Before anypony in the building could even twitch, I was moving. My first victim was a gryffin leaning on the doorway only a foot or so away from where I had entered. I grabbed him by the throat and hurled him at another gryffin standing near the center of the room. As the two gryffins went flying, the rest finally seemed to come to their senses. One flew at me from somewhere to the right, catching me off guard. Luckily, he didn't think to grab a weapon, so he simply slashed my right arm with his bare talons.

I laughed at him as I slammed my left fist around and down on his head. He fell to the ground and didn't even twitch.

I heard another gryffin take off somewhere on my left, he was likely trying to attack me before I could recover from striking the now downed gryffin at my feet. He succeeded, and he hadn't forgotten a weapon. A sharp pain lanced through my midsection as a cold blade plunged into my side. I cried out and brought my arms back around to punch the stupid bird in the beak, sending it flying away. I grabbed the dagger handle left behind by the gryffin and pulled it out of my side. I turned to face the rest of the gryffins in the building, who were gathering in an open area near the far left wall of the factory for a mass attack.

I turned towards them, spread my legs a bit apart for a more solid stance, and braced myself for the oncoming wall of foes with the dagger coated in my own blood held out in front of me. The four gryffins at the front of the mass darted forward first, as if they were trying to tell the others to attack with them as one. Fortunately for me, the others didn't catch on right away, so the four charged alone.

"Man, you guys are dumb." When the first gryffin reached me, I slammed the hilt of the dagger into his face. He hit to the ground before the others caught up. I caught the second unlucky assassin by the throat with my free hand. "I mean, really? Linear mob attack against the guy that can crack your skulls with ease." I flicked my wrist forward and slammed the gryffin in my grip against the next oncoming foe like a makeshift club. With an almost casual demeanor, I treated the last of the four gryffins to the same fate as the third. After beating the last two attackers senseless with their comrade, I released the gryffin I had been usuing to tenderize the others.

He didn't move, and I honestly couldn't tell if the oxygen deprivation had gotten to him or if he was just smart enough to stay still and not get hit again.

The rest of the would-be attackers suddenly seemed really on-the-fence about the mass attack strategy. They gazed at me with anger, but fear as well.

"Well come on you polka-dot covered kid-stealing bastards! I don't have all goddamn day!" I shouted at them as I leaped forward into the crowd myself. For a moment, nothing happened. I led with a kick, which hit one of the front gryffins and sent him reeling back into a far wall. Then, the entire building seemed to become a confused mass of feathers and inarticulate cries of rage or fear at once.

"You're doing well, champion. Display you prowess to them, so that none shall dare to even think of crossing you again!"

I grunted in response to the voice of Ravidos, and proceeded to do as he said. In the heart of the storm of feathers, I began to lash out at any gryffin I could single out. I cut them up on my right as my new dager seemed to stab into an endless wall of flesh. With my left arm, I struck them and occasionally grabbed one to bash others with. Withing mere seconds, the fight was over as soon as it had started. I was covered in talon wounds and stab wounds from the fight, quite a lot in fact.

My entire body was littered with blood and lacerations, more than a few looked at least a little serious. Nothing I couldn't handle though. As soon as I was sure it was clear, I relaxed my body and stood up surrounded by downed, more than a few possibly dead, gryffins. They were still covered in polka-dots and silly string, but both were fading. I had to find my son, and quickly. That fight was by no means quiet, and Byron could run away with my son soon if he hadn't already.

*screeeeeeeee* I whipped my head around to the left side of the building, where the strange new noise had come from. There was one more gryffin, leaning against a metal support beam. Oddly enough, he wasn't chaotically decorated like the rest. He was still normal. He was casually sliding one of his talons down the side of a dagger he held, generating an annoying metal scratching sound. I pointed my hand at him quickly.

"Don't move, or I'll fill your skull with lightning, got it?" I called to the final assassin. He merely scoffed at me.

"Don' worry yerself mate, I ain't gonna take a whack atcha like those bloody cobbers." the gryffin assured me with an oddly heavy accent that I couldn't place.

"You sure? I'm aching for some roast gryffin, and you look meatier than these others. Likely story. I'm not dropping my guard just because you say you won't attack."

"Suit yerself." the gryffin muttered disinterestedly as he continued to scrape his talons against the blade he held.

"Stay here." I ordered. "I'm gonna go get my son and then I'll be back here to get some questions answered." like why he wasn't polka-dotted like the rest. I turned away from him, confident that he wouldn't act as idiotically as the others.

"Yer ruddy joey ain't here, mate."

I turned back around. I wasn't entirely sure what he had just said, but it didn't sound good.

"What?"

"Yer son ain't here."

In an instant, I was towering over the assassin threateningly. He continued to scratch his dagger boredly.

