Pinkie Pie had moved to meet Squawken's vengeful citizens halfway when she was suddenly stopped in her tracks by a lavender coated hoof. The grim faced earth pony turned to see Twilight looking back at her with a small smile.

"Not yet, Pinkie," Twilight said, shaking her head once, "Let them come to us first. Remember that the whole town is coming, and that they will all most likely be fighting to the death."

"I remember, that, Twilight," Pinkie replied with a questioning tilt of her head, "Fluttershy said as much already."

"She did," Twilight replied with an understanding nod, "but remember that the whole town implies that there may be eaglets among that mob of angry griffons."

Pinkie blinked, her stone faced expression not changing in the slightest.

"...And?"

"No Pinkie," Twilight said with a disapproving frown, "what we're about to do is going to be cruel, heinous, sadistic, immoral, evil, and more than a little fun, but we have to draw a line somewhere."

"Why?" Pinkie replied, fully turning her back on the approaching mob to face Twilight, "it's like Dashie said, male or female, young or old, death is death, and we don't care about who dies anymore."

"That might be true, but consider this, Pinkie -- in fact, this goes for all of you," Twilight explained, looking towards all of her other friends, "if we were to start killing indiscriminately, it would make it that much harder for us in the long run."

Rarity frowned and looked over to the approaching griffons. After a moment she nodded slowly, Twilight's words sinking in.

"I believe you're right, darling," she agreed, "I don't believe for even a moment that there won't be more incidents like this one, and when all is said and done, we'll most likely be seen as heartless villains... ruthless murders masquerading as innocent ponies."

"Exactly," Twilight replied, nodding to Rarity in acknowledgment, "it'll be hard enough getting back home without having to face the wrath of every griffon we meet."

"We may not have any remorse for the dead," Fluttershy added solemnly, "but that doesn't mean the knowledge that we killed innocent children won't haunt us in other ways."

"I reckon it'd put a bad taste in mah mouth, that's fer sure," Applejack agreed with a nod, "ah don't think ah'd be able ta look Big Mac, Apple Bloom, or Granny Smith in the eye after that -- hay, ah don't know if ah could even now," Applejack frowned and her gaze drifted to her hooves, "fer more reasons than one..."

"I'm still not seeing why we should hold back," Pinkie replied tonelessly, "if we're already gonna be seen as villains--"

"Pinkie," Twilight interjected with a small frown, "more than anypony else, save for maybe Fluttershy, killing children will probably affect you the most once this is all over and you've had a chance to return to your normal self."

Pinkie went to respond, but Rainbow Dash suddenly cut her off, an air of urgency and irritation in her voice.

"Alright, whatever, we're not gonna kill the kids, great," Rainbow replied impatiently, her eyes locked on the griffons who had just arrived and were staring at both the betentacled cyan pegasus and the corpses of their fellow griffons, "can we actually focus on the griffons now that they're right bucking there?"

Twilight nodded and turned to the shocked and horrified mob of griffons. She cleared her throat and stepped forward, pointedly ignoring the small bounce in her own step as she addressed them all.

"Griffons of Squawken!" she called out, "I'm so sorry it had to come to this, but you can still--"

"Monsters!"

Twilight briefly frowned in annoyance at the random griffon who had shouted out, but her smile quickly returned and she went to speak again. Before she could manage another word however, Ingmar pushed his way to the front of the group and jabbed an accusatory talon in Rainbow's direction.

"You see?!" he cried, his face twisted in a mix of rage and fear, "you see their true nature! These are not ponies! They are demons born from the darkest depths of Tartarus itself!"

"If I could just--"

"Nothing but soulless killers, the lot of them!" Ingmar continued, "demons in pony skin!"

"Excuse me, Mister Grim Talon, but if we're going to do this, I suggest--"

"Silence you vicious abomination!" the crazed griffon snarled, "if you think we'll just roll over and die at your hooves, then you're sorely mistaken!"

Twilight frowned as she scanned the crowd. Ingmar's words seemed to be spurring them all on, drowning out their fear and replacing it with righteous fury. She flicked an ear and turned back to the shouting griffon leader with a patient smile.

She raised a hoof ever so slightly.

"SMALL IN NUMBER WE MAY BE, BUT THERE'S MORE THAN ENOUGH TO HANGgghk--"

Silence reigned in the cool night air for the briefest of moments. All eyes were locked on the dead griffon leader impaled on the large black spike rising out of the ground.

The gaze of many of the remaining griffons slowly drifted to Twilight who's entire foreleg had been covered in thin twisting, undulating black tendrils -- the foreleg itself was firmly embedded into the ground.

Somewhere behind Twilight, Rainbow Dash gave an impressed whistle.

"Now that I have your attention," Twilight exclaimed, "I'd just like to say that if you have any hatchlings, eaglets, or hens carrying eggs, I suggest you leave and return to your town immediately!"

The spike holding Ingmar up sank back into the ground as Twilight pulled her foreleg up and out -- the tendrils around her legs turning to flesh and fur once more.

