donkey. It was a pointless effort. Every little movement brought the jack pain, one way or another.

Crimson sliced away the wicker mesh behind the donkey's head, piece by careful piece. Almost immediately however, the forced gurgling breathing grew even more strained and frothing. Prey's hooves were the smallest and most steady. He felt around under the cut wicker before slowly lifting it up. There, growing out the back of the donkey's withered neck, was a cluster of fine white roots, grafted into his spine. There must've been hundreds of the thread like roots.

The moment Prey saw that he stopped and let the piece go. He flicked blood droplets from his hooves and drew back, "There's no point in going any further."

"That's it?" Gloom asked emptily.

Gloom wasn't speaking to Prey, but he answered anyway. "It's interwoven with his spine. Removing the kindersnatch parasite will kill him. Leaving the kindersnatch grafted in will kill him. No matter what we do, it's already too late."

"We haven't tried everything. Perhaps this necklace can save him." Crimson protested, "You said it was a powerful artifact, didn't you Prey?"

Prey simply shook his head. Crimson was grasping at straws that didn't exist and they all knew it. They didn't know what the artifact did, aside from enhance the wearer's strength, but they'd already proven no one else but Crimson could use it.

Still, Crimson tried.

He tried pressing the glowing necklace to the donkey's wounds, he tried ordering it to heal the donkey out loud, he even tried placing the chain over the donkey's neck.

Nothing, and the moment the necklace left contact with Crimson, its glow faded into inertness. Crimson slumped despondently to the dirt, his carefully correct and upright posture all gone. The way he gripped the jade necklace indicated he wanted nothing more than to throw it to the ground and crush it under hoof. Gloom looked away.

Prey heard Lilly choking back sobs. Scenic was still blocking his ears and rocking, helmeted head between his hooves.

Prey saw their despair, could taste it thick in the air. There was nothing he could do to help, so he didn't even try. There was only one thing Prey could do, one of the few things he was good at.

Prey looked around until he found the wood axe lying forgotten at the edge of the pool of lantern light. He went and picked it up, holding it awkwardly behind the axe blade head. He walked back to the cut open pile of gurgling agony, and positioned the blade against the cluster of root hairs growing out of the donkey's spine.

"Stop!" Gloom shouted, suddenly blocking Prey, wing claw gripping the axe haft, "Don't! You'll kill him."

"I know." Prey said simply, "Didn't we already agree? We knew this was going to be the outcome."

"No, that doesn't matter. You can't decide there's no hope for him. Never give up hope!" Gloom yanked the axe from Prey's hooves.

Prey let him take it, but kept speaking, "He's already dead. Worse than dead. After pulling out all those roots, he's not going to last much longer, and he's in agony."

"That's no reason to- You're promoting assisted suicide, no, what you're suggesting is murder, Prey."

"Murder?" Prey looked at the poor donkey, or what was left of him. "You would call this murder?"

"We're not doing that," Gloom turned and hurled the axe away into the dark, "Not now, not ever! I, I knew we weren't going to be able to help, but we tried. We tried, because we thought maybe we could learn how to help the others. It didn't work, we failed. But that gives us no right to finish him off. He might somehow live. Perhaps Her Majesty can save him, and the others too. We can't give up on them. No matter what, ponies never have the right to end another's life."

Prey was awed by Gloom's show of conviction. Awed and infuriated.

Prey knew Gloom was no naive fool. Gloom had realised the most likely outcome when he gave the order to try and cut the donkey out. Gloom knew the realities of death. But even now, he was still holding fast to his beliefs and would not permit anyone to take the last step, even if it would bring the poor jack's suffering to an end.

'Why does this even matter to me?' Prey asked himself. The donkey was going to die. Even with all the medical knowledge he had from Snake, Prey knew there was nothing he could do to save the donkey. Even if the kindersnatch wasn't grafted into the donkey's nervous system, it'd done too much damage for him to ever repair in time.

"Okay." Prey said and sat down.

His legs were tired. He was tired.

If he didn't have to kill the donkey, then good. Despite all the times he'd done it, Prey hated killing, although hate was too tame of a word for his feelings on the matter.

Prey made himself focus on something else.

He studied the scarecrow's corpse instead. Devoid of legs and the foul orange light, it was just a shadowy hump the size of a small cart. He saw no clue as to how the warlock had animated the golem, or been commanding it from afar as their weapon of destruction.

"Sir?"

"..."

"Sir?"

"Yes Crimson?" Gloom finally responded.

"It...would be an act of mercy."

"I know it would Crimson. But it wouldn't be fair."

'As if life is fair.' Prey thought, looking away. What about any of this was fair? Alfalfa Dale was burning, its citizen's taken to be turned into copies of this thing lying before them. Mayflower's villagers were already all lost.

"Sir?"

"We're not killing him Crimson."

"I know sir. Sir?"

"...Yes Crimson?"

"It's too late for that. He's stopped breathing."

Lilly Bloom exploded.

"Buck these sugar ponyfeather butterscotch horseapples, and, gha! It's not fair! Buck! Buck! Buuuuck! That's just not fair! He can't just die!" Lilly screamed in fury, her voice echoing loudly around the abandoned village.

Was Gloom in any state himself to comfort the distraught mare? No, he'd just helped inadvertently kill this donkey, his heart hurt, and his head was full of black noise. But the duty fell to him as the Sargent to try and calm Lilly down.

However, this time, Gloom was too slow in getting himself together and finding the right words to say.

"Lilly-"

That was as far as Gloom got. Lilly was a pony, and she'd reached her breaking point. Without regard for the situation or her surroundings, Lilly's mind fixed upon what it could understand and went for it.

'-this has happened. Impossible! I refuse! I have to stop it from happening-'

"I'll turn them back into ponies myself, I'll save Alfalfa Dale! Shimmer, Atlas, hang on I'm coming!"

With that, Lilly bolted towards the dark forest in a wild gallop.

Prey stared in shock. The unicorn had completely lost her mind.

Crimson and Scenic both leapt to their hooves, dashing after Gloom who was already chasing after her. "Don't go into the forest! Lilly stop! You're not thinking-"

"I'm not the hero. I've got to become the hero!"

"Stop! Lilly please come back." Scenic shouted.

The edge of the pine forest, from within which so much grief and fear had emerged, was only ten yards from Mayflower's border. Ten yards was not far. Lilly crossed the gap in less than five seconds, still yelling about how she had to go and assist the Border Guards in saving Alfalfa Dale.

'Where is the line between danger and safety?'

Lilly was still shouting when the inky blackness under the trees edge whipped out tentacles of darkness and yanked her in.

Crimson could barely run, yet he tried.

"Lilly!" Scenic screamed. A moment later, his voice was drowned out by Lilly's own.

The Mama'duke reeled Lilly in, tightening its coils. It'd been hidden on the edge of the forest, no doubt drawn along in the wake of the kindersnatches and scarecrow, looking for a free meal. And Lilly had run right into its waiting clutches.

Lilly screamed desperately as the Mama'duke dragged her under its body, towards where its beak like jaws were hidden.

Scenic was sprinting to reach her. Gloom and Crimson were both injured and exhausted, and in that two second sprint they couldn't match Scenic's pace or keep up.

A lot happened in those two seconds. Scenic reached the oversized land octopus, and without slowing or changing direction was unceremoniously clotheslined by one tentacle faster than Prey could blink.

Lilly screamed for help again, trying to cast a shielding spell, "Help Help! Sargent Gloom please! Please don't let itAAAAAIIiiieeEEE!"

Prey heard a hollow *Clack*, like two blocks of wood banged together. It was followed by wordless screams of pain and agony.

Crimson finally arrived. His wing blades glowed jade green, blurred traces of light through the night.

The Mama'duke recoiled as its tentacles were severed, and tried to withdraw underneath the protective shell of its hollowed out rock. It didn't even retreat half way in before it was dead, Crimson somehow cleanly slicing the whole rock shell in half with one blow like it was no more than an apple, a flash of green light extending beyond the length of Crimson's wing blade in an afterimage.

