As he laid in a makeshift bed, aching practically everywhere thanks to the additional bruises gained by crash-landing into the camp, Virtuous Twinkle couldn't get the two he had left behind out of his mind. The first words out of his mouth after being pulled out of the tent he'd landed on were that Twilight and Spike were in trouble back the way he had come from, but that was almost an hour ago and the team sent out hadn't reported back yet as far as he knew.

More than once he thought about going to ask, but it was impossible. Two of his legs were in bad shape, one from where the winged one had torn into him and the other from being dislocated after plowing through that tree. His mad dash to the camp had also strained his wounded wing too much, and the Doctor had told him if he tried to fly anywhere before it was healed he may damage it beyond repair. Until then, he was grounded.

Wishing the Doctor had a cure for his restlessness, the flap of the tent was pushed open as two ponies entered. One was an earth pony, his coat as white as Virtuous' own, but with a flaming red mane and umber eyes. Virtuous recognized him as Claret Whisper, one of the camp defense team leaders. The other was a unicorn, smoky grey in all aspects aside from her cutie mark, which appeared to simply be a white dot. Known around the camp only as Dream, she is one of the ponies that keeps the place running as smoothly as possible given the circumstances. A rumor he'd heard going around camp about her was that she could read minds or predict the future or something... he dismissed it as nonsense.

"Don't try." Dream said softly, barely a second before Virtuous started to push himself up without thinking about what the painful consequences would be.

"Are Twilight and Spike okay?" He asked as he settled back down onto the bed.

Claret stepped forward, his eyes dull. "I led the team out there, but all we found when we arrived was a slaughter."

Virtuous' heart sank. "You mean... they're..."

"We searched the corpses, but we didn't find any sign of them at the area of the battle. They haven't returned to the camp, either."

"Then... there's still a chance! My scouting party saw them abducting the ponies coming from the north, so maybe the same happened to them!"

"That's what the chief thought, as well." Dream interjected. "It's certainly unusual for them, but possible."

His hope began to build. "You're sending out a rescue party then?"

Claret, however, crushed it again with a shake of his head. "Judging by the reports we got about the old town they're using as a den, we don't have the numbers for such an undertaking. We also don't know if they'd even be taken to that one or some other we aren't even aware of in another direction. As far as the Chief, and therefore the rest of the camp, is concerned, Twilight Sparkle and Spike are just two more victims of those monsters."

"But-!"

"Virtuous." Dream said sternly, silencing him. "There's nothing you can do about it, just accept that now before you consider doing anything foolish."

Nodding, Claret turned away from him. "Get well soon, Virtuous. With the other three members of your team lost as well, we need all the able scouts we can get." He said before leaving the tent.

Mind racing, Virtuous wanted nothing more than to force himself out of bed and into the sky to go find Twilight and Spike, regardless of his injuries. They'd saved his life, but nopony was going to even try to save them? As much as he wanted to, he knew it was a foolish idea, like Dream said he'd be coming up with. Even in perfect health, he wasn't anything close to a fighter, so he'd be even less than useless as he was. Still, there had to be something he could do.

Another idea crossed his mind. As much as he hated asking somepony to put themselves in harm's way, there was one he'd been spending time with in camp had spoken fondly of Twilight before. If that pony was a friend to both of them, maybe there was a chance they could find and rescue Twilight and Spike before they could be dragged to the monster's den.

Movement caught his attention and he realized Dream was still in the tent, staring at him with a small smile on her face. "Once the patrol gets back, I'll tell your friend to come and visit you." She said, turning to leave. "Rest up until then."

Blinking as the tent's flap swung behind her, Virtuous found himself wondering if those rumors about her weren't as silly as he'd first thought.

Twilight awoke to a clamor of voices, none of which she could understand. Slowly opening her eyes, her blurred vision was assaulted by red. Once things came into focus, she realized she was among a group of the monsters that attacked her. None of them seemed to be paying much attention to her at the moment, but she was sure any sudden movement would change that very quickly.

