After we had cleaned ourselves up, we tried to resume our day as normal, but a lot of ponies were giving us the stink eye for the noise we made this morning. Ribbons eyes suddenly widened in shock, and I gave her a concerned look. Se must have just gotten an emergency message from the hive "Is something wrong?"

'GRIFFON HUNTING PARTY!' y eyes widen in horror.

-Where, how many, and have they captured anyone!?-

'Two drones, about seven griffons, their at the bottom of the the mountain!'

-I'm teleporting us in airborne, get ready- Firing up my magic, I teleport us into the air over the mountains. We both already had our wings open, and only dropped about 3 feet before we started hovering. Taking a look, I noticed three were armed with spears, two of them had both a sword and a crossbow, one had both a sword and shield, and the last had a what looked like a single shot rifle...

"Can you take them all yourself? you know I'm not a fighter."

"Exactly, I get their attention, you get the drones out, and then I can neutralize them."

"Ok," Ribbon inhales deeply. "Ok. Lets go."

This was going to be tricky...

Diving, I zeroed in on the griffon closest to the drones, the one with the sword and shield, and came crashing down on him, knocking him out instantly.

"What the pluck!?"

"There's a fourth one!?"

"Its just another changeling, get it!" Three of the griffons charged charged me, and I had to leap back to avoid getting stabbed. Then I noticed the rifle being pointed at me... DO NOT WANT! Right before it was fired at me, my urge to not get hit caused my body to dissolve into miasma, and the bullet to fly right through me.

"What in the name of god..."

Focusing on reforming myself, I somehow glared at them despite being a cloud. Still seriously outnumbered... I really wish there was two of me right now... at that thought, I felt myself split in two, and began reforming... into two of me?!

"Oh god..."

"That feels weird..."

"As all hell." My brain was running in overdrive, trying to figure out how to use two bodies at once, as well as process two sets of senses. It hurts too much, please turn back... feeling both my bodies dissolving and rejoining into a single cloud, I let out a mental sigh of relief, before focusing on reforming into a SINGLE body.

The two drones had been freed by Ribbon while I was trying to process two sets of inputs, and were now tackling the griffin with the rifle, interrupting his reload. Meanwhile, Ribbon had inned one of the ones with a crossbow down, and was spitting up gel to trap him.

A sudden lance of pain ripped through my backside, and nearly caused me to collapse, before I turned and caught sight of an arrow burrowed into my flank. Before I can even blink, Ribbon had teleported over to the griffon, and BIT him, before he went limp and collapsed to the ground.

That left the three spear wielding griffons, who had backed up against each other, trying to avoid getting blindsided. Time for some fun.

Shifting into Inago, I smiled wickedly as they cowered in fear of a supposedly demonic alicorn, turned into TRULY demonic looking changeling, my bleached chitin and black, soulless eyes leaving them trembling in fear, before I let out a long, snakelike hiss. Collecting magic in my horn, I couldn't help but say it. "Go. To. Sssssleep!" before hitting all thre of them with a sleep spell.

Returning to normal, I gripped the bolt that was lodged in my ass with my magic, and pulled it out.

"Careful now." Ribbon walked up to me, showing concern.

"I'd rather not have a stick up my ass."

"You mean like most of Canterlot?" I couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"Minus Blueblood, he's got the whole damned tree stored up there!" Ribbon bursts into laughter at that. I turn to the two drones. "You two alright?"

They nod. "We're fine."

"Thank you."

I notice that Ribbon seems to have an idea in mind. "Why don't you two take all of the supplies they had back to the hive?" The drones nod, and begin gathering the scattered weapons.

"Shouldn't we hold onto the griffons until we can get one of the princesses to deal with them?"

"Yeah, Drag them into a pile so it's easier to teleport them." She grabs two of the K.O.ed griffons in her magic, and drags them over to us. Turning to the one who had been glued to the ground, I cast a sleep spell on him, before Ribbon freed him, and added him to the pile. Meanwhile, I had grabbed the three i had hit with the group sleep spell, and dropped them in the pile as well.

The two drones had gathered up everything, and had dragged their weapons and the last griffon over to us.

Firing up my magic, I prepared to teleported us to the hive, when Ribbon flicked my horn canceling the spell, and causing my body to involuntary shudder. "You recovered from magic burnout a few days ago, I'll teleport us." With a flash of green, we appeared in the hive, several drones waiting to haul off the griffins.

As the griffons were dragged off to somewhere, I noticed Ribbon spacing out, likely communicating with the hive. When she refocused, she turned to me and nodded. "I' let Twilight know we had a problem, she's writing a letter now."

I raise my hoof, unsure of what to do next. "So, what do we do while we wait for the princess to get here?"

She turns to the pile of assorted objects. "Wanna go through their stuff?"

"Heck yeah." Looking at the pile, I grab the rifle, and take a closer look. Bloody things muzzle loaded, doesn't even use casings, let alone have semi-auto capabilities... well, I know what to get Tavish to do.

"You're awfully interested in that griffon side arm."

"Ribbon, remember what i said about sniper rifles?"

"Yeah."

"This is basically a simplified inaccurate version."