But it was too late. Prey could hear Lilly's screams. Those were not screams of fear. They were the animalistic screams of delirious pain.

Scenic scrambled to his hooves, "Lilly, oh Lilly. Shh! It'll be alright, it's-Oh Celestia no!"

"Get her out! Get her back into Mayflower!" Gloom yelled over the mare's screams, skidding up and grabbing at Lilly.

Crimson also attempted to bend and pull Lilly out and almost fell drunkenly over, heaving for air, the necklace having drained him even further.

Prey sat on the dirt, covered in blood and filth, and tiredly looked at them all. Behind him the captured kindersnatches writhed.

He hadn't moved to run after Lilly. He hadn't moved when the Mama'duke had grabbed her or when she'd started screaming. Prey felt like he'd foreseen it all, like he'd somehow known this was going to happen and it wasn't a surprise.

'Stupid foolish unicorn,' He shook his head, 'Why would you run off into the forest like that?'

The Mama'duke seemed to be clamped down firmly in a death grip, because as Prey looked on he saw their frantic efforts to free Lilly were failing. The severed head of the monster was still locked onto Lilly's upper body.

"Forget it, just drag it all back." Gloom ordered, "Lilly, hold on. Can you hear me? We're going to have to move you. It's going to hurt, but bear with it."

Lilly's scream's were already turning mewling in nature, growing quieter. To go so quickly from full blown screaming to weakening did not mean good things for Lilly Blossom's chances. It meant the bite was so serious that either blood loss or shock were already setting in.

'Of all the ways to go tonight, by giant land arthropod was not on the list.' Prey thought, blankly watching them bringing Lilly back into the lamp light.

But that's what happened in the forest. Sudden unexpected violence, something needing to feed its hunger, and the survivors were left stunned and alone in the aftermath. It was just the cycle of nature taking its course.

In the background, the tortured gurgling of the other eleven kindersnatches went on, a prelude choir to accompany the inevitable outcome.

The three ponies almost tripped as they shuffled hastily back, trying to keep Lilly's body level and not drop her. The hunk of Mama'duke's flesh was half as big as Lilly herself, still suctioned onto her like some massive slug. In death, the monster's chameleon like flesh had turned grey and lost all pigment. Scenic bit ahold and tried to pull it off, straining with all his weight, but even dead, the Mama'duke was still all muscle and wouldn't relinquish its hold on its last victim. Lilly screamed shrilly.

"Stop it, you're only hurting her more!" Gloom snapped.

Aghast, Scenic immediately let go, falling back onto his rump.

"Stand back, I'll cut it off." Crimson said, presenting his jade enhanced blades.

In some twisted parody of what they'd just done with the kindersnatch, Crimson cut off slices and chunks until he could get down to Lilly, all the while her twitches growing slowly weaker.

"Hurry hurry!" Scenic pressed, beside himself.

"Stay out of the way."

"I'm trying to help-"

"-You're not helping. Stay out of Crimson's way."

"But I-"

"Find something to use as bandages."

"Moma'... where' you moma'..." Lilly moaned weakly.

"Moon rot, she's delirious," Gloom cursed, "She's in shock."

The Mama'duke's head was clamped down on Lilly's front, her head only half visible beneath the folds of its grey flesh, and with her front legs only sticking out from the knee down. One of the legs was at an odd angle, extended slightly beyond the other, and thick blood was running down its length and dripping from off her horseshoe.

Prey blinked. Why were they trying to save her? This was exactly the same situation as with the donkey. They had no medical supplies, and there was nothing they could do, except maybe delay the inevitable.

Although Lilly wasn't bleeding as much as she should've been, Mama'duke jaws could bite through stone. Lilly's armour wouldn't have been enough to protect her, and the damage was still going to be severe. Yet Gloom, Scenic, and Crimson were still attempting to save her.

Prey would never have tried to stop them though, even if it was pointless. They wouldn't stop, and he knew they needed to try to save her, for their own sakes.

Prey understood the need to fight against the inevitable, but he could already tell it was hopeless. Prey knew from Snake's memories that on top of being able to crush stone, the bite of the Mama'duke was also venomous. Lilly was already as good as dead.

And Prey felt nothing but mild relief and satisfaction.

Relief that it hadn't been him, satisfaction that the hated unicorn mare who'd pulled so many stupid stunts and almost gotten them all killed on multiple occasions was the one to die instead. He'd despised Lilly Blossom, but now she was finally going to be out of the picture and he could cross her name off The List.

"The jaws, they're struck in her shoulder and chest, and in the armour too. I daren't try and cut the jaws off. We need to pull them apart instead." Crimson said shakily, flicking dark blood from his wing blades. Cross sections of the Mama'duke's flesh lay scattered around his hooves.

Lilly was finally visible again, but her body was obscured by the cruelly curved beak biting lengthways into her chest and upper legs. Bit's of grey flesh still clung to the yellow beak.

Prey saw that the red leaking from around the embedded beak's edges was sluggish and clotted. The venom was taking affect.

"She's going to start bleeding everywhere the moment we pull these off. We need bandages, cloth, something to apply pressure with." Gloom said, casting about them in the dark, "Find a blanket or any sort of cloth."

"She won't bleed all that much." Prey disagreed.

Three pairs of haggard eyes in grime streaked faces fixed onto Prey, and he immediately wished he'd stayed silent.

"Why's that?" Gloom rasped.

Why hadn't he just kept quiet? "The bite was poisonous. Look, it's already making her blood clot. It's the only reason she hasn't bled out already, but the venom will eventually block her veins and kill her anyway. She has an hour at most. There's nothing we can do."

"She's going to die anyway?" Gloom croaked.

"After all we survived, and the kindersnatches, that's it?" Scenic whispered, legs starting to wobble.

"No. This can't be fatal. She can survive this. Ponies have been saved from worse." Crimson protested.

Prey drew his hoof through the dirt, "If we had an antidote, and operating tools, and some way to stop the bleeding, and could stop shock from killing her, then maybe yes. But we don't."

"You're giving up on her?" Crimson asked disbelievingly.

"There's nothing we can do. Just like the donkey in the kindersnatch, this is beyond our ability. That's just the way things are."

"You are giving up." Crimson accused.

"There's nothing I can do." Prey protested.

Gloom suddenly yelled at him, and Prey flinched, "Stop making excuses and help us save Lilly!"

"I'm not making excuses! What do you think I can do? I can't make the Mama'duke unbite her."

"You can help, I know you can. You fixed me up no problem, far better than I could've." Gloom jabbed a hoof back at his side where Prey had stitched his wound shut, and then at Prey, "You must know something. So do it!"

"Oh? And what do you suggest I 'do'?" Prey retorted, not caring the Gloom was only speaking out of desperation, "She's going to die whether you like it or not. Deal with it."

"How dare you?!"

Gloom growled, advancing on Prey, "You're going to let her die just because of some stupid, bucking hang up about unicorns you racist little shit?"

Gloom was moving beyond reason. He wasn't able to think straight; '-she can't die. She can't. Nopony else is going to die on my watch-'

"Is that true Prey? You're trying to murder Lilly?" Crimson demanded sharply.

"Don't be absurd! She's poisoned, that's not my fault." Prey hissed back, glaring into Gloom's blazing yellow eyes. "I'm not taking the blame for Lilly's stupidity in running into the forest. She lost her head, now she'll lose her life."

"There's some way to save her. I know it." Crimson insisted, eye's boring into Prey, "There's always a way. Think Prey, there must be something you know."

"Why would I know? What do you think I could possibly know that you don't already-?"

"Because you always know something! You're always keeping secrets. There's got to be a way to save Lilly, just figure it out."

"I'm not an alicorn!" Prey shouted right back at him, "I don't have the secrets to immortality. I'm not a unicorn white mage! I'm just a runt lamb who couldn't, who can't save anyone."

"I don't care what you think's impossible, only what I know is possible. And I know Lilly can be saved." Crimson declared, voice suddenly calm.