Slowly looking around the crowd from her place on the ground, she spotted Spike nearby, tied up and unconscious. Reflexes took over and she tried to go check on him, only to find her legs tightly bound. The unintelligible chatter from the monsters faded and a shadow fell across her face.

One of the creatures was standing over her, twice as tall as the others with green-tinted skin and holding a stick that had been topped off with a pony's skull. They stared at each other for a moment, a crooked grin spreading across the things' face.

"Rakanishu!" It yelled, and one of the shorter creatures scrambled over, this one dark blue and carrying a thick knife instead of a crude blunt weapon like the others. The green one began making what Twilight could only call noises to the arrival, since it didn't sound like any language she'd ever heard. Even Zecora's native language at least sounded like it had words, this was just screeching to her ears.

Still, if that first bit had been a name and this high-pitched noise was a way they communicated, coupled with them beginning to take prisoners and show some degree of strategy, these things weren't as mindless as everypony had thought. Which meant the camp could be in trouble since it was operating under that assumption.

The green one stopped chattering and the blue one, Rakanishu if her hunch was right, dashed over to where Spike laid. Fearing the worst, Twilight panicked and started to cast a spell, only to have the taller one kick her in the face upon seeing her horn begin to glow. It shouted something at her, but she only cared about what they were going to do to Spike. Rakanishu didn't brandish the knife as she had expected, instead it grabbed a loose length of rope from what was binding Spike and began to drag him off.

She breathed a sigh of relief, two of the little red ones starting to drag her as well. However, her panic rose again when she realized what was happening. The group had divided between Rakanishu and the green one. Worse yet, she and Spike were being dragged off in two different directions. Thrashing and knocking over the two pulling her, she hurried to cast a spell, not noticing the tall one had been following right behind her. It brought down its stick hard, smashing the pony's skull atop it against hers before she could finish her spell and everything went black.

Her head was pounding, but that wasn't what had gotten her to wake up again. It was the screaming. Lifting her head up, she slowly took in the battle around her. The monsters were rushing around, screeching as they did and taking vicious swings at their attackers, a pack of wolves. From what she could tell, the wolves were winning. The things were being shredded and thrown around like ragdolls everywhere she looked.

One landed near her with a disgusting splatter, giving her a clear view of its entrails as they poured out of its bisected torso. Fighting back the urge to be sick at the sight, a light surrounded the corpse. With numerous squelching sounds, the organs retracted into the fallen creature and the gaping hole in its body closed up again. The thing promptly pushed itself up and returned to the fray.

With that horrifying image burning itself into her mind for future nightmares, she glanced at another flash of light. The green one was waving his staff, the end flickering with each stroke through the air. It didn't take her long to realize that thing was somehow reviving the others. Unless it was dealt with, the wolves didn't have a chance.

Not wanting to attract attention until she could at least move, Twilight quickly began pulling on the ropes around her legs, trying to loosen them. Fortunately they weren't tied very well and she was able to free herself in less than a minute. The real problem was that her legs were numb from being bound for so long.

A screech made her look up, the green one having noticed her efforts. Leveling his staff at her, a burst of flame shot from the tip. Twilight was barely able to roll out of the way in time, the flames searing part of her mane. The monster took a few steps toward her, taking aim again. The tip of its staff began to shine, until the green beast was pounced on from behind. Slamming facedown into the dirt, it never even got a chance to look up before a huge set of jaws clamped down, twisted and tore the creatures' head from its shoulders.

Standing on the corpse was a wolf almost twice the size of the others that were attacking the remaining monsters, it must have been the leader. Twilight locked eyes with it, the beast giving a low growl. Thinking she was just about to switch from being a prisoner to abominations to wolf food, Twilight tried to get up and start backing away, but only succeeded in tripping over her own half-numb hooves.

The wolf had lunged before she hit the ground, and even her reflexes with magic weren't fast enough to react before it was on her.