A/N: Finally sitting down to write this chapter, after almost 7 days of trying to come up with an idea. Remember the gryphon ashes that Twilight has (Yes, Ice Assassin Ace, this is the OC you PM-ed me)? She's finally going to do something with them.

Review Answers:

Lord Rage Quit - Nopony from my school sees bronies as cloppers. Most of my friends see me as a disturbed psychopath because I always read Grimdarks (Like fLuTtEr and CoRoNa, Cupcakes and Sweet Apple Massacre, Cheerilee's Garden and Rainbow Factory, Forever Faithful and Fluttershy's Dark Sky). And thanks for the compliment to my story.

NOTE: I do not own MLP or most of the characters used herein (Obviously, the gryphon assassin is Ice Assassin Ace's, while Black Jack is my friends, and everypony else who isn't in the T.V. show is mine, besides Adamant Will and Evening Star, since they belong to Old Night now). MLP is the property of Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

And so we go

Finally able to take a minute to seriously think, Twilight remembered the Urn of Ashes sitting in her Isolation Room. Walking over to it, she prepared Runes of Sealing, to keep Rumble and her daughter out while she interrogated the 'dead' gryphon (Because nothing is really dead when it comes to a Necromancer, especially Twilight, who was The Necromancer).

After sealing the only entrance to the room, Twilight began to flip through the Necronomicon, though this was little more than a formality since she already had the book memorized exactly. Horn glowing, she empowered the Summoning Rune on the floor, drawing the soul of the gryphon assassin into the room, where it was held in place by the Rune.

"What do you want?" the disembodied voice was cold and metallic, "Who are you to call a soul back from it's Eternal Rest?"

"You know who I am, assassin. And as to what I want, that should be obvious," Twilight's voice was even colder than the soul's, "You are going to answer my questions, honestly, or you will regret it."

"What can you do to me? I'm already dead."

The soul began to scream in pain as a sliver of magic, blacker than the darkest night, started to pierce it.

"That is what I can do to you. It's a spell of my own design. Don't you love it?" There was a slight trace of joy in Twilight's voice, as she dismissed the black magic.

The soul coughed, even though it had no blood, "What are you? I've never seen any kind of magic like this."

Twilight giggled, "That's because there hasn't been a magician like me in several hundred years. And there has never been one as powerful as me."

"That doesn't answer my question. What are you?"

"Surely you've heard of Starswirl the Bearded, yes? I am him reborn, but I am more powerful than he ever was."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Starswirl was a necromancer, the best of his time, though I've surpassed him," Twilight shook her head, clearing her thoughts, "Enough of your questions. Now you're going to answer mine. First things first, what is your name?"

"I am known by many names."

"Don't be difficult. You wouldn't want to feel the Void again, would you?"

Another sliver of black magic materialized, slowly inching towards the assassin's soul.

"Death Strike!" the soul quickly said, "My name is Death Strike!"

The black magic disappeared again, scant centimeters from the soul.

Twilight looked pleased, "Very good. Now, who sent you after me?"

"I wasn't after you."

"I don't appreciate lying," Twilight said as she created another Void Sliver.

"I'm not lying!" the soul exclaimed, "I wasn't hired to kill you! I was hired to destroy that giant stone pony!"

"Midnight Rumble? Why were you hired to destroy him?"

"Fear."

This statement confused Twilight, leaving her silent for many minutes before she could respond, "What do you mean, fear?"

The soul started laughing, "You don't know, do you? What that thing did trying to find you? It has destroyed countless villages and killed countless gryphons while running randomly around Equestria looking for you."

"How does that make it worth destroying? You have done the same thing to us. Following your logic, we should try to destroy every one of you gryphons."

"The only difference between us and it is that we have reason for doing what we did. You invaded our country and killed the daughter of our Reich. This required retaliation."

"We invaded Gryphonia because your Reich authorized the assassination of both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. And the death of Gilda was an accident. Do you think I would have killed one of my best friend's friends?"

"We both know that's a lie. The Gryphonian Reich never authorized any assassination. It was part of an international plan to annex Gryphonia into Equestria."

Twilight was startled by the knowledge of this 'average' gryphon assassin, "How could you know this? Nobody outside the Continental Summit knew of this plan. Who told you this?"

"Nobody told me anything, besides you. I was there during the Summit, Princess. I heard your entire plan, how you were going to kill both the Princesses and then frame Gryphonia, giving you an excuse to invade us and take control of our country."

"Where were you at the Summit? I don't remember seeing you anywhere or anytime during the Summit."

"That's because I was hidden in that over-extravagant chandelier that was hanging over the table. I was there by the request of the Gryphonian Reich. Where do you think he got the knife that he gave to you? Speaking of which, where'd that knife go? I'd like it back please."

"What do you need the knife for? You're already dead, so you can't do anything with it."

"It's a family heirloom, and I was hoping you might have a way to send it through to the afterlife, so that I may always have something to remember my family by."

"I'm sorry, but I do not have a way to send it over the barrier between life and death."

The soul sighed, "Very well. Please release me, so that I may return to my rest?"

"Now hold on. I said I didn't have a way to send the knife over to you, but I do have a way to bring you back to this world so that you may continue to carry the knife."

"I suspect that this will not be free. What is the price?"

"You must abandon your previous contract and protect my daughter, until such time that she is able to defend herself. Then you will return to me, and I will give you any further assignments that need completion. Do you agree to the terms of the contract?"

"If that is all I must do, then you have my word that I will follow your orders to the letter."

"Very good. Please wait a few minutes while I prepare your new body."

