Jeger felt them before he saw them.

A downward twitch of his beak was the only indication he gave that anything was wrong. He had listened to Svanhild's recount of what she knew of the previous altercation that occurred here.

Unfortunately most of the information she had were mere specuations and guesses—in fact, there was only one thing she was sure of in the end.

Whatever had happened here, those mares had been at the center of it.

As he explained the situation Svanhild had now found herself in, he had been sending out viral pulses in short, intermittent bursts.

From the six responses he received back from his viral pulse, he could only surmise that the mares had finally returned for one reason or another.

No, there aren't just six...

Jeger frowned at what he was sensing. There were seven other responses in total, but he had only seen six ponies altogether.

Had he somehow missed another 'gifted' on the way here?

"So I'm some kind of... of... freak now?"

Jeger's frown deepened and he turned his attention back to an increasingly angry and distraught Svanhild. The griffon still didn't comprehend just how lucky she had been to receive such a gift... but she would... eventually.

In fact, she just might get the chance sooner than she realized.

"Oh, I wouldn't say you're a freak, not at all," Jeger replied with a disarming smile, "if anything I'd say you've ascended to become something far greater than you ever were originally."

"Flock that!" Svanhild growled, glaring at her own claws, "I'm nothing but a freak now... they made me this way... made me like them."

Again, Jeger was of the opinion that they had given the ungrateful griffon a blessing. He decided to try a different tack and his smile turned just a touch more sinister.

"Think of it this way, Svanhild," he practically purred, "you unleashed the full and terrible might of a genuine griffon blood rage and you still couldn't even touch them, am I wrong?"

Svanhild's only response was to clench her claws into tight, shaking fists.

"That's what I thought," Jeger replied, casting a discreet glance towards the sky. His smile widened slightly as he spotted the six approaching forms just a little less than a mile out, "there's no chance in Tartarus you could've taken them on before, but now..."

He walked up to Svanhild and rested a claw on her shoulder, a claw which was shrugged off violently. He took a few steps back and raised the claw in surrender as Svanhild glared at him.

"My apologies," he continued, the smile never leaving his face, "I only meant to say if you want to stop monsters like them, you need to become a monster like them."

He turned to face the incoming group while casting Svanhild a side glance.

"You may not think so now, Svanhild," he continued, "but you've been granted a gift by the very ponies you despise. If you don't believe me..."

He gave the sky a significant glance and Svanhild, confused by his actions, tilted her head slightly and followed his gaze.

Her eyes widened, pupils shrinking to pinpricks. Jeger looked back towards the shaking griffon with a small victorious smirk.

"...why not put you're new 'gift' to use and see for yourself?"

"Yup, that's Svanhild alright."

Rainbow Dash squinted at the clearing in the distance. She could clearly see two griffons standing amidst the mess they all had left behind.

And one of those griffons was clearly Svanhild, apparently alive and well... and she didn't look happy.

The cyan pegasus frowned and turned to Twilight with a questioning raise of her brow.

"Okay, I know I killed her before we left," she said, her face scrunching up in confusion, "so what gives?"

"What gives, Rainbow," Twilight replied through clenched teeth, "is that when you stabbed her, you didn't kill her right away, and that's what made all the difference it seems."

"How?" Applejack asked, flying next to Twilight, "I'm pretty sure there have been times where somepony hasn't died right away before."

"Yes," Twilight conceded, "but we've never actually left anypony alive afterwords," she frowned, "...at least, I think we haven't."

"That's not very comforting, darling," Rarity replied with a troubled frown, "I know for certain, that I haven't left anypony alive, and watching Applejack... er... do what she does, I can safely say that anypony she managed to get her hooves on didn't make it."

"And I know for a fact Fluttershy didn't leave any, because she hadn't actually fought anypony until recently," Twilight added, "aside from the golem, I mean, but that doesn't count."

Fluttershy merely looked away in silence.

"I... may have left a couple alive."

Everypony turned to the thestral disguised mare who grinned back sheepishly. At Twilight's glare, Pinkie rubbed the back of her neck and spoke again.

