Rainbows eyes went wide, breath caught in her throat. She couldn't move even though the world around her was utter chaos. Ponies bolted from the flaming arena while other ran to the fire, armed and armored. The other racers had already fled, leaving her petrified at the starting line. Visions of her past flashed rapidly before her, holding her in place.

Raven hissed in rage at the sorry sight in center field. She couldn't understand what was wrong with the still Pegasus standing there with ears back, wings twitching, and needle eyes. She wanted to go up there and smack the bitch straight, but that would be counter-productive at the moment. No, what she needed to do was find the culprit and bring them to justice. To make them pay for ruining her plan. Raven breathed in then out, wings outstretched and ready. With a grunt, she leaped from the safety cloud where the guards forced her and those willing to stay if they haven't fled the arena altogether.

"Hey! Stop!" one of the guards shouted, but he was too late. Raven above the blazing fire and the dead ponies smoldering the wreckage before the guards could do anything. 'Not like they could keep up in the first place.' With her eagle-like vision, she scanned the area around the fire, searching for the exit.

It didn't take her long to find the exit. It was located directly in the center of all the destruction. She groaned when she realized that the murderer must have fled the scene in an alternate route from the original and made a beeline to the town of Wingshire to cover his tracks. There was no way she was going to fly into the fire just to find the bastard, she wasn't that stupid, but she knew where to begin her search.

Turning around, she bolted for the town. She had little time to pick up on the trail left behind by the bomber. 'Rainbow will have to wait,' she cursed. In the morning of her eye, the mare in question was guided by the first-responders to the safety cloud. Raven grimaced at the sight of the stretcher that they had to drag her with, but that didn't matter right now.

Wings beating hard and fast, like the bird of prey she was. Raven was in the large town in mere moments. The little hillside town was alive and in motion. Guards ran through the streets, medics bolted to help those in need, and ponies hid in their homes. It was a sad sight in her eyes. The town was quite the sight before the race.

"Shame. This place was cute when it's not on Lockdown," she sighed and continued on.

As she flew over the town, another followed her in the shadows. His eyes refused to leave the sight of the flying Pegasus. As such, he ran through the chaotic streets just out of her vision. He paid no mind to the guards, nor gave a damn to the ponies telling him to take shelter. He only had one mission: Follow Raven and report back to his Mistress, Lady Rhapsody.

He ran as fast as he could, trying to keep up with the flying mare on a mission. Even though his leather wings could keep up with Raven, having a Thestral suddenly take flight behind a potentially dangerous Pegasus would be a horrible idea. Instead, he chose to stay on the ground, weaving through the screaming masses like a dancer with his partner.

Of course, he knew why she was flying from the arena. The bomb was large enough that everyone in town could see the fireball rising into the air. The panic was instant right as a large chunk of the arena fell from the sky, crushing everything unlucky enough beneath the cloud and wood structure. He knew no one came out of the disaster unscathed, but he couldn't do anything about it.

'I know my Mistress won't be pleased with my abandonment, but Raven knows something that I don't, and I must know what that is.' Pushing through a back alley, he saw Raven dive towards an empty warehouse. He knew it was empty because he scouted the area for an escape route earlier in case Raven figured out what he was up too, however. If Raven saw something from the sky heading there. Then it was no longer empty.

Running by tall buildings weathered from the elements, he came up to his destination: an old, dusty, building, no larger than a few houses connected together by brick and mortar. The once bright yellow paint, now a faded white, peeled like rotting skin. Holes littered the side of the building and the clay roof folded in on itself. He grimaced at the sight of Raven barging through the main gate without a care in the world. He, thankfully, knew better. With a flap of his wings, he jumped over the gate and walked around the side, and smiled.

The side of the building had a large hole just big enough for him to squeeze through. He knew from his scouting that the hole leads to the office area littered with old and very moldy office supplies. His smile grew bigger when the sound of talking echoed through the building, even though it was faint. All that mattered was the fact that his efforts birthed fruit, however. He still needed to bring back something for his Mistress.

Silently, he trotted through the office area, following the chatter as he did so. He made sure to keep an eye out for anything that may be amiss, but nothing was out of place. Bounding around a corner with the grace of a mouse, he came to the door that opened up to the loading area, and where the voices were conversing with each other. Quietly as he could, he drew a dagger from underneath his wing and opened the old, metal door, and peered into the empty warehouse. Well, almost empty.

Standing in the center next to a brand new sky-wagon were three Griffins: all of which wore leather armor and looked like they mean business. He frowned at the sight, but that was a given. What he was looking for was Raven, who quickly made herself known to the trio sporting crossbows, and longswords.

"Oi! I fucking found you cunts!" Raven bellowed from the far side of the warehouse, earning the legendary gesture: hoof-inside-skull, and a groan from the Thestral.

"What the!?" one of the Griffins replied. "Maelstrom, you were supposed to lose the bitches before coming here!"