Prey glared at him, eyes cold. Why? He hadn't fought this hard to deny reality with the donkey in the kindersnatch. In the end, they'd all seen the truth and given up, so why couldn't they see it now? Just because they personally knew Lilly, did they somehow think it made her special and immune to death?

"Listen to what I'm saying Crimson. I. Can't. Do. It."

"But you will do it." Crimson stressed, "Because you said you'd do anything I asked of you. So I'm asking you to save Lilly Blossom."

For a moment, Prey couldn't speak, "That's, I, you can't- I can't do the impossible! I'd need magic, potions, tools, ingredients, time! All I have is dirt and a deserted village in the middle of the wilds."

"So tell us what you need," Gloom broke in. For a moment Prey had forgotten there was anyone else here but him and Crimson, but Gloom and Scenic were there too. "You've just admitted you can do it if you have the stuff. So tell us what you need, we'll find it, and you save her."

Prey threw up his hooves, "You think I want to see more death, is that it? That I'm some heartless monster with no concepts of morality? You know nothing! Crimson, please, believe me, I'd help you if I could. But this place just doesn't have what I need, or any way to get it in time-"

"Stop wasting Lilly's time. We'll be the ones to decide if it's impossible or not. Just tell us, and don't lie, I'll know." Gloom cut him off.

"It's not as simple as that!" Prey seethed in frustration, "Forget her injury, the venom itself will kill her. If I had the right herbs, yes, I could counter it. But I only know some of what this forest has. There's Happledock again, Brittle Cap, Felidar thorns, I know those are in the forest, but even then, those wouldn't be enough by themselves, just delaying the inevitable. There's meld wood, but it's impossible to get."

"Stop. Right there, meld wood. What's that, where can we get it, and will is save Lilly?" Gloom demanded.

"For a given definition of 'save' yes. But we don't have any, and it can't even be retrieved."

"So where is it?" Crimson asked.

"What?"

"The meld wood! You saw some. Where?"

"In the Wolfing Wood, but it may as well not exist because nobody can go into..." Prey's eyes slowly widened as the blood drained from his face, "Oh no, No! Don't even think about it."

"What does this meld wood look like? And how much of it do you need?" Crimson asked unblinking.

"You can't get it. It's in the Wolf Wood, it's beyond suicide!"

"What does this meld wood look like? And-"

"No no NO!"

"-how much of it do you need?"

"No, not now, not ever." Prey shook his head furiously, own ears flailing, "Put the idea out if your head right now!"

"What does the meld wood look like?" Scenic joined in, advancing on Prey.

"You can't fetch it. You'll die and get us all killed too in the process. I won't let you go."

"You can't stop us Prey. We're bringing it back, and then you will use it to save Lilly." Crimson said.

"You can't get it. It's way out in the middle of the forest-"

"I have my magic necklace you gave me."

"You're exhausted-"

"I'm well enough to get there and back." Crimson was unmoved.

"You won't make it in time!"

"You saw how fast Crimson could fly with that amulet. He can make it." Gloom said, gesturing at the necklace.

"Yes, I can fly faster than I ever have before in my whole life. I can feel it."

"It's pitch black, you won't find the place again-"

"I can see in the dark and I remember where the wood is. It's in that clearing by the hill we rested on."

"You'll die, it'll kill you. It's hungry, you'll get eaten!"

"I'm prepared for that possibility," Crimson said seriously, "But I will still try."

"I won't tell you," Prey tried in desperation, "I won't tell you what meld wood looks like. So you can't go."

"You'd deny Lilly the chance to live?" Gloom spluttered in outrage, wings snapping open as he bore down on Prey in fury. "You're trying to kill her, you're actually trying to kill her right in front of us."

"Don't touch me." Prey spat, scrambling backwards, but Gloom, Crimson and Scenic kept advancing as he retreated.

Crimson glared down at Prey, anger replacing the stoicism Prey knew so well, "What right have you to say who I can and cannot try to save?"

"But you'll die if you go to the Wolf Wood. I'm not going to let you kill yourself Crimson."

"Whatever is in the Wolf Woods, I will overcome it."

"This isn't something you can fight!" Prey yelled at him in a squeaky pitch, pressing his hooves to his head, "You don't understand, you don't know what's in there."

"Then tell us! Stop wasting time and tell us. It's your duty to Prey. No, it's more than your duty." Gloom shouted, voice hoarse as he got right up in Prey's face.

"I don't know what's in there. I don't know, I never saw, I don't have words-"

"So there might not even be anything dangerous there in the first place. That's even more reason to try."

"Please Prey, " Scenic begged, "Please, tell Crimson. Let him save Lilly."

Crimson stepped around Gloom and lowered his head to Prey's eye level, forcing Prey to hold his rigid gaze, "I saved your life Prey, and now I must try and save Lilly's. And I will try. Were you lying when you told me you'd do whatever I asked of you?"

"Anything but sacrifice my own life," Prey moaned, "You'll bring it back, it'll follow you. It'll kill us all."

"If you don't help us save Lilly, I'll, I'll..." Gloom sought for a threat, even considering violence for the briefest of seconds, "I'll tell Princess Luna what you've done." Gloom threatened Prey, unable right then to feel any guilt about doing so.

Prey recoiled. He gulped, hesitated, but still shook his head stubbornly, his eyes too wide and his breathing ragged, "No. I won't tell you."

Prey knew there would be terrible repercussions for this, but he was too terrified to care what punishments those might be. Because the Wolfing Woods... No, Prey trembled, they couldn't afford to disturb whatever was in those trees, no matter what.

Crimson's eyes flicked over Prey's face, "You're really that scared?" He asked slowly.

"Scared? Only scared?" A hysterical giggle slipped out.

"Khe-khe, scared. What a tame word! You don't know what I know, don't know what'll happen. But I do, I've survived it before. And, and, and I'm not going to tell you what to look for. I won't tell you what meld wood is, so there's no point in you going. So there!"

He was not about to die for Lilly, nor for anyone else.

Gloom was stunned, furious, upset, angry, and despairing all at the same time. His fangs were gritted in a silent snarl, but he didn't say a word. In that moment, he seemed to realise that there was nothing he could say or even do that would convince Prey. It was all up to Crimson now.

Scenic's entreaties to Prey, Lilly's moaning, it didn't factor into that moment as Crimson held Prey's eye.

Crimson spoke quite calmly, like he was merely informing Prey about how the weather was going to be tomorrow, "If you won't tell me what meld wood looks like, then I have no choice. I'm going to fly into the Wolf Wood anyway and grab whatever can I find and hope. If you tell me what meld wood is, then I won't have to guess. But I'm going to make the trip either way."

Prey's eyes took on the appearance of saucers, "But you can't! You'll fail, and the entity will follow you back."

"If there is a monster, then yes, I guess it will." Crimson nodded.

"You're trying to kill us all, you're so selfish! You'd trade all our lives for just hers." Prey accused.

"Don't you dare use a word like selfish," Crimson's mouth curled with disappointment and disdain, "You have no right. I am going. At this point, you have two options Prey. Either you can make my trip mean something, or you can keep quiet and I'll make the trip anyway. But I know you. You aren't evil. You won't let Lilly die out of spite, not when I'm going anyway."

Prey stared up into Crimson's face and saw only sincerity in his glimmering yellow orbs. Prey couldn't hear his thoughts, but he could still see. Crimson meant every word of what he'd just said.

Prey's hind legs finally folded and he fell onto his rump. Crimson was going into the Wolfing Wood.

Why?

Why was he doing this for Lilly? He wouldn't have done it for one of the Mayflower villagers, would he?

So why?

'Why why why?' Prey thought in despair. He felt his eyes stinging. He was absolutely terrified.

Why?

"Please Crimson, don't go. It'll follow you back." Prey begged.

Crimson began pulling off his armour to fly faster, "I'm sorry Prey. I may not know what you know, but I know what I know. And I know this is the right thing to do."

A pit felt like it opened under Prey's hooves and he was helpless to do anything about it. He couldn't stop Crimson. This was going to happen no matter what he did. Everything was beyond his control, he was going to fall into this hole regardless. All he had left was how he chose to react when he finally hit the bottom.

