A twitch of a claw, a sudden bodily jerk, a sharp intake of breath, and Svanhild's bright golden eyes snapped open.

She gave a violent shiver before slowly sitting up from where she lay with a groan. She blinked a few times and shook her head rapidly, trying to clear away some of the disorientation.

Svanhild froze at the thick and heavy scent of blood in the air.

lowering her claw back to the ground, she took a moment to scan her surroundings... and she found she didn't quite know how to feel about what she saw. She eyed the large mass of dark red snow before her, taking in the bodies scattered about the wide open field with more confusion than anything else.

What the flock happened here?

She furrowed her brows as she tried to remember just why she had woken up amongst a snowy field of blood and gore. A sudden pain made her bring a claw up to her head and clench her eyes shut with a grunt.

Flashes of memory erupted in her mind.

Images of a snowy mountain path, six colorful equines, a large flock of outraged griffons, strong feelings of betrayal and guilt, the six mares fleeing and the griffons giving chase.

An image of those six mares all standing amidst this very same field of death. One final image dug its way into Svanhild's mind, accompanied by the memory of the worst agony she had ever felt.

A rainbow maned, cyan pegasus mare trotted before her—silvery blade where her hoof should've been, covered in blood... her blood.

The last words that mare spoke before trotting back to her friends, before they all trotted away, leaving her to die in this bloody field.

...I'm sorry, Svanhild.

For a moment, a white hot surge of rage welled up within the confused griffon, but a jovial voice from somewhere behind her quickly brought Svanhild back to her senses.

"Well good afternoon, Sunshine!"

Svanhild whipped around to face the voice, rising to her claws and paws in one fluid motion. She bared her teeth and raised a claw threateningly, causing the other, larger griffon before her to raise his own claws in defense.

"Whoa, peace lady!" the Griffin cried, raising his claws up defensively, "I only wanna talk, alright?"

"Who are you?" Svanhild demanded, refusing to drop her guard for even a moment, "if you don't wanna be sliced to ribbons, I suggest you stay right"—she winced and shook her head—"...r-right where you are!"

"Look, I said I only wanted to talk, okay? And besides," the heavy set griffon chuckled and nodded towards Svanhild, "I'm fairly sure you'd like to know more about what that's all about."

Svanhild furrowed her brows in confusion before turning her attention to her own outstretched claw. She blinked and squawked in both shock and horror at what she thought were her ordinary talons.

What Svanhild saw instead were monstrous black claws—massive, elongated, silver and blade like at the tips, and very much unlike her own.

"W-What the feathering flock is this?!" she cried, waving the claw around in a panic, "get it off! What did you do to me?"

"Now just what are you blaming me for?" The griffon asked with a raised eyebrow, "I didn't turn you into that, but I do know how to make it go away... at least for now."

"If you're gonna do something about it, then hurry it up!" Svanhild shouted, glaring at the griffon with a mix of anger, confusion, and fear, "this is freaking me out!"

"Alright, alright," the large griffon replied raising his claws once more in a placating manner, "just... calm down, and remember your talons as they were, not as they are."

"What? How would that—"

"Just trust me on this one," the griffon said with all the calm he could muster, "you need to calm down and think, think about how you're supposed to look."

Svanhild growled in annoyance, but did as she was told a moment later. She closed her eyes and imagined her own set of talons. A few seconds later she felt something change and opened her eyes.

The monstrous claws vanished in a flurry of black tendrils and were replaced with her normal claws a few seconds later. Svanhild stared at her old talons in utter disbelief for a full minute before turning to the griffon.

"What happened to me?"

"A very good question," the griffon answered with another chuckle, "but first, I believe introductions are in order, yeah?"

He cleared his throat and gestured to himself.

"Name's Jeger, little lady," he exclaimed with a friendly smile, "Jeger Sharp Eye."

"Svanhild Sharp Talon," the griffon hen replied numbly, "please tell me what's going on... I don't... I can't..."

"Now I'm sure you have all sorts of questions, Svanhild," Jeger replied softly. He then swept a claw across the bloody field "but before we get into what happened to your body, why don't you tell me what you remember about what happened to these poor griffons here?"

"What happened to..."

Svanhild follow Jeger's gesture and looked around the area herself. She couldn't remember everything about what had happened, but she certainly remembered who was responsible.

After a minute she clenched her talons into shaking fists and turned back to Jeger with a glare so intense it could melt steel.

"You wanna know what happened here?" the furious griffon hissed, stomping right up to Jeger and jabbing his chest with a talon, "I'll tell you exactly what happened."

"How much farther, Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash asked, flying next to the butter yellow pegasus, "we've been looking for like two or three hours already."

"It's only been about an hour and a half, Rainbow," Twilight corrected in Asger's gravelly voice, "and I'm sure we're close," she turned to Fluttershy with a hopeful look, "right, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy nodded, a troubled look on her face.

"We're getting close... but..."

"What is it, darling?" a pegasus disguised Rarity asked, flying up to Fluttershy's other side, "don't tell me there's more trouble waiting for us up ahead."

"I'm... not really sure," Fluttershy replied with a shake of her head, "I can sense that Jeger is close by... but, there's also another presence with him."

"Another, presence?" Twilight asked, "what do you mean 'another presence'? Is he talking with somepony else? Did another griffon show up?"

"I don't know, Twilight," the yellow mare replied before turning to the disguised unicorn with a grave look, "but the presence feels exactly like us and Jeger."

"You're telling me there's more of them now?!" Rainbow cried in disbelief, cutting off whatever Twilight was going to say, "this is ridiculous! How are there more?"

"I don't like this," Applejack muttered flapping her griffon wings somewhat ungracefully, "something don't sit right with me about what we're gonna find once we get there."

"I hear ya, Jackie," Pinkie agreed flapping circles around Applejack with her bat-like wings, "Pinkie Sense or no, I got a bad feeling about this."

"You sure have a funny way of showing it," Applejack grumbled in reply as she watched Pinkie do loop-de-loops around her, "seriously, Pinks, would you stop—"

A loud bark from far below caught the group's attention and Fluttershy flew down towards the ground in response. The rest of the mostly disguised girls watched as Fluttershy flew alongside the large wolf that was bounding after them.

Fluttershy hadn't been lying when she said the wolf wouldn't have a problem keeping up. The wolf's land speed would've been a match for Rainbow Dash in the air—at least back before she became whatever she was now.

After a few moments Fluttershy ascended once more back to where the others were, her frown deepening as she spoke.

"Bright Fang says he can smell blood coming from further up ahead... lots of it," she looked to each of the girls in turn, "something terrible might've already happened to the rest of the town already."

"Uh... girls?"

The others turned towards Rainbow Dash, who's eyes were locked on a large clearing about a mile or so ahead of where they were.

"I don't think it's the town we have to worry about," Rainbow Dash continued, "I think we're headed back to the same place we... y'know..."

Twilight flew up next to Rainbow and narrowed her eyes, focusing her powerful griffon vision on the clearing further ahead and frowning in confusion.

After a few seconds her eyes slowly widened in horrified realization and she turned back to the others. Her mouth opened, but no words came, causing the other girls to glance at each other worriedly.

"What?" Pinkie asked, turning back to Twilight with a hint of nervousness in her voice, "what is it? What'd you see out there?"

Twilight swallowed and looked back towards the clearing before answering a moment later.

"Girls... I think we may have made a small mistake..."

Sorry about the shorter than normal chapter guys. I'm sure it goes without saying, but things are about to get intense in the next chapter.