"I didn't know the infection could make them, y'know... like us," she explained, "I just thought it would lead them to a slow agonizing death that none of us would see and that would be it... oopsie?"

Twilight groaned into a claw and turned to face the clearing once more, a worried look on her face.

"This is bad, girls, really bad," she said, her tone grim, "we don't need anymore monsters out there like us. Equestria, Griffonia, Minos, the Dragonlands... all of Equus would suffer, I just know it."

"So what are we supposed to do then?" Fluttershy asked nervously, "if this spreads even more, how are we going to stop it? What can just the six of us do?"

"I say we do what we've always done," Rainbow answered confidently, "we get out there, and we kick some serious—"

"RAINBOW, LOOK OUT!"

Before Rainbow could even blink, a bright green blur shot past her and a sickening squelch followed by a pained feminine grunt made her turn.

Rainbow and the others gave collective cries of alarm. Directly behind where Rainbow had been, Rarity hung in the air, suspended by the elongated tentacle that had stabbed itself into and through her stomach.

She held onto the black appendage, grimacing in pain. As the rest of the girls looked on in horror, her green pegasus guise melted away and she tried to pull herself free.

She turned to the others, opening her mouth to say something, but never got the chance. She reached a hoof out towards a shocked Rainbow Dash a split second before she was ripped out of the air and quickly dragged towards the ground.

"RARITY!"

Fluttershy roared and shot off like a cannon after the white mare, leaving the others behind in a stunned silence.

It lasted for all of a few seconds before Rainbow wordlessly took off after Fluttershy. Twilight shook her head and turned to others, her brow creasing in worry and determination.

"Come on!" she boomed in Asger's gravelly voice, "we need to get down there!"

Neither Pinkie nor Applejack needed to be told twice, and all three of them raced down after Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash.

It wasn't who she was aiming for, but Svanhild grinned maliciously nevertheless as she pulled the white mare out of the sky.

One arm had been stretched into the black whip that had impaled Rarity, and her other had been twisted into the large black and silver claw she had formed earlier.

Jeger stood far off to the side watching and waiting for the inevitable events to play out. As he turned his predatory eyes skyward, he could see the other mares not far behind.

Now it was time to see just what all of these other 'gifted' could really do.

Svanhild screeched in triumph as she dragged Rarity closer. A twitch of her massive black claws and she brought them forward, eager to finish what those mares had started.

So focused on ending Rarity was Svanhild that she didn't register the furious yellow pegasus that shot past the white unicorn mare.

A split second later Svanhild found herself slammed into the ground, her face smashed in by what looked like a blackened metal hoof.

The tentacle that had pierced through Rarity wavered and receded from her middle, dropping her to the ground in a heap.

Rainbow Dash and the other girls were there in a second, all of them reverting back to their original selves.

"Rarity!" Twilight cried, leaning in closed to the other unicorn, "are you okay?"

Rarity groaned and coughed in response before unsteadily rising to her hooves.

"I... I've been better, dear," she replied weakly, "that did not feel pleasant, I can tell you at least that much."

She fell back to her haunches and observed as the hole in her stomach slowly closed on its own. She winced and turned back to Twilight with a strained smile.

"I think I'll be fine, darling," she grimaced and turned to the griffon that was currently being beaten into the ground by an enraged Fluttershy, "it seems we have something else to worry about now."

"What do you—"

Twilight's words were cut off as she heard Fluttershy cry out in surprise. A moment later the pegasus went sailing past her and into the distance, smashing into a tree on the far side of the clearing.

Twilight and the others turned back to Svanhild, eyes wide with shock. The griffon stood on somewhat shaky legs, though her face had been restored, looking no worse for wear after Fluttershy's beating.

She took a deep breath and straightened up, cracking her neck a few times before glaring at each of the mares in turn.

"Thanks for the gift, girls, now let me share it with you... all of you."

Outnumbered? Oh yeah.

Outmatched? Well... we'll just have to find out, won't we?