"We will kill the rest of you should you choose to attack," she continued, shaking her hoof slightly before setting it back on the ground, "it'll be bad enough that the children here will have to grow up without parents! Don't make the mistake of having them see more than they already have!"

Some of the griffons gave each other worried looks, doubt crossing their faces after having seen what the lavender monstrosity was capable of. A few of the griffons did have hatchlings and eaglets they had brought along in their blind anger, and there was indeed a hen carrying an egg.

"Please, for their sake, send them back to town, if you're going to fight," Twilight continued, an edge of impatience creeping into her voice, "We can't guarantee their safety if they stay!"

That seemed to convince the mothers and fathers in the group, and they ushered the scared eaglets to take any siblings and run or fly back to Squawken.

It took some time, but all of the children, some of their parents, and some of the more sensible griffons ultimately fled the scene, leaving the entire Town Gaurd and the more indignant griffons to face the girls alone.

All in all a little over one hundred griffons remained.

Twilight smiled and nodded, simultaneously satisfied and disappointed by the result of her words. She set the odd mix of feelings aside and stepped forward.

"Now then--"

A shot rang out.

Twilight stumbled backwards, her head snapping back from the force of the bullet entering her skull. That was signal for every griffon holding a rifle to fire and the battle began in earnest.

A few more bullets slammed into Twilight before the others leapt into action. Rainbow Dash ducked a bullet aimed at her and rolled to the side to avoid another before righting herself and charging directly for the griffon who had taken the shot, tentacled scythes raised and whipping about.

Twilight had decided she'd had enough.

Tendrils coiled about the lavender mare and she took to the sky a second later as Asger. Using the momentary shock of the other griffons to her advantage, she quickly dove forward and dropped down onto her assailant, causing the griffon to squawk in alarm.

Before the griffon could retaliate or throw the transformed mare off, Twilight used Asger's powerful build and razor sharp talons to slash a line clear across his neck.

A stray bullet whizzed past her cheek and, judging the direction by the trajectory of the shot, she lashed out, one of her arms blackening and stretching into a whip. She grinned wickedly as she heard a surprised screech and felt her whip wrap around something feathery.

She applied more pressure until she heard a snap and yanked the now dead griffon towards her. Both Twilight and the griffon briefly disappeared in a mass of thick tendrils as the disguised unicorn consumed her victim.

That done, she launched off of the dead griffon beneath her and back into the sky to look for her next target.

Applejack rushed into the fray, all four of her legs covered in what looked like thick black metal. The ground beneath her rumbled and cracked under her weight and the closest griffon's eyes widened in fear as the earth pony rapidly closed the distance.

The female griffon tried to fly out of range only to be dragged back down by a tentacle that wrapped around her midsection. Frantic and wide eyed, she looked down to see Rarity pulling her closer.

The white mare stood on her hind legs and as she pulled the griffon down with one hoof, her other hoof -- now a hoofblade with an elegantly curved edge -- dialed back. Once the griffon was close enough, she released the griffon and snapped the blade forward, slicing her clean in two.

Applejack saw none of this as she continued to charge straight into the next griffon in her line of sight. This particular griffon had his back turned trying to avoid one of Rainbow's scythe whips and failed to see the orange mare as she barreled right into, and completely through him.

Her sheer speed, strength and weight alone were enough to break every bone in the poor griffon's body from the impact, and Applejack didn't stop there. Her momentum pushed her through several other griffons unfortunate enough to be in the way and the result was the same if not worse.

Like Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie was a whirlwind of motion, but unlike the cyan pegasus, her movements were measured and methodical. She deftly avoided every shot of a rifle and swipe of a claw aimed at her and retaliated with brutal efficiency.

Her new 'Pinkie Sense' told her when to avoid and where to strike next to do the most damage while inflicting the most amount of pain possible. A severed tendon here, a shattered bone there, and several screams of agony rose up from all around her as she dismantled her opponents using nothing but her own hooves.

The mare hadn't once used her viral born abilities for any of it, save the inherent increase in her speed and strength.

When the battle had first started, Fluttershy found herself unsure of how to proceed. When she had succumb to blind rage it had been easy. Just smash her way through anything and everything.

Now that she wasn't overcome with mindless fury she simply hovered in the air, occasionally avoiding a stray bullet here and there as she observed the ferocious way her friends fought the griffons off.

It was when Rarity had cried out when one griffon had slammed a pike through her side that Fluttershy reacted. As the griffon Guard tried to pull the pike from Rarity, he remained oblivious to the black club-like object that was Fluttershy's foreleg as it smashed into his skull and drove him into the ground.

Rarity opened her mouth to comment, but snapped it shut when she saw the look on the butter yellow mare's face. The pegasus hadn't transformed like she had back at the facility, but Rarity could see that Fluttershy still had a staggering amount of fury in her deep cyan eyes.

The pegasus locked eyes with Rarity for a heartbeat before her gaze drifted over to the pike stuck in her barrel. Rarity followed her gaze and looked back to Fluttershy with an uneasy smile.