Prey hung his head, addressing the dirt in a monotone as he recited; "Meld wood is a dark grey tree with yellowish streaks. If you can tell with your night vision, the sap is amber green. Thick, stocky trunk and branches. Small oval leaves. Very smooth bark. The wood is dense and heavy. I'll need a branch about the size of your leg. Don't let any of sap get into your mouth or any open cuts. Try and get a fresh branch from near the tree's crown."

"That's all I need to know," Crimson said, quickly opening his wings, "I'll need a rope, or something to tie the branch onto my back with. I'll be flying too fast to stop in time to find it again if I drop it."

Scenic immediately began running about, looking for rope.

"That's not all," Prey continued talking listlessly to the dirt, forcing Crimson to halt and lean in to listen, "Felidar thorns. While there, there's another tree, one with huge thorns, about four inches long. You can't miss them. There's also another tree, with branches all twisted up and black seed pods in bunches of five. They'll rattle when you shake them. And lastly, a tall thin tree, looks like a pole. Spiky leaves at the top. The bark is a husk and peels off like an onion. Bring back as much of those as you can safely carry with you too."

"You said you only needed meld wood to save Lilly." Gloom stated.

"Those'll also help." Prey said, not looking up.

"Only if I can find them straight away. Lilly doesn't have time." Crimson said, looking at the sky above the forest.

"Here, rope, take it!" Scenic shouted, running up and shoving a tangled coil of rope into Crimson's hooves.

Crimson threw the rope around his neck, snatched up a ragged cloth bag for the rest, and began taking deep breaths, preparing himself. The jade necklace's glow began to strengthen, quickly making Prey back up. Crimson took one last breath, and then snapped his wings open and took a running start.

Halfway through the short take off run, living green light surged along Crimson's legs and down the lengths of his wings.

Crimson disappeared into the night in a blur and loud clap of air, however there was no huge backwash. Prey tried to follow the green blur through the night against the stars, but already he'd lost Crimson.

Those speeds were unreal. Crimson would make it to the woods and back in less than thirty minutes. Would Lilly survive that long? Probably. Prey hoped she died. He didn't care about her. But what kind of toll was this flight going to exact from Crimson?

'That's not the price that matters,' Prey thought in dread, 'What about the price for breaking the Wolf Wood's boundary?'

Crimson was going to be back in less than half an hour. That meant he had less than that to prepare for what would be following behind Crimson.

Prey sat down and balled his shaking hooves into his eyes.

"Oh zoma'Grika, zoma'grika, zoma'grika." He was going to cry. He was so terrified.

"Stop sitting there Prey, and help me get Lilly stable! She needs to hold on until Crimson can make it back." Gloom ordered him harshly, still desperate and furious at Prey, but his anger took second place to helping Lilly.

Throughout all this, Lilly had lain on the ground, the source of the whole argument but only acting as secondary importance. That was wrong. A fading life should always be the utmost importance, but it wasn't, not for Prey.

Prey hated Lilly. He hated all she was going to cost him. Prey glared at her twitching form, feeling the hate churning together with the panic in his gut.

"There's nothing more we can do but keep her warm until Crimson gets back." Prey wanted to spit the words, but they just came out weak and shaky, "Pulling the Mama'duke's beak out at this point will do more harm than good. Try and keep her still. Make her drink if she'll take it."

The panic was gradually rising, brimming up. He tried to force it down. 'Focus Prey, focus.'

"She's in so much pain, there must be something we can do for her." Scenic tried, cradling Lilly's head to keep her still. Gloom was dragging out old mouldy blankets from the abandoned houses.

"Didn't you hear a word I said?" Prey refused to even look at the pathetic stallion, "I told you I don't have what I need to do anything. Nothing. I have n-nothing. T-That includes an-anaesthetics."

He was breathing too fast.

The panic was bubbling up the back of his throat now, like hiccups, but he couldn't afford to give into it. He had to focus, he had to prepare. Why was he just standing here? Why wasn't he doing anything?

Gloom began covering as much of Lilly as he could with the blankets, pulling off the lower pieces of her armour that he could without touching the bits the Mama'dukes jaws were stuck in. He flinched ever time he made Lilly twitch or moan, but he continued working as fast as he could.

'-she just has to survive until Crimson gets back and Prey can save her-'

"What are you doing Prey? Stop just sitting there, help us!"

Prey started in shock, and then leapt to his hooves. Gloom was right, what was he doing?

"Fire!" Prey squeaked, "We need wood for a fire."

"We've got the oil lantern for light. Or is the fire to keep Lilly warm-?"

"Forget about her, she's stable! We need a fire ready for when Crimson returns."

"A fire? What's-?"

"Wood. We need wood. Lots. As much as we can get!"

Prey started grabbing bits of broken timber from the fallen house, completely uncaring of the gurgling kindersnatches he dashed around, blocking out their mental screams of anguish. It was too late for them now.

Gloom had made his choice. He'd chosen Lilly, not the villagers.

Prey began throwing all the bits of wood he could find in a pile beside beside Lilly and the lantern. First just small scraps, kindling really, but bigger pieces too, broken planks, even half a support beam, anything he could physically drag. He ignored Scenic and Gloom's demands to know what was going on, just rushed back out for more wood. Why were the two of them just sitting there?

"Leave her, get more wood! We need as much wood as we can get. Unless you want to die, do as I say."

Prey strained to drag a splintered roof beam three times his size through the dirt and weeds. He struggled and pulled and pushed. Scenic appeared to try to grab the other end to help but Prey shouted him away.

"No! Go get other wood, bigger pieces. As big as you can carry. We need more."

"More for what?" Gloom asked, refusing to leave Lilly and having to shout over the kindersnatches; "What is-?"

Gloom broke off in a rasping cough, throat parched; "What do you need so much wood for? Do we need to melt something? Metal? There's enough fuel there to last three day's already."

Prey was pillaging the half empty wood shed for ready cut logs, pulling aside the vines and grass which were trying to overgrow it. "No it's not enough. We need more spare wood. We have to keep the fire burning bright throughout the night!"

"Prey there's already plenty, but Lilly needs-"

"It won't be enough, and there won't be time to fetch any more once it arrives." Prey denied frantically as he dashed back for another load.

"When 'what' arrives?"

"W-when Crimson arrives!" Prey corrected, "When Crimson arrives back we must light the fire straight away."

"Lilly is the priority. She comes before the fire. You will save her first." Gloom ordered.

"Yes, yes, I'll work by firelight. But the fire must be lit and kept bright." Prey panted, dumping the logs off his back onto the growing pile. He was breathing erratically, and it was only partly because of the exertion.

"Is this enough?" Scenic gasped, tipping a huge pile of broken planks off his own back.

Scenic was like a dyed piece of cloth that had been wrung out so tight there was no colour left in him. He didn't even know how think for himself right now, he was just following instructions. All this, everything, it was just too much for the Earth pony.

But apparently Scenic's Guard training had been good for something. Even though Scenic was dazed with indecision, his body was still responding to orders without him at the helm.

Prey barely glanced at the wood Scenic had just added, "No, we need more. As much as we can get. Hurry!"

Prey wasn't satisfied until they'd accumulated all of the wood they could gather. What they didn't take was only what couldn't be lifted.

His legs trembled, shivers running up his spine. He felt hot and cold and he kept having to swallow down the pathetic sounds of weakness crawling up his throat. His eyes darted about. They'd collected all the wood he could find. But would it be enough?

The eleven kindersnatches thrashed on the ground and gurgled insanely, and were ignored, although Gloom cursed himself for his heartlessness even as he prayed to Luna for forgiveness and tried to tend to Lilly.

Prey thoughts kept going to Crimson, out there somewhere blitzing through the night on magic enhanced winds.

What would he awaken in the Wolf Wood?

Prey looked at the wood pile. They had enough wood.

Or at least, he prayed they did. Not that praying would help. There were no gods for what was coming.