"Then you'd better tell me where, and explain why every gryffin in this building bear the mark of his magic, or else I swear I'll--"

"Crikey, calm yer pointers cobber. I'll tell ya anything you want to know."

"Oh? Just what makes you so cooperative?" I questioned harshly.

"I'm a hired blade mate, I work for the bloke with the biggest bid. As far as I'm concerned, my life is a bigger bid than what Byron pays me." the assassin turned to the side and spat quickly. " 'Sides, you're on such a higher level than me that I might as well be underground. I ain't gonna cross blades wit a bloke like you for some pompus bastard."

"Fair enough. If you try anything funny though, or if I think for a second you're lying, I'll kill you on the spot."

"Got it guv'na. Name's Artyom, by the way."

"That's nice, I'm Sharky. Now, where the hell is Byron with my son if my son's not here? Also, if they aren't here, why are all your former allies obviously under the effect of his magic? Further more, why aren't you under the same effect?"

"Here I was thinkin' you'd 'ave tougher questions. Byron went off on some vacation, leaving the rest of us poor blokes to do all the work ourselves. He went to a right beautiful place too, a beach house he owns in Hoofalulu. You actually just missed 'im mate, he left 'bout fifteen minutes before you showed up. That's why all me mates look like that too, yer joey just left with Byron. I don't look like that on account of the fact I got here after it happened. Simple, see?"

"So... Byron has my son, and he's taking him on an island vacation?" I asked aloud, even though he had basically just answered that. He didn't have any reason to lie to me, none that I could see anyway. I didn't see any trace of a lie in his eyes, but I wasn't going to risk being wrong and totally led astray. "Alright, thanks for the help then. You're coming with me to get them."

Artyom didn't react at all, which wasn't quite what I expected.

"Work fine fer me, mate. Ain't got better things to do anyway."

I now felt without a shadow of a doubt that he was telling the truth. If he wasn't he would have been more reluctant to go with me.

"Alright then. Stay here, I'm gonna go search this place."

"You got it guv'na."

I turned away from the excessively calm gryffin and began to search the building. After a few minutes of looking around, I determined that Artyom was telling the truth for sure about Byron leaving. The location Byron had gone was still yet to be proven truthful, but knowing Artyom had been honest at least a little gave me an even better feeling about the truth of his words. I returned to the main entrance of the factory to find Artyom still in the same place. He was a bird of his word if nothing else.

"Alright then. I'm not about to sneak back through this city in my boxers, so I'm gonna need to stick around here near your for a bit."

" 'An what will that get done?"

"I'll explain when I have wings."

Artyom waved a talon lazily. "Fine, don' tell me then."

"You'll see." I sighed.

--------------------------------------------------------

"That's just bloomin' creepy mate." Artyom remarked when I showed him my new pair of gryffin wings I had absorbed from him.

"Funny, you seem to be the first to actually say that. Well, time's wasting. Let's go." I led him out of the factory and we took off into the cool night air. With wings I was able to fly high above the city, too far to be seen by the ponies in it. It made travelling back to Esmerelda a piece of cake too, since I only had to fly in a straight line instead of dodging around buildings. I located her large body right where I had left her. She was curled up and looked like she was sleeping when I landed on the sand next to her.

"Crikey! A bloody damn dragon!" Artyom hissed as he landed next to me. Esmerelda began to stir in front of him. The gryffin took a few cautious steps back.

"Oh, don't worry. She's works with me." I assured him. Esmerelda lifter her head sleepily and turned her head around to look at me. She gave me a soft smile before breaking into a yawn. Which perfectly exposed all her massive fangs to my nervous gryffin companion.

"What the bloomin' hell are you thinkin'?!" Artyom scrambled behind me. "Dragons would serve ya fer lunch sooner than work with ya!"

"Sharky? Who's this little thing?" Esmerelda asked wearily.

"Calm down Artyom. Esmerelda, this is Artyom. He says Byron left to Hoofalulu with my son. He's coming with us so that I can beat him if he lied."

"That's awfully mean..." Esmerelda noted.

"My son was foalnapped, I'm not even going to pretend to be kind right now."

"Alright, I guess that makes sense."

Esmerelda nodded thoughtfully as I dragged Artyom onto her back.

"You do know how to get there, yes?" I asked Esmerelda quietly after wedging Artyom between two of the raised scales on her neck.

Esmerelda gave me an almost insulted look. "Of course! I know where almost everything is! Need I remind you how long I spent as Celestia's best buddy while she travelled the world?"

I had never heard anything about travels before, but I simply patted her neck and got into a seat on her neck behind Artyom. "Alright then, let's get going." I would wait until later to ask about the travelling thing.

Esmerelda took off into the night, and glided off towards what would hopefully be our final stop to finding my son and kicking the ass of the one that took him.