Twilight levitated the Urn of Ashes over to where she was standing and began to remove the ashes, placing them in a Creation Rune she had inscribed. Activating the Rune with the appropriate spell, she invoked the latent powers held within the Rune, causing the ashes to start swirling upward like a tornado. Inside the 'tornado', you could see the ashes starting to solidify. But what was formed was not what Twilight was expecting: instead of reforming Death Strike's original body, the ashes had made a bipedal form, completely different from anything that had been seen on Earth for over 65 million years. It was the form of a Human, though this one was slightly different than the ones in the Ancient History Museums or the College History Textbooks, in that it had the wings of a gryphon.

A magical scan revealed other differences as well: the body was capable of Shapeshifting and making itself invisible, even though it was completely devoid of all magic. There was also a curious mutated Helix in the body's DNA, whose effects were unknown to Twilight.

Vowing to look into the effects of that mutated helix, Twilight cancelled the magical scan and turned back to the soul, preparing the Phylactery Spell (Though this time, she would not end up pregnant again since she had chosen a vessel for the soul, unlike last time).

Casting the spell, she watched as Death Strike's soul moved into the newly made body and slowly spread through it, assuming control of the body. She watched as he reacted to the unexpected form, moving his limbs slowly as he adjusted to the greater strength in them, and spreading his wings, getting use to the feel of having wings again.

"I do not understand," his voice was a deeper baritone than even Midnight Rumble's, surprising both himself and Twilight.

"I don't either," Twilight admitted, "I had been trying to recreate your gryphon body, yet this is what the spell made."

"How am I supposed to guard your daughter when I look like this?"

"There is more to your body than just how it looks. Try imagining yourself as looking how you did when you were a gryphon."

Before her eyes, Death Strike transformed from his new bipedal form back to his original gryphon form.

"What is this madness?!" Death Strike was obviously distressed by what had happened to him.

"Do not worry, Death Strike. I am not sensing anything wrong with your body. Quite the opposite, really. You are the healthiest being I've ever seen."

"But how is this possible? I've never heard of magic that allows a creature to change shape like this!"

Before she could respond, Twilight sensed a third presence in the Isolation Room. This was impossible though, since she had sealed the room with the strongest Sealing Rune she knew.

Looking around, she yelled out, "Who's there? Show yourself!"

A cloaked pony rose out of her shadow and spoke, "Long have I awaited the birth of another Archangel."

Twilight immediately recognized the voice, "Shattered Silence (The Librarian in charge of the Restricted Section in the Canterlot Royal Archives. See chapter 5, Parthenogenesis, if you don't remember this)? How did you get in here? And what do you mean, you've waited for the birth of another Archangel?"

The librarian pointed to Death Strike, "He is an Archangel. A being who can assume any form, whether it's Pony, Gryphon, Dragon, or Human, and use all of the abilities that come with that form. And as to how I entered this chamber, Archangels are immune to all magic, a side effect of not having any magic in them. My creator, your past life, Starswirl the Bearded, called us Pillars of Creation, because we are capable of impossible feats of magic, despite the absence of magic in us. He called the magic that we use 'Vita Magicae', or the Magic of Life, since we use the life force of any living thing around us to fuel our casting."

"How is that possible? Parasitic magic doesn't exist."

Looking directly at Twilight, Shattered Silence responded, "Neither does Teleportation."

Twilight had no response to that, and simply sat down.

Turning towards Death Strike, Silence began speaking again, "This Archangel of yours is incredibly powerful. I can barely fathom the impact he will have on the world."

Curious now, Twilight thought about the next question she would ask, "What do you mean, the impact he will have on the world?"

Silence turned back to Twilight, "The birth of an Archangel is no little thing, Mistress Sparkle, but he is like no Archangel before him. If we were to compare him to his predecessors as a rock being thrown into a pond, they are large rocks, while he is a boulder, and the ripples of his impact will be felt all around the pond, which, in this case, means the entire world"

"How can you possibly know this just by looking at him?"

"Because Archangels are clairvoyant to an extent," Silence began tapping his hoof to his mouth, "If memory serves, you've met several Archangels. One of them is the most powerful Clairvoyant among us, and her daughter will be one of the best Shapeshifters ever once her Archangel DNA awakens. The other, everypony in Ponyville saw as a klutz.

"Between the three of us, we should be able to train this new born and the other once she awakens as an Archangel. But we need your permission to train this one," Silence said as he pointed to Death Strike again.

"Why do you need my permission?"

"Because he is your creation, and we cannot train him without your permission, as it would interfere with the assignment you have given him. You see, if an Archangel performs an action that interferes with the assignment given him/her, they will feel the most unbearable pain until their master/mistress dismisses it."

"Very well. You have my permission to train Death Strike, until such time as he can return to his assignment with complete control of his powers."

"Thank you, Mistress Sparkle," Silence said as he walked over to Death Strike, then turned back to her, "One more thing: Since you killed Celestia, all Archangels now answer to you. And with the creation of this one, that means you will have 87 Archangels under your command once the child awakens. Now that you know of our existence, the rest of us will start to report to you to receive their new assignments."

After finishing that sentence, Shattered Silence placed his hoof against Death Strike, and the two Archangels melted into shadows on the floor.

Alone in her Isolation Room, Twilight began to massage her temples with her hooves, "This is going to be a serious headache."

"I can help with that!" The bubbly voice practically yelling in her ear made Twilight jump almost to Cloudsdale.

Turning around, Twilight saw a certain pink pony.

"Of course, it had to be her," Twilight muttered to herself, "It had to be her."