Prey didn't know what was coming, but he feared he had an idea of what it was, and that gnawed away at him like a weevil burrowing into his heart.

Prey didn't have the words, nor knew if it had an actual name, but the description for what he feared was this; a Hungry Thing.

But no, it couldn't be that, Prey tried to reason with himself. Not even whatever the entity from the Wolfing Wood's was.

Right?

Or was it simply different from what he thought he knew, which was next to nothing, and it instead obeyed some sort of rule set? No, that made no sense, it couldn't be a Hungry Thing.

But Prey didn't know with any surety what was which, and he was scared.

They had wood. They would have a fire. Crimson was coming back. And he'd have to save Lilly in there somewhere. It was just an afterthought by this point to Prey, even if saving Lilly was the be all and end all for the others.

There was nothing more he could do to prepare.

Prey sat down in the dirt, wool filthy, and stared into the dark depths of the forest. He didn't listen to Gloom and Scenic behind him pointlessly comforting Lilly, who was delirious and couldn't even hear them anymore, nor to the wailing of the kindersnatches.

Prey's eyes felt raw and hot. He stifled a hiccup. He was so stupidly afraid right now.

Why did he have to be such a damned coward? But a leopard doesn't change its spots, and Prey couldn't stop being afraid.

So he sat alone on the edge of the lantern light in the ruins of Mayflower, deaf to the kindersnatches, and quietly cried where no one could see. The godless wastes damn it, but he was so scared. 'Spineless, useless, vile, disusing, sniveling, bucking crybaby.'

He was scared.

Up in the infinite sea of night, a flash of green light streaked between the stars. Prey only saw it because he'd been watching. It was almost already on top of him, rapidly approaching the earth. Prey jumped to his hooves, and Crimson shot by over his head, a shadow in the night, and almost crashed somewhere behind him next to the others.

"Crimson! Did you-"

"-Find it? Quick-"

"-Prey get over here!"

Prey furiously scrubbed at his eyes with an ear like a rag, wiping his nose with the back of his hoof and ran towards the others.

Crimson was heaving for air, unable to speak, his whole body darkly matted with sweat. Prey had feared this would happen.

Gloom and Scenic were physically having to hold Crimson upright as he sagged into them, "Hey, easy. Easy. Did you get it?" Gloom asked.

'Stupid question.' The thick branch of meld wood was plain as day, tied across Crimson's back in a sling of rope. The other things Prey'd told him to get were in the cloth bag he'd taken, discarded and forgotten in the dirt at their hooves.

"Light the fire!" Prey shouted as he ran up, "Light it straight away. Don't wait."

"Lilly and Crimson come first-"

Prey snatched up the lantern and before anyone could stop him, he smashed it over the already laid fire. Glass shattered, and the oil splashed out onto the dry wood.

"Prey!" Gloom shouted, but couldn't let go of Crimson to stop the lamb. The pegasus was no longer able to support his own body weight as his legs gave out.

"Crimson!" Gloom called in alarm, "Don't you dare go out on me too."

"Lay him down," Prey yelled, rummaging frantically in the cloth bag as the flames started to flicker up, "All his natural magic is burnt up. His body is going into sudden magical withdrawal." He'd known this was going to happen.

"What's that mean? Lilly needs-"

"-Help. Yes, I know, I know! You keep saying. But Crimson has to be dealt with right now or he might go into a coma and die."

"What?!" Gloom and Scenic both exclaimed.

Prey ignored them, pulling out the black seed pods and thorns Crimson had retrieved on his instruction. "The fire's lit, keep it going. No matter what happens, keep it going. Understand?"

He blocked out their questions, he couldn't afford to deal with them right now. He gripped the enormous Felidar thorn in his mouth, the wood startlingly cold. The thorn was well over five inches long, with a thick bulge at the blunt end. Cracking open one of the seed pods, Prey rushed back over to Crimson's form, Scenic stumbling to get out of his way.

He spat out the thorn, "Crimson, can you hear me? Are you still with us?"

Crimson's eyes were half shut and glazed, and his ears barely twitched when Prey called him again. That was a "no" then. Prey grabbed three of the black seeds in his hoof and shoved them into Crimson's mouth, ignoring the saliva or chance of Crimson reflexively biting him.

Crimson choked, but Prey expertly pushed the seeds over the back of his tongue and made him swallow before Crimson's body could react. Because of his small hooves, Snake had always made him be the one to force feed medicines to the injured or unconscious wounded. He'd need more of the Snake taught expertise before the night was out.

"What were those seeds-?"

Prey ignored Scenic and picked up the giant thorn.

"Hey wait a second-"

Prey stabbed the thorn into Crimson's leg, just deep enough so it stuck there by itself when he let go.

Gloom physically had to restrain himself from immediately snatching the thorn out, hoof stretched half way there, "What does this thorn do Prey?"

"Too long to explain, too complicated. It'll help keep him alive, that's all that matters," Prey answered, anxiously eyeing the fire, "Keep the fire going. Don't let it die. And don't go out into the dark. Keep it burning big and bright."

"Lilly. Now." Gloom ordered.

Prey gave Crimson one last look to calculate if he was stable. There was no way to be sure, but it was the best he could do for the Pegasus right now.

"Bandages, knife, get me the axe and the meld wood." Prey snapped out his instructions. Scenic and Gloom leapt to obey.

"Bring Lilly closer to the fire. And get me that bag. I'll need one of you to hold her down while the other pulls the beak out. Once that come out, her leg will have to be-I'll have to work quickly."

It was best they saw it for themselves rather than him saying it.

Lilly let out a high squeal of agony as she was dragged nearer to the growing fire, Prey throwing on more kindling to get it burning faster. Then he grabbed the rest of the Felidar thorns from the bag, and another seed pod.

Gloom tried to lay Lilly out as gently as he could, "We've got her. We need to start pulling the jaws out, they're stuck in her armour-"

"You'll do what I say when I say. I'm the only one who can save her, understand? I'm the only one who knows what to do. If you mess it up, she'll die before I can rectify your mistake. Understand?"

"We understand, we're your assistants. What do we do?" Gloom immediately agreed without pause.

"Get as many of those down her throat as you can," Prey said, throwing the seed pod at Gloom, "Once we begin, she'll be in no condition to take them after I...just afterwards."

He was slipping, letting words out before he could properly think. Bad. Bad.

Prey took more of the bulbous thorns and and began driving them into Lilly's flesh, sticking them in around the site of the embedded Mama'duke jaws. The moaning Lilly didn't even seem to feel it. She was whispering intelligibly to someone who wasn't here.

Prey risked a glance out into the night. He saw nothing, just blackness. It wasn't here yet. He hoped, he prayed to anything which might be listening that meant the entity wasn't coming at all. But he knew it was in vain. You didn't go into a Wolf Wood and get to walk away afterwards.

Prey snapped himself back to Lilly and what was happening. 'Yes, focus on that, not on what's coming.'

Prey shoved the last thorn into Lilly's upper shoulder, noting how only the barest trickle of blood welled up from the puncture. She didn't have long left before the venom fully clotted her blood and killed her. Already he could tell from the skin coloration under her fur that she'd lost most of the circulation in her outer extremities. The bitten leg in particular. It was grey blue.

Or maybe that was just because she was going to lose that leg.

This wasn't going to be pretty. Prey made himself focus on thinking about that and only that.

"Cut the meld wood branch in half lengthways. It doesn't matter if it's rough. Gloom, undo the straps on her armour. When we pull the beaks out, the armour is coming off at the same time."

Scenic began hacking the length of meld wood into two as fast as he could with the axe. The wood was heavy, but it came apart very easily, thick sap still leaking from in. "Finished!" He panted the second he was done.

"Alright. Next, pull the jaws out."

"What about infection?"

"That should be the least of your concerns right now. Those seeds she ate will help with that."

Prey pointed, "Once you start pulling, don't stop. Can you do that? Don't stop. She's going to scream, there's going to be blood and bone, but it'll be even worse if you stop half way through. Understand?"

Scenic nodded shakily as he bit hold of the lower Mama'duke's dismembered jaw.

