Author's Notes:

Sorry for the long wait. I have been slamming my face into a brick wall with each setback that I've had to deal with for the past few weeks.

And sorry for the short chapter and the tease. I'll have something bigger, harder, wetter, and sexier next time.

Raven watched the whole scene from afar. Her hooves didn't dare budge from the disadvantage hiding nearby. She knew there were a few individuals tasked with keeping an eye on her and her friends. All of whom were strong in their own right. Sierra met the one named Shattered River: an exiled Crystal Cat from the Forbidden Jungle, in the outskirts of Ponyville. Once the two locked eyes, both recklessly charged at each other with their weapons drawn. If it weren't for Phoenix and River's friend, Obsidian Poppy, those two would have left more than a black scar on the earth.

Those weren't the only two that showed up with military grade gear. Three more reared their heads before disappearing into the Everfree. Of course, when Rose suddenly decided to confront her target, all five of them shadowed her and her friends. If it wasn't for the fact that a Crystal Cat with a magical sword held her in place with her gaze alone, Raven would have charged into the manor right behind Rose, however. She was thankful she didn't.

Within a few minutes of Rose's entrance into the manor, a couple of Griffons showed up. In just a few minutes of their arrival, the place was set ablaze, and they all disappeared. Even Rose.

'Where did she go?' Raven wondered as rescue personnel began to quell the raging fire. She knew Rose wasn't a part of those troublemakers, but the only body found was a maid named Puppy Smiles, charred, and very much dead. 'She couldn't have gotten far.' Realizing that she was just stalling for time, Raven decided to come out from her cloud, and meet her stalkers face to face.

"She's coming," whispered the Thestral, from within a particularly dark alley. Gliding down into it, she stopped just a few hooves in front of the rather handsome stallion. His crimson eyes glared pure death into her very soul. His muscular build sent shivers down her spine. If she was honest with herself, she would say she was afraid of him. Even his pitch black coat made it near impossible to see him in the shadows.

He was, beautiful.

"What do you want, Raven?" the Thestrals friend spat. The tall, equally black, wolf-bred Diamond Dog that stood perfectly upright, and aimed a knocked arrow at her head. She snorted at his threatening stance and directed her full attention to the sexy stallion beside the mutt.

"Your lady was kidnapped by my target and his friends. Shouldn't you be chasing after her?" Raven inquired with a raised brow towards the growling Diamond Dog.

"We can say the same. They nabbed your friend Sierra as well. Cinder is currently following them, and we are waiting for a meet-up point," the dog replied in an eerily clear voice.

Tsk. 'Sierra was kidnapped? I told her to stay put. The Griffons must have caught onto our plans and targeted the weakest member of our group,' Raven thought darkly, and without Sierra making the plans for their group. All their work will be for naught. Turning around, she adjusted her wing blades and took to the sky.

"Come on. We have morons to save."

Light then darkness. Noise then silence. My body crashed into the walls of a tight cage with each little movement, pulling me from sleep that I desperately craved. Though during my bouts of consciousness, I heard voices: Deep ones, gruff and fearful. They knew what they carried. Their fear was palpable. If it weren't for the drugs they pumped into me to keep me docile, I would have killed them all.

Of course, I shouldn't have been in this situation in the first place. I made a rookie mistake while being influenced by my emotions. All I could focus on at the moment was my ex-brother, Rex. I looked up to him for most of my life. He was one of the few people that I genuinely loved in my life. Now, from what I've heard during my episodes of coherence, he was recruited by a splinter-cell terrorist group being used by the Griffonian Empire to stir up the war. To take it out of the stalemate that has frozen it for over a century. All in an effort to turn the entire equine race into slaves with Griffons as the true rulers of the world.

Aren't they wonderful?

The odds of bringing my brother back to the light is slim. Our distance plus whatever brainwashing bullshit that he was subjected to implanted a titanium wedge in between us. I want to kill him, that much is for certain. Betrayal is something I don't react pleasantly too. Next time when we meet, I won't hesitate to end his life with an Aether Bolt. HE. WILL. DIE. But before I can enact my revenge, I must break free and rejoin my warrior cult that thinks I'm the reincarnation of Midnight Rhapsody. Well, I am a reincarnation of myself. So they got that part right. Still weird to learn how Night Blade and the others actually felt about me. Now I just need Eldrich Cat Girl Demon-thing with a whiteboard to complete the gang of ridiculousness badassery.

'Then again... I don't think that will ever happen. Sure having that little demon kill things for me would be a blast, but Wolhanna won't be subtle about it,' I mused. 'Strange, have they forgot to drug me again? That and my pitch black box has stopped moving.'

Quietly as I could, I activated the unique feature of my gauntlets and began scratching the inner wall of my cage. The guards responsible for my capture only took my wing blades with the thought that my gauntlets were only tramplers. Little did they know that my unique set of armor can transform into magical claws courtesy of Umbra.

In only a few moments, trickles of light bled through the hole that I made. The box was made of wood, reinforced with metal, so my battle-claws made short work of my prison, and once I had a sizeable hole to look through. I saw the reason why my captors weren't moving me.

They were dead and currently being devoured by a couple of Dire Wolves in a sickly-dense forest that drank all light that touched it. My cage, by the looks of it, was next to a few others in a little circle around a makeshift camp. Cages that looked like I wasn't the only one captured by the Griffons. Though they didn't appear to have woken up as I have. Otherwise, the animals around us would have attempted to break into our boxes, however. One thing has been made clearly apparent from my observation. I'm in the Everfree and have been here for a while.

'Time to get to work.'