"Oh, that? That's nothing. dear, you really don't need to -- gah!"

Rarity yelped in surprised as Fluttershy grabbed the shaft of the pike with her teeth and ripped the whole thing out. She watched Rarity's flesh knit itself together before spitting out the pike and flying off to help the rest of her friends without a word to the stunned white unicorn.

Twilight, meanwhile, had worked her way through several griffons, consuming any she came across and taking their forms. Her plan was to sow more fear and confusion among the ranks of the Town Guard even as she ripped and tore apart every griffon she could get her talons on.

She couldn't be happier with her work.

Terrified and bewildered griffons found themselves fighting back against, and being slaughtered by, friends and acquaintances they had known for years and Twilight couldn't help but revel in the madness and chaos of it all.

Applejack had stopped her charge and was now working in tandem with Rainbow Dash to take out the remaining forces surrounding them. She bucked out with her hind legs and her strength insured that broken griffon corpses were the only things that were sent flying.

Rainbow Dash had forgone her scythe whips in favor of close combat with two hoofblades. She had taken to fly by hit-and-run tactics, swooping down to impale an enemy before launching right back into the sky to repeat the process all over again.

The griffons numbers dwindled down to only a few dozen in a matter of minutes. Those that didn't die immediately saw the ones that did and tried to flee, only to be blindsided by Rainbow Dash diving out of the sky or one of the griffons they thought were allies, only to realize far too late that it was Twilight.

The pristine white snow surrounding the battlefield quickly reddened with the blood of the griffons slain by the six mares. The battle itself began to wind down after what felt like hours, but in reality, only lasted a little over ten minutes or so.

Finally the last griffon, a large black and brown Guard grunted and hacked up a large amount of blood before looking down at the silvery blade that had punched right through his ribcage. He slowly and shakily looked into the eyes of the mare the curved blade was connected to and gave a wry grin.

"Damn... monsters... the lot of you," he coughed again and managed a weak chuckle, "didn't... stand a chance... in Tartarus..."

With those final words, the griffon was wrapped in a flurry of tendrils that pulled his body into the white unicorn mare who had killed him. The body disappeared along with the tendrils and Rarity gave a weary sigh as she reverted her blade back to a hoof and used it to brush her mane out of her eyes.

She turned back to see that the others had finished off the rest already. She huffed and trotted over to where Pinkie stood amidst the bodies they hadn't bothered to consume.

"Is that all of them?" Rarity asked.

Pinkie merely nodded, before turning to the tall and muscled griffon who had just dropped out of the sky. The grinning griffon began to transform into a grinning lavender mare as it walked towards Rarity and Pinkie -- her eyes once again back to her normal amethyst.

"I realize what we did was horrible and will probably come back to bite us later," Twilight began merrily, "but I have to admit, I had fun."

"...way more than that and you know it!"

Twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity turned to see an arguing Rainbow Dash and Applejack closely being followed by a meek looking Fluttershy. Applejack rolled her eyes at Rainbow Dash's comment.

"Fer the last time, Rainbow," Applejack said in exasperation, "it ain't about competin' ta see who can take down the most griffons. We did what we had ta do an' that's all... and even if we were competin' -- which we weren't -- ah would've had ya beat by a country mile."

Rainbow scoffed and crossed her forelegs.

"As if," she retorted before turning to look at Fluttershy with an impressed smile, "but seriously though, Fluttershy, I didn't know you had it in you... y'know, aside from the whole rage thing back then."

"I didn't mean for that to happen, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy replied quietly, "I saw Rarity in trouble and I just... reacted. It felt like I barely had any control at all."

"Yeah well, it was still awesome," Rainbow Dash replied with a shrug, "I was pretty worried you weren't gonna be able to hold your own, y'know? I was... worried about you."

That caused Fluttershy to give Rainbow a small smile of appreciation. The three ponies continued their conversation as they reached the others. Once they had all met up Twilight looked around them with a frown.

"...I think it'd be for the best if we moved on, girls."

"Agreed," Rarity replied, lifting up a hoof and eyeing the blood dripping from it with disgust, "I doubt the remaining citizens will appreciate what we've done here today."

"Alright, I'm down for that," Rainbow added, hovering above the rest of them, "but where are we... gonna... oh..."

Confused, the others fully focused their attention on the cyan pegasus who was staring wide eyed at something in the distance. They followed her gaze and it didn't take long to figure out the cause of her shock.

Svanhild hovered only a few yards away, her rifle clutched tightly in her claws and her own eyes wide and shining with unshed tears. She stared at the bloodstained snow, the mutilated corpses, and the ponies responsible for it all, uttering only one word.

"...Why?"

So here it is, the chapter (I'm assuming) you've all been waiting for. Hopefully I did a good job with the... well it was more of a one sided massacre than a fight scene, but still, hopefully I nailed it.

Also from here on out I will be referring to baby griffons as hatchings and young griffons as eaglets for consistency's sake.

Also, I don't know if 'betentacled' is actually a word, but it amuses me so I don't care, I'm using it anyway.