Gloom took the other, using his wing flaws for grip, face grimy and pale, "Ready."

Prey suppressed a shiver of revulsion and grasped either side of Lilly Blossom's head to keep her still, carefully not looking at her horn that was so close to him. However this was the best place to be in. If she instinctively tried to use magic to defend herself, he could punch her in the horn before she could finish.

"You ready? Good. On the count of three. One. Two. Three."

The Mama'duke jaws came out unwillingly. Just as Prey had said, Lilly screamed, and cried, and thrashed, and begged in garbled words, and then screamed some more. Gloom and Scenic's ears were pressed flat to their heads, but they didn't stop.

Lilly's chest plate and shoulder pauldrons came off with the oversized beak, the sharp cartilage having bitten straight through the enchanted steel and wedged there.

What also almost came off was most of Lilly's left leg. The limb twisted and started coming up with the armour, and Prey saw raw leg muscles cut from the bone being pulled out.

Prey let go off Lilly's head and lunged forwards, pressing the leg back down. Lilly was still screaming.

Scenic and Gloom finally freed the beaks from Lilly's flesh and threw them away, which revealed the damage to them both in all it's terrible light. There was no more hiding it under the armour.

"Her leg, it's... It's.."

"It's been bitten through." Prey said, "The tibia bone is completely severed, the shoulder joint is also badly damaged. It'll have to come off."

"That's Lilly's leg!"

"You can't-"

"You'll do as I say. Look, it's already held on by little more than skin."

"There must be some way to save it!"

"Not with what we have and not if you also want me to save her life before the venom kills her." Prey said, ruthlessly pressing on and not giving them a choice. This had to be done. "Apply pressure. Keep it stable, and keep her still."

Lilly should've bled out already or died from shock, the Mama'duke venom be damned, but she hadn't. The Felidar thorn's were helping, but they were not miracle workers. He had to work fast.

Prey grabbed the knife from the fire.

Scenic and Gloom both started, they hadn't seen him place it in there. Its tip dully glowed red. Before either could stop him, Prey jabbed it into an exposed blood vessel. There was a thin hiss as it was seared shut. Prey kept going, working with the swiftness that could only come from experience and failure after failure.

He sealed the blood vessels he could, having to stop to reheat the blade twice, before cutting mercilessly through the few strings of leg muscle holding the limb on. He sawed the blade through the tendons, catching them before they could roll up into her shoulder and tying them in an overhoof knot, wishing he had a sharper knife.

Gloom and Scenic were nothing but background noise. Prey's whole, complete, and total focus was on his work, and Lilly's horn in case it lit up. And the fire. The all important fire.

Lilly's leg came off and fell to the dirt with a thud that was far louder than it should've been. Prey avoided looking at it out of more than the corner of his eye. He'd seen far too many severed limbs and the pathetic story they told to ever want to see or hear any more.

If she survived, if any of them survived, Lilly would hate him like nothing else for this.

Next came the meld wood.

Prey hadn't told the others what exactly he needed the meld wood for, but now they would get to see for themselves. Dimly, he was aware of Scenic again being sick yet again on an empty stomach, but the stallion was still keeping his grip on Lilly and holding her down, so that's what mattered.

Prey took the split half of meld wood in one hoof, and lined it up with the other. He took a breath, and shoved the exposed side of the meld wood into Lilly's open wound.

Prey held it there, pushing it in and making it take. The thick amber sap mingled with the blood, and then before his eyes, blended into one substance. The blood which had kept leaking from the wound despite the venom and Prey's work with the heated knife suddenly seemed to be caught in a drain, as it was sucked into the meld wood.

Prey saw the red raw flesh darkening as the sap reached it, oozing out of the wood as blood was sucked in to replace it, and then under his very hooves, the wood began to shift and change.

The stripes in the wood began to warp, and Prey hastily let go. Rather than fall out, the meld wood stayed firmly in Lilly's shoulder. The half a branch began to twist and bulge. Slowly it stretched out, growing and branching into twigs.

"It's replacing her leg." Scenic gasped, face palid.

It was true. Lilly's missing leg seemed to have been fully replaced by a living tree branch, twigs breaking out of the wood. In a minute, the twigs would begin to start sprout leaves. Prey gripped the knife tightly. He'd have to act fast once they did.

"Not just her leg, keep her still." Prey ordered. The meld wood wasn't done.

Having finished regrowing the bulk of Lilly's missing leg, the twigs began to bud, everything moving in sped up motion.

Prey grabbed ahold of the unnatural limb replacing flesh and bone, and began stripping the leaf buds and twigs as fast as they formed with the knife. The growth had to be controlled or it would completely take over, immobilising and then killing Lilly. That was how meld wood worked, and how new trees grew.

After a minute of frantic pruning work, the bud growth finally slowed, and then stopped. Prey let out a sigh of exhaustion and let the wooden thing now grafted to Lilly's shoulder drop.

Lilly was silent. She'd finally fallen unconscious. A small mercy.

"I've never seen anything like that." Gloom whispered, "I had no idea anything like this was even possible."

"Losing the leg wasn't necessary to save her, but since she did it made it the easiest place to apply the meld wood. It's not over though. I've pruned the outward growth. Next comes the inward growth." Prey said emptily.

"Wait-I thought the meld wood was only needed to replace Lilly's leg." Gloom said.

Prey looked at him like he was an idiot. Did he think the venom was only confined to the leg? If that were the only problem, Prey would've just amputated and have been done with it. But the venom wasn't even the extent of it, there was the internal damage caused by the crushing bite to take into consideration too.

"Meld wood is a parasite." Prey said outloud, "A special kind that keeps its host alive for as long as possible to feed off. It'll force her to live as long as possible, replace her blood with a mix of sap, and bond to her internals. It'll do everything its name says. Meld."

Gloom drew the wrong connections; '-wood, kindersnatch, wicker. It's happening again-'

"You're turning her into a kindersnatch!"

"No," Prey quickly cut Gloom off before he could go any farther down that path, "It's not like that. She'll still be Lilly Blossom. Her mind, such as it is, will be exactly the same. Her body though, that's another thing. But it'll keep her alive. For a while longer at least."

"A while?"

"It's a parasitical growth. Even if it tries to keeps its host alive, it will still drain her." Prey answered, not looking at them. Lilly's skin was changing colour as he watched, slowly taking on the colour of bark, spreading out from the initial site of the now fully melded wooden leg. Slight movements showed where things were shifting under the skin's surface.

Gloom took a deep breath, which turned into a gulp, "How... How long has this bought her?"

Prey shrugged hopelessly, "Truthfully? No idea. Meld wood needs magic to survive. For a normal person, that means one, maybe two years at best. However Lilly's a unicorn, which is why I thought of meld wood. I estimate anywhere from five years all the way up to a full life span. Maybe. I just don't know."

"How is this 'saving' her?" Scenic shrieked, appalled.

"I said it would save her for a given definition of 'saved'," Prey repeated, "She'll live. A half life. Maybe they can fix her in Canterlot, I don't know."

It was something they'd done back in the Resistance. Meld wood was hard to find, but when they had any of it on hoof and a fighter was fatally injured but had survived long enough to be dragged back to camp, Snake would force the meld wood into them.

'Borrowed Warriors' they called them, borrowed back from death for a time. Dead people walking. They were fighters with nothing left to lose, just how the Resistance liked it. The Resistance took everything from you, even your death.

"That's not... This is hardly-You can't call this saving her." Scenic almost pleaded.

Prey didn't look at him. He glared instead at Gloom, eyes angry and scared, but not scared of them, "You told me to do whatever it took to save her. Well here you go, now you'll have to deal with the consequences. Everything has a price."

Gloom was staring down at Lilly's form, his face drawn as he watched the changes taking place, "...She'll live. Everything else comes secondary to that."

"Exactly. She'll live. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Meld wood. As long as she prunes off the leaves and twigs whenever they grow. That'll keep the meld wood's size in check. If it grows too large then it'll start petrifying her body."