"Don't put this on me! I wasn't the one responsible for the bomb!" Maelstrom exclaimed. "And it's only one pony. Just gut her and leave." Raven didn't look pleased about the proclamation, however. It did make her happy.

"Gut me, eh?' Raven laughed, maniacally so. "It's been a while since I had a threeway, and since you, three gentlemen are so generous as to confessing your sin. I shall make your death as painful as possible."

The trio chuckled and readied their weapons. This gesture didn't deter the much, much smaller Pegasus mare. Instead, it only made her more willing to brawl with the three. Walking with pride in her every step, Raven licked her lips hungrily for the blood of Griffins. His eyes went wide in shock as electricity erupted from her carnivorous maw, causing the Griffins to take a step back in fear.

"What's the matter, boys? Afraid of my Lightning Fangs?" Raven chuckled as she took another step towards them. "Don't worry. They will only hurt... a lot."

"I'm not afraid!" the third one shouted in defiance, cocking a bolt into his crossbow as he did so, but it was pointless. Within a split second, she was on top of him. The other two barely had the time to turn and watch Raven clamp her jaw onto the third member's neck, twisting her body as she did so, and slammed the much larger body onto the ground with a sickening crunch. All the while, the Thestral watched in amazement.

'To think that there is someone as fast as my Mistress. Lady Rhapsody must know of this,' he thought before the sounds of a blood-curdling screech assaulted his senses. When he looked at what made the sound, he saw the Griffin in her maw convulsing violently.

The other two Griffins could only watch in horror as their friend went limp in Ravens grip before she spat him out, dead and burnt. If he wasn't used to the stench of burnt flesh already, the Thestral would have vomited right there. Instead of losing his lunch, he watched with growing curiosity of his target. Even though it sickened him seeing her lick the blood from her lips with a moan of disgusting pleasure.

"W-What are you!?" stuttered Maelstrom with a shaky grip of his longsword. He backed away along with his friend from the mare grinning like a madpony. Both of them knowing that death will follow if they engaged the deranged mare.

"I am Raven Shadowhoof: heir to the Shadowhoof clan of Assassins," she replied with a bow. "I have been tasked with aiding my friends on a very special mission. This mission is to ensure the Elements of Harmony go to their destined bearers and not the six usurpers, and you four, unfortunately, got in the way. So I hate to ask this but... where is the fourth?"

"I'm not telling you where Xerath is!" the unnamed Griffin proclaimed, but his new found vigor was all for naught. Raven raised a brown and twitched her wing. If the Thestral wasn't shocked already from Ravens sudden revelation, then the six blade-like feathers protruding from the neck of the second Griffin ensured it.

Raven obviously wasn't pleased with the answer.

"Tsk, what a waste," she hummed at the sight of the new corpse bleeding its last moments of life onto the ground in a river of ruby. Turning her gaze to the fleeing Maelstrom, she leaped into the air and bolted straight for the Griffin.

"Where are you going?" she inquired, but the response she got from Maelstrom wasn't to her liking. With a sigh, she clamped down on the Griffins neck before he could fly through the hole in the roof and threw him back to the ground. Without leaving any time to let the Griffin recover, she pinned him to the ground on his back with strength' that shouldn't be possible for a such a small mare.

"Shall I ask again? Or will you tell me where Xerath is?"

"P-Please don't kill me!" Maelstrom begged, tears streaming down his face. Raven tapped his trembling beak with one of her steel feathers thoughtfully.

"Only if you give me what I want," she said, tracing the blade along his neck.

"X-Xerath is a Steelwing!" the Griffin blurted out. "The Steelwings live in a small town called Ponyville! He wears an Illusion Ring to hide is true identity, but there are only three Steelwings alive! Honest!"

"It can't be the old bird. I know for a fact that he is stuck in Ponyville for the time being, and his brother is dead, however. I have not heard of anyone else that's alive that belonged to the Steelwings other than Hawkfire and Razor, and I know for a fact that Rose isn't a Griffin... well, that's a shame."

"W-What is?" Maelstrom choked in muffled sobs.

'I agree,' the Thestral wondered.

"I didn't want to get on Rose's radar, but her brother has to go," she sighed, "And I liked him too."

"S-So can I go?" the Griffin asked hopefully. Raven raised a brow, knowing the answer already. There was no way in hell that she was going to let him live after what she told the Griffin. She didn't want the bastard to run off and warn his friends who she is and what she is up too. It was bad enough that she had to kill Razor, which meant that Rose will act a lot sooner than anticipated. 'I could always get her to kill him for me. If she is given proof that Razor almost killed Rainbow Dash, then I don't need to get my hooves dirty.' Looking back down towards the frightened eyes of the Griffin underneath her, she placed raised the steel feather into the air.

"Not in your wildest dreams," she smiled before slitting the throat of the Griffin underneath her. She watched his life slowly snuff out as his blood coated her dark gray fur, and all the while; the Thestral watched as well, but not for long. He quickly left the scene to warn his Mistress of the treachery within her home and family.