She doesn't seem to care. "Hmm. look at this." She holds up a weathered book. "It's a log, it says what their doing. timberwolf wood, manticore teeth and venom. their poachers."

"Wow."

"A lot of the stuff thats checked off isn't here. they must have it stashed somewhere." Oh... gonna need to find out where. But anyway, need to figure out how to turn this rifle into a proper firearm...

"You really want that sniper thing, don't you?"

I smile. "Oh yeah, and I know how to modify the design of this to turn it into one."

"Then you might want to hide it. After all, a crossbow is illegal, unless you're a guard. How do you think she'll react to that?"

"Tell her I'm only supplying Tenchu squad with it, and not sharing the designs with anyone."

"I still think you should hide it. She had my cross bow taken away after the wedding."

No! You can't have it! Holding the rifle against my chest, I tried to keep it safe.

"The Princess is here." Doing a double take, I confirmed that it was Luna, not Celestia, who had teleported in. She took a look at what I was doing, and raised an eyebrow.

Luna clears her throat, before speaking. "Celestia is busy dealing with Blueblood, I came in her place... has anything transpired between sending the letter and now?"

"No, their unconscious right now. I did find a log of what they're doing though." Ribbon levitates the book over to Luna, who opens it, and frowns.

"We must ascertain the location of these supplies, and secure them..."

"We didn't even know they were here, until they captured two drones." Yikes, they're rather stealthy when they want to be...

Setting down the rifle, I raise my hoof. "I have ways of making them talk..."

"I heard of the training ideals you gave Shining Armor, and would like to watch this." Oh yes... this will be fun.

Ribbon nods. "I'll take you to them." We follow Ribbon to a completely empty room with four guards "Cut one of them out, please." One of the guards complies, and flies up to the ceiling, were the griffons are being held in pods. After cutting one loose, and lowering him to the floor, the guard returns to his position.

Focusing, I morph to Inago. -You try to act like the reasonable one, he will be a LOT more willing to talk to you if the alternative is a bloodthirsty, demonic changeling.- I notice Luna cast some kind of invisibility spell, and vanish into thin air.

Ribbon slaps the griffon awake, before I take the lead walking right up to the griffon with a fang filled smile, I watch as his eyes flicker open, and look into mine, before narrowing to pinpricks. He immediately begins struggling against the gel holding his talons together.

"I have sssseeen you ssssoul... and it mussst be clensssed, in the flamesss of tarterusss... it may claim your sssoul... but your flesssh will be mine to devour..."

-It would more effective if you act like I actually AM a changeling.-

'I-if you're sure.' "Back down!" I comply, but not before biting the air an inch from his face, causing him to scream in fright, before backing away, growling.

"Sorry about her, she prefers fear over love. What's your name, and why are you here."

"H-h-hawkeye R-ravenclaw! All I was told was this was a hunting expedition!" Yeah... NO!

"Liesss... you go through the motionsss... but I sssmell no fear..." -This guy is TOO scared... A rookie wouldn't know to fear for his life... he'd at least try to act tough...- The whole time this is happening, I've been circling Ribbon and Hawkeye, like a predator waiting for the perfect moment to strike...

"Why don't you try again. If you give me a good reason, I might just give you over to the Princess, instead of her" I grin, fangs dripping saliva, and lick my lips.

"Alright! Just keep that THING away from me! The boss! He said he wanted more slaves, and changelings don't need to be fed, meaning they fetch a really high price!" It took all my willpower not to kill the bastard right then and there... Slavery?! And if the implications are correct, there using changelings as SEX SLAVES!?

"It's not as if we're all linked together, or could come to each others aid, right? I'll tell you what, if you can give me something of value. I'll just, let you go." 'Not really~' I hear her sing song in our heads.

"The Everfree castle! We've got everything stored there! Money, weapons, schematics, you name it!"

"Why, think you. He's all yours Princess!" His eye bug out as Luna comes into view, before they refocus on me, as he had felt the palpable amount of rage coming off me, as I walked towards him, and held him up to my face. It took every shred of willpower to not eviscerate him on the spot.

"if you EVER try to capture another being again... I will not hesssitate to SSSTRANGLE YOU WITH YOUR OWN INTESSSTINESSS!" miasma was spewing out of my mouth as I said that, its coldness contrasting my white hot fury, giving the feeling hell had frozen over... Hawkeye's eyes rolled into the back of his head, as he fainted from pure terror... dropping him to the floor, I heard the sound of hooves clapping, and saw Luna applauding me and Ribbons performance.

"Bravo, bravo, literally scaring the information out of him!"

"Cut the rest of them down, please." Two of the guards fly up, and after extracting the griffons from the pods, lay them on the floor, where Luna teleports herself and the seven griffins out.

Ribbon seems to notice exactly HOW angry I am. "Relax, Chi, they'll have a hard time capturing us, now that changelings know screaming for help works."

Today is not my day, not only have ponies been giving us the stink eye, we had to deal with a bunch of griffon slavers, AND DISCORD INTERRUPTED ME AND RIBBON!

I can't help but eye Ribbon like candy. "I believe we have some unfinished business, thanks to Discords interruption..."

She blushes. "Maybe so, but I got something out of it." Before smiling. "And we can stay in the hive so Ponyville doesn't have to hear..."