When Gloom tore his eyes away he found Prey was throwing more wood on the already bright fire, heedless of splinters. There was a sickly, hunted light in Prey's eyes as he stoked the flames, hardly even feeling the heat burning his face.

'-he doesn't even care about the life he just saved. Or about the suffering he just caused Lilly-'

Gloom was right. Prey didn't care. There was something far more important to care about.

He'd done what they'd forced him to do, and now came the price. There was always a pr-

Something soundless chimed in Prey's head and reverberated through his soul. It was the feeling of a claw at your throat, of hot breath on your neck, the silent regard of the hunter judging your worth as a meal.

Prey tried to remember how to breathe. It was here.

The entity from the Wolfing Wood had finally arrived.

"It's here." Prey croaked.

It took the exhausted Gloom and Scenic a long second to figure out what he was talking about. "The monster from the Wolfing Woods you were worried about?" Gloom asked, a sinking feeling in his hooves.

'-and Crimson's out cold and here I am weaponless-'

"Where is it?" Gloom put Crimson and Lilly behind him, his ears swivelling, "I can't sense anything."

"Can't you feel it?" Prey whispered. How could they not feel it in the air? "It's gotten awfully dark, hasn't it?"

Gloom opened his mouth to say something. He didn't finish. He tried to peer into the dark. It was pitch black out there. It hadn't been that dark a minute ago.

Gloom was a thestral, he could see in the dark.

So why couldn't he see now?

Unconsciously, Gloom took a back step closer to the fire.

Scenic licked his dry lips, cringing like what he was about to say was somehow his fault, "I, uh, I just realised I can't see the stars anymore."

Gloom looked up, and found all the stars gone. Even the moon was missing.

"Is it just cloud cover?" Gloom asked uncertainly, finding himself whispering the ridiculous question. The only clouds gathered were against the Ridgeback. He knew that. He was a flyer. Taking note of the weather was second nature to him.

It was dark, and startlingly cold. When had it so abruptly gotten cold?

Or was it really actual cold, and not just a chill in his bones? Because it was cold either way.

Now that you were looking at it, the circle of firelight seemed alot smaller and weaker. How could it suddenly be so dark? That's not how night-time worked.

The same fear of certainty that'd gripped Prey now gripped them, and they knew the reason why.

"This...monster. How do we fight it-?"

"-Don't. You don't. You c-can't fight it." Prey's legs were shaking. He didn't dare turn around to look out into the suddenly very dark night.

"Like Tartarus we're just going to sit here and let it eat us."

"It can't be fought or beaten. I t-tried to tell you, but you wouldn't listen. We-we-" Prey swallowed down the whimper, "Magic. We can only protect ourselves with magic."

Scenic stared at Lilly, the only unicorn here, "But, but, but..."

"Not with her filthy unicorn magic." Prey hissed, fear making his tongue bitter.

"They all think mastery is their right. That with magic everything should bend to their rules. None of that will help you here. Magic won't work. It's not allowed to work, not here, not now." Prey's voice was cracking at the edges. It scared Gloom in his bones to hear Prey's tone.

"It's old, it doesn't listen to anyone's magic. It doesn't obey any rules. M-monsters come from b-before rules. But there are laws. M-maybe it'll be enough for us to survive. If we follow the laws right. Old laws."

"What laws?" Gloom hissed urgently, "Prey, what laws?"

"The oldest law of all."

With a sudden feverish burst of energy, Prey grabbed a log half as big as himself and hurled it into the fire. Sparks shot up, and were immediately swallowed by the night, "Fire. Fire is our only defence against the dark."

Gloom and Scenic both felt it in their bones and knew with dread certainty Prey's words were the truth, the only truth that mattered tonight. The only thing standing between them and whatever was lurking out there in the dark was the fire. It was the most primal need of all. Fire to fend off the terrors of the night, dating back to when their ancestors lived in caves. No matter how far you go, or how high you reach with civilisation and invention, that one law remained.

"No matter what, keep the fire burning. The fire must stay lit. Do you understand?!"

"We understand, the fire, the fire must stay lit. We understand. Calm down, we mustn't panic Prey." Gloom swallowed, backing up closer to the fire.

'-I'm... scared. I feel so small, weak. Vulnerable-', Gloom realised.

"But we have the fire, right? As long as we don't panic and keep the fire burning, it won't come in, right?" Gloom's instincts understood even more clearly than his mind did.

"Yeah, we have enough wood to last until morning, definitely. Total. No two ways about it. Plenty of wood." Scenic's smile was a frozen rictus, "We do have enough wood, don't we? Because, because if we... if we don't..."

"We've got lots of wood. A pile that size is enough to last for three days and nights." Gloom declared, hastily measuring the pile.

"No we don't. We only have enough to last until dawn. M-maybe." Prey stuttered.

Prey was breathing too fast, almost panting, the shortness of breath catching somewhere in his chest. But he couldn't control it. He was right on the edge of panic.

Memories of surviving this same night once before were clawing at the back of his mind, and for once he was having no success in locking them away again.

"What do you mean, only until dawn? Don't say things like that. There's loads of firewood here." Gloom denied, shaking his head.

"Don't let the fire die. Quick! Pile on more wood, keep it bright."

"Don't. We need to ration it, pace it out." Gloom quickly blocked Prey. Behind Gloom, without his notice, the ring of fire light was slowly shirking.

Prey's eyes grew even wider, "Throw more wood on the fire!" He squeaked, trying to get past Gloom.

"We have to ration it. Don't panic, you're panicking Prey," Gloom spread his wings in front of Prey, holding him back. Inside, Gloom could feel himself teetering on the edge of panic too:

"We need to keep our heads, as long as we don't waste it, then-"

There was a crash of sparks behind him, and Gloom whirled to find Scenic dumping more wood on the fire.

Gloom shot across the distance and grabbed Scenic, wing claws hooked under the other stallion's chest plate, "What are you doing? You're wasting the wood!"

"It, it, the fire was dying sir." Scenic stuttered.

"The fire's fine!" Gloom shook him, "It has loads of wood, it can't burn through three whole logs in only... five..... minutes..........."

Gloom was standing less than a yard from the fire. So why was it cold? His eyes turned down.

The flames flickered less than a hoof high in a mix of embers and ash, the logs that'd been piled so high only minutes ago almost gone. Before their very eyes, the end of a log broke of and disintegrated into sparks and charcoal at a terrifyingly rapid rate.

"Keep the fire alive!" Prey shrieked at them.

The blood drain from Gloom's face and his head snapped around to look at the wood pile again as his mind automatically did the calculations.

'-oh...-'

What'd once looked like an enormously excess pile of wood now looked frighteningly small.

In a frantic rush, more wood was piled onto the fire, driving the darkness back out by a hoof's length, but no further. The wood was disappearing even faster than Prey had feared. He stared at the pile, tying to estimate. It should still be enough, shouldn't it?

"What... what happens..." Scenic cleared his dry throat.

"What happens if the fire goes out?" He whispered into the dark silence.

Prey stared at him, breaths coming too fast. "What happens? What happens!? It'll eat you. Chew your skull and grind your bones, and leave nothing but your hooves on the b-blood soaked m-moss, all n-n-neatly laid out." Prey was almost crying again by that last part.

It was only then, hearing Prey's words, that Gloom finally noticed something he should've already known. '

-It's silent. Why's it so silent?-'

"Where's the gurgling gone? The kindersnatch villagers..."

The terrible clarity of what had just happened just out there in the dark while they crouched safe here in the ring of fire light struck Scenic and Gloom at the exact same moment.

It was like a hammer blow to the bale of straw already bowing the camel's back, and it drove both stallions off their hooves. They didn't rage, there was no room left for rage. Just a moment of terrible realisation of failure.

'-they're dead, they're dead, it just ate them, it ate them alive-'

'-while saving Lilly, I forgot about saving the villagers-'

"We... we left them out in the night to die." Gloom moaned, wings covering his head. It was too late to save or help, the damage had already been done. They were all dead.

