I opened my eyes and raised my head, blinking as I looked around, my ears twitching. Dee was where I spotted her last by the fire. The pile of wood next to her was a bit smaller than before.

Stretching my wings and back, I got onto my hooves and moved up next to her and she turned to look at me, “Welcome back,” she said with a small smile, “Did you find everypony?”

I sank to lay down, pulling one of the remaining fruits over to me as I sighed and shook my head, “No. If my count is right, I still have seventeen ponies unaccounted for. I talked with one of each group and told them which direction to go to get back to camp, but… some are still missing.”

Like Swift.

He was one of my oldest friends and if I had gotten him killed, I wasn’t sure what I’d do. But he was a member of the royal guard and a skilled unicorn. He likely just wasn’t asleep.

I hope.

Oh, Luna. What would say to Minuette if something happened to him.

Dee nodded and sighed softly, “I hope they’re okay.”

“Me too,” I said and glanced up to Luna’s moon, “I talked to Luna too. They are still getting one of the airships loaded for a rescue operation. Apparently she had talked to Midnight and the airship looks like it might be saved but they need materials and… well, it’ll only delay things half a day. We should survive that long on our own.”

“How long do they think it’ll take?” Dee asked and shifted her wings with a frown.

“It’s going to be slower than the ‘Mistake’,” I said and then shook my head with a small wry smile, “And wasn’t that a fitting name. Either way, they think at least a week and a half, assuming they don’t run into any more feral weather on the way.”

She nodded, “I figured out where we are too. I’ll be able to find my way back to the temple later and how to get to the old camp from here. We can fly as soon as the sun rises.”

“Go get some rest, I’ll wake you at sunrise.”

Dee nodded and got up, stretching before retreating back to sink down onto the patch of floor I had vacated, bundling her shirt up again and resting her head on it.

I looked at her for a second before I turned my eyes back towards the dark forest below the temple. I scooted a bit further from the fire to improve my nightvision a little before using my hooves to pull the fruit into two halves and leaning down to dig in. But I kept my eyes scanning, my ears turning.

I wonder… was this how ancient ponies lived?

Huddled in a shelter, a fire keeping the predators away? Maybe unicorns had it a little easier, but back then… was there even any real spells? Or just lifting?

Was there even shelters even half as good as this one?

Finishing the other side of the fruit, I pushed the shell into the small fire before frowning at a long somewhat straight branch and a sharp looking rock. Dee had been working on a spear.

Or at least a sharpened stick.

I pulled them over to me and frowned at it. How in the world do I do this without magic? Maybe if I…

I carefully took the sharp rock between my teeth and shifted it around before I held the sharpish stick between my hooves and leaned down to work it. It was slow, awkward and I dropped the rock a gazillion times but I did make progress.

Not having magic to pick stuff up with sucks.

Dee thought that this place was built by somepony other than unicorns and I was completely ready to lean on her expertise in such things. It was a million times more impressive building this place without magic.

Especially in this place filled with predators.

I worked the stone against the wood again. To build an actual civilization out here, to build a temple like that, even if it seems to be set up for pony sacrifice was all kinds of impr-

I froze at a sudden slight movement at the edge of the forest at the base of the temple. I stayed as still as I could, only my ears moving as I peered down into the darkness.

There was movement down there, I could have sworn there was something down th-

There. Something moved again.

A shape slowly moved out from beneath the trees and it lifted it’s head, sniffing the air. It wasn’t a rexosaurus, it was a lot smaller, maybe twice the size of a pony. It had an elongated body with a long tail and bipedal gait, it’s arms ending with what looked like hoof sized claws.

It looked like somepony had taken a utahraptor and added more claws, like it even needed them.

That thing was a pony eater.

“Dee,” I hissed, “Dee, wake up.”

No movement from behind me.

I very slowly put the rock down from my mouth and then slid it across the stones with my hoof over to bump against her. The sound of stone against stone felt like it filled the entire world, but the thing down there didn’t react.

It just kept sniffing the air.

“What is it?” Dee hissed from behind me.

“Predator,” I hissed back but didn’t dare move or it might spot me.

I felt the spear move and I lifted myself a bit to allow her to slowly pull it out from beneath me. As much as I disliked giving up our only weapon, she was used to using things without magic, I wasn’t.

The thing sniffed the ground and then started to slowly make its way up the stairs.

Oh, buck, it wasn’t just hunting in general.

It was tracking us.