'-and it's all my fault-'

"I didn't think, I didn't think. I c-could've pulled them in here, kept them in the f-fire light." Scenic began bawling.

Guilt, shame, self loathing, Prey heard it all echoing in their heads.

Prey turned away. He piled more wood on the fire. He couldn't do anything to help. He was just trying not to break down himself, rocking back and forth and hugging his legs. He still had splinters in his side, dirt stung his scrapes and cuts. It was easier to focus on that.

But he was terrified. Just the merest sliver of control held it all in right now.

He checked that Crimson was still safely unconscious by the fire. Lilly was lying there next to him too. Prey hated her, this was all her fault. If she had just died on time, like she was supposed to, then he wouldn't be in this mess.

What they would never know and Prey would never tell them was that he had not forgotten the kindersnatches in the panic of trying to save Lilly. He could never have forgotten. Their mental gibbering screams had never ceased in his ears. He could've told Gloom and Scenic to drag them closer to the fire, he'd known what was going to come out of the Wolf Wood. But he hadn't said a word.

Prey had sacrificed them. He'd heard their silent screams being silenced one by one out there in the pitch dark, and he hadn't been able to let any of it show on his face.

The others didn't know what he knew, which was that even if the villagers bodies were somehow restored against all odds, their minds were already gone. It was too late.

So Prey had weighed the scales, and made the choice to sacrifice their empty husks to feed the entity's hunger, to provide it with alternative prey, so that he might have the chance to live on.

Scenic, Gloom, even Crimson could never have understood. Their greatest desire was to save lives.

Prey's greatest desire was to survive, and he was prepared to do whatever it took.

But the kindersnatches were not enough to satisfy the entity. Nothing would ever be enough. Prey had sacrificed all the kindersnatches just to take the edge of the things hunger, to stop it from having to eat the ISND. Because that was another law. Hunger had to be fed, and the entity would eat tonight, one way or another.

Prey knew a little of hunger. Not much, but more than anyone else.

And he knew that it could never be satisfied, only delayed.

Hunger consumed your thoughts, ate at the back of your mind, ravaged your self control. You pleaded with it, made promises to feed it, threatened, wheedled, tried to ignore it, control it, tried to fight it off or deny it. But in the end, no matter what, hunger always had to be fed.

The entity would eat tonight. The only question was; would it be eating them?

Would the kindersnatches be enough to tide it over and the fire keep it back until the sun rose and the hunt ended?

Gloom's thoughts were black. Prey listened to him hating himself, because Gloom couldn't make himself run out there into the dark to try and find if there were any kindersnatches left to save.

'-it's less than five yards, just five yards-'

But he couldn't make himself leave the fire light. Because something he didn't understand was out there. So he lay in the dirt, despairing at his failure.

'-Mayflower is gone. Alfalfa Dale is lost. Shimmer and Atlas were braver than us. I failed them all-'

The only other thing Gloom could make himself do as he lay slumped there surrounded by the dark was be mindful of the fire. Because Prey had said it, and Gloom knew it for himself even in the pits of despair. He didn't want to die either, and the fire couldn't be allowed to go out. Or else.

Sparks spat into the cold dark.

Prey was wholly transfixed on the fire. It was all that mattered. On the other side of the flames, Scenic was lost In his own little miserable world, slumping lower and lower, swaying with exhaustion. It was obvious he was done. Simply done. Everything had finally become too much. That someone like Scenic had lasted this long was far beyond what Prey had expected.

The dread and fear was simply too much for Scenic's body, and it was shutting him down. It was illogical, against all chances of survival, but Scenic's mind cared for none of that as he finally slumped all the way into the dirt and let dreamless unconsciousness claimed him.

And then it was just Gloom and Prey left awake, attention riveted on the fire, warding off the dark and hoping not to die.

The night was so black, that the darkness hummed.

A minute, and hour, an eternity stretched into the night. It pressed down upon them, promising death and rest in such twisted terms that it began to sound preferable to the endless dreading. Better than the fear.

Was the darkness coming closer? Was that a wet panting sound on the edge of his hearing?

Prey covered his ears, but he didn't dare turn to look.

"Prey?" Gloom suddenly croaked, "Prey, I think it's right behind me."

The words made the life drain from Prey's heart, and the the fire took on a grey tint as he suddenly felt dizzy and nauseous. There was a ringing in his head.

"There's nothing there." Prey whispered.

"Prey, I, Prey it's behind me."

"There's nothing there, there's nothing there."

"I, I can feel it. It's right behind me." Gloom's voice held that raw primal dread that could not be described.

"It's not there. Repeat after me Gloom, it's not there."

"It's behind me-"

"It's not there. Repeat after me. There's nothing there."

"But it's-"

"Say it. Say it's not there."

"It's, its..."

"Say it."

"It's...not there?"

"It's not real." Prey insisted like their lives depended on it.

"It's...not real."

"Again. Repeat it."

"It's...not real."

"Believe it. Say it. It's not there." Prey hissed.

"It's not there."

"And it's not behind me."

"It's not behind me."

"Again."

"It is not behind me."

"Again.

"It is not behind me."

"Again.

"It is not behind me."

Slowly, terribly slowly, like pitch dripping off his neck, Prey felt the pressure gradually withdraw. But no further than than the edge of the fire light.

Gloom began to shake. Prey was already shaking.

"Don't ask." Prey ordered before Gloom could say a word, "It wasn't there. It isn't there."

"What...what...what was..."

"Close your eyes and count to three, and if they pass they'll let you be." Prey recited.

It wasn't a dream, because Prey wasn't asleep. His body was drooping and wanting to drop, but if he slept, the fire would die.

He wasn't sleeping. But he was caught in a never ending cycle of piling wood on the fire and unblinkingly watching the flames briefly strengthen before sinking again. His mind was foggy with exhaustion, the adrenaline of terror long burnt out.

At his back, the dark waited, hungry and insatiable. Nothing tangible stood between him and it. His skin crawled. The others were just background by this point. It was just him, the finite wood pile, the fire, and the dark.

If this was a dream, then it was a nightmare. But Prey wasn't dreaming.

So why then could he hear Gossamer talking to their mother?

He could hear them as clear as mud, almost understand the hazy words, nearly hear what was being said. But his mother was dead. She'd died in the smoke. Prey knew that. He'd never had the chance to bury her body. Hers or Fleece's. Because Fleece had died and become Breaker, just like Gossamer had died when Prey took his place.

Yet he could hear Gossamer talking to their mother, even if he couldn't make out the words. That wasn't fair, why couldn't he hear? Maybe it was because he didn't deserve to hear, not after all he'd done. Prey blinked, his eyes burning from the fire smoke.

'All it takes is one or two breaths.'

Why couldn't he hear what was being said? It was a memory, it had to be, so why couldn't he remember the words? Prey's memory was nearly eidectic, he could remember everything. Except this.

And why did the memory only come now, when he was so scared and tired and in such peril?

Prey stained, trying to remember or pick up the faint tells of sound in his head. Was this maybe a memory back from when he was still a baby? Is that why he was getting nothing?

He didn't deserve to hear his mothers words, but still he tried. 'No, not my mother. Gossamer's mother. I keep forgetting. She would never have had a son like Prey.'

He strained, desperate to remember. Faint, oh so faint. Half a sentence.

"You're my sweetie, my only sweetie, when skies are grey........ and when the stitches fall apart, you'll be hanging by a thread........"

Nothing more came.

Prey's eyes snapped open, jerking his body ram rod straight. Terror coursed through his veins. The fire!

Gloom had piled wood on the fire, it was still burning. The thestral was slumped despondently by the fire in abject misery.

Prey kept his eyes as wide open as he could manage after that, repeatedly stabbing himself with a splinter to stay awake as he watched on into the endless night.

https://imgur.com/wljtcLg

Hello to everyone! So, maybe I should've put this A.N. at the top with a warning about vivid depictions as a warning that the chapter was going to be dark. Err, my bad.

Also, if the quote at the end had you confused, it is the second half of the quote from the end of Chapter 40. Back at the start of this Arc III. 🎃 Here it is in full: