As the griffons in the town square dispersed, Applejack and Fluttershy began their trot back to what the townsfolk had more or less referred to as the Conference Building. The cowpony would be lying if she said she hadn't been nervous about speaking in front of a large crowd of strangers.

Sure she had dealt with a few large crowds here and there back in Ponyville, but that was Ponyville. Everypony knew everypony else there. On top of that, she had the nagging fear of having to ouright lie about why they had to delay the party.

Sure enough, some of the more vocal griffons voiced that very question, much to Applejack's consternation. Surprisingly, it was Fluttershy that stepped up and saved the honest earth pony from making a fool out of herself with her terrible lies.

Her answers were quiet, halting, and full of stutters, but in the end, Fluttershy had managed to address all of their concerns and that was that. A lot of the griffons seemed disappointed, but surprisingly understanding about the whole thing.

Applejack merely chalked it up to Fluttershy's natural charm.

Either way, the orange earth pony was proud of her shy pegasus friend. Maybe it had been what they had all gone through, but the yellow pegasus seemed... stronger, more confident. It may not have been too noticeable to anypony who didn't know her personally like Applejack and the rest of their friends, but there had definitely been a change for the better.

If there was one good thing to come out of this mess, Applejack was glad this was it.

But what about the cowpony herself?

What did she gain out of this? What did she lose?

Honestly she didn't really know. When she had woken up in that Tartarus forsaken facility, it was with a great amount of confusion and panic. She woke up shaking and more scared than she'd ever been in her life, and she didn't even know why.

She just knew something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

And she had been right.

Applejack had found herself with far more strength than normal, and she had been plenty strong to begin with. She had all these strange new powers she didn't understand, and the weird tendrils and odd hunger.

Eventually she had found Rarity about to be attacked by griffons of all things. That's when she had actually taken her first life, and she did it like it was nothing. Then she did it again.

And again.

And again.

And every time she smashed a pony or a griffon into paste it only made her more aggressive, more determined to finish what she started. She didn't want to fight, but something compelled her to -- something she didn't seem to have any control over.

She could feel it every time she threw a punch or stomped down on a victim or lashed out with her tendrils. Sure, she may have complained, she may have tried to act like everything was okay despite her blood drenched hooves suggesting otherwise, but she didn't stop.

She wanted to stop but she just... didn't. She kept on going, kept on killing, like it was some kind of... obligation. If she had to compare it to something, it was like feeding the restless hens and collecting the eggs back on the farm -- she hated that job, but she did it anyway because she was obligated to as a hardworking member of the Apple Family.

For some reason, this didn't feel any different.

Maybe it was because she knew her friends were going through the same thing?

Well, whatever the case, whether it was physical or emotional damage her friends were suffering, the honest earth pony would be there to suffer it right along with them. She may have been a killer now, but she'd always be there for the girls she'd come to know and love as much as her own family.

Rainbow Dash once again found herself in a situation she very much did not want to be in.

Pinkie had returned at the same time as Rarity, and with a heap of party supplies to boot. She, Rarity, Twilight and Rainbow Dash herself had -- in Rainbow's opinion -- the unenviable task of redecorating the entire building from the ground up, all because Twilight 'didn't think everything was sterile enough'.

Pinkie was happy to do it, and Rarity didn't mind, but Rainbow found it all extremely tedious.

It was important to stress again the fact that no matter how much she griped and groaned, Rainbow Dash was willing to bend over backwards and then some to help her friends, but wow could it be a pain sometimes.

Rainbow wanted to go out and mingle with the griffons in town. She had an interest in them that dated back to when she and Gilda used to hang out. In fact, she would never admit it, but she was almost as curious about the griffons as they were about her.

...Almost.

Indeed, the desire to know more about them, and by extension more about herself, stemmed from a comment Gilda had made about her once long ago. Back when they were just a filly and a hatchling, Rainbow and Gilda would get into intense wrestling matches that would sometimes leave them bruised and hurting for days afterwords.

This went on until an incident happened where Gilda had accidentally cut a deep gash in Rainbow's barrel with her talons. The filly, traumatized by the sight of her own lifeblood spilling out of her, stopped wrestling with Gilda after that.

Rainbow, being who she was, still wanted to be friends despite the situation, and ended up lying about what happened and tried to lie to Gilda about why she didn't want to wrestle anymore, but she knew the griffon wasn't buying it.

Ultimately they both decided to just stop bringing it up altogether.

As a rule, Griffons were generally tougher than ponies in just about every aspect, but through sheer bullheadedness and determination alone, the cyan filly had won her fair share of tussles with the griffon hatchling.

It was after a particular rough bout between the two that Gilda had made the comment. She had told Rainbow that she was far more like a griffon than any lame pony. Rainbow Dash wanted to argue, but for some reason, she didn't.

Instead she became curious, and remained curious even after being clawed open by her griffon friend.

At the time she didn't know much about griffons aside from Gilda herself, but after that comment she'd wanted to learn. Unfortunately she was stopped by a few factors.

There weren't very many ways to learn about griffons in Equestria, Gilda hadn't wanted to go into much detail about it as it would've 'been a major pain', and Rainbow wouldn't have been caught dead reading any kind of book about the subject -- at least, not back then.

So she decided to wait.

She'd wait until she was older and could afford to travel to Griffonia, maybe stay there for awhile and see how they lived, how they behaved as a race and see just exactly how much like them she really was.

She hadn't told her friends about it because by that time, it had completely slipped her mind. She had simply forgotten about her desire to know more about the predatory race.

She had only started to remember during her and her friends' escape from the facility.

Rainbow Dash didn't have time to figure out how she felt about all the murders she had committed. She'd started killing from the moment her eyes opened, and hadn't stopped until she found Twilight strapped to that table.

It was only then that she had a chance to slow down and assess her own feelings on the changes that had taken place.

At first, the speedy pegasus was miserable.

She had seen and done things that would've driven her insane with grief and guilt had she been an ordinary pony, yet she didn't care. The thing is, Rainbow wanted to care. Rainbow was brash and arrogant, but she wasn't a monster.

She hadn't asked for any of this, and at first, she didn't want it.

But then a small voice in her head spoke up and said one thing that changed all of that.

Think about the positives.

Latching onto that one saving lifeline, she did... and she found several positives to be had with her new body and abilities. She was much stronger, much faster, much more awesome than she ever was before.

Before she knew it, she had grown to actually like her new self, and she had been a natural at what she did. It was when she had been impaled in the throat by a stray talon from a griffon that the memories of what Gilda had done came back to her.

That in turn brought back the memory of wanting to know more about herself and the griffons.

Well, she certainly found out more about herself than she ever wanted to. Maybe it was the virus that made her this way, but at some point during the battle on the bridge, she had fully accepted what she had become, and she hadn't even realized it.

Still, though they might have suspected as much, she wouldn't dare tell her friends outright that she was fine with being a monster.

What would they think?

What would Fluttershy think?

By the time Fluttershy and Applejack returned to the Conference Building, the decorations were more or less finished. Twilight looked around the large room and gave a satisfied nod of approval.

"Okay girls, everything looks good," she turned and gave them all a grateful smile, "I think we're ready to introduce ourselves to the local griffons."

"Ugh, finally!" Rainbow cried in exasperation, "that took way longer than it should've."

"Yeah," Applejack muttered, rolling her eyes, "ah wonder why."

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash replied flying up to the annoyed cowpony, "if we had stuck with my idea this place woulda been ready hours ago!"

"And then we'd probably have an infected town on our hooves," Twilight responded, shaking her head slowly, "no, Rainbow, it was better to do it this way, trust me."

Rainbow Dash glared at Applejack for a moment longer before snorting in irritation and backing away with her forelegs crossed.

"Whatever," she muttered, "still think my idea was better..."

"Come on, girls." Pinkie chimed in as she went about deftly tossing all kinds of desserts on the tables, "there's no need to fight! We've got griffons to entertain!"

"Pinkie is right, dears," Rarity added, using her magic to make sure the tablecloths and streamers were placed just so, "apparently, we're the first ponies many of these townsfolk have ever seen. It's important to make a good first impression."

"Yeah, I guess so," Rainbow Dash conceded, "at least I'll finally get a chance to just chill. That Swanhilt chick seems pretty cool once you get to know her."

"Svanhild, Rainbow," Twilight corrected, "at least try to remember their names."

"Yeah, yeah I got it," Rainbow replied dismissively before turning to Applejack and Fluttershy, "so when are they all supposed to be showing up anyway?"

As the five friends bantered on, Twilight took a moment to step back and just watch them all.

She hadn't noticed it before, but now that she had time to relax, she realized just how quickly she had stepped into the role of a leader. She had her worries and fears about what the near future held, about what had happened to Equestria while they were gone, about how they would all get home.

But in the end, she was able to set that all aside with almost no effort at all.

Sure, she panicked a bit, but that only lasted for a good two or three minutes, unheard of for a pony like her. Then she was back to normal, giving out orders to her friends, and just generally moving on with things. Despite the several things she had to worry about, she felt more in control than ever.

She didn't have to wonder why this was, deep down she already knew why.

It was the virus.

It had changed her, both in body and in mind -- especially in mind.

Though she had made sure not to let them catch on, Twilight had been closely observing all of her friends behaviors and making mental notes of the changes that had overcome them all. This was true even when she herself had been... overtaken by her own change.

Unfortunately she wasn't able to glean much just from watching alone. She'd have to wait until she could talk with them all once the party was over and things had settled down.

Still though...

Aside from Fluttershy, she hadn't seen any of her friends change as drastically as she did. She was worried about what that meant and why she and Fluttershy were so different from the others in that regard.

What caused the change?

Why did the virus make them this way? Make any of them this way?

Why did it feel so good to do what she had done to that griffon? She had toyed with him -- strung him along and let him think he had all the power before cutting him to ribbons, and it had felt wonderful.

She shuddered at the memory.

What made it worse was that she remembered it all. It hadn't felt like she had lost control of herself at all -- on the contrary, it felt like everything was dancing to her tune, and she loved it.

Everything she had told Rarity back in the facility was true. The more she thought about what she had said, the more it sounded like she was under the influence of some kind of... dangerous drug.

She frowned at the thought.

Twilight wasn't too familiar with how drugs worked -- at least, the illegal kind -- as they weren't really found in Equestria at all. Princess Celestia had put a strong hoof down on narcotics ages ago, and ponies themselves generally didn't mess with them anyway just out of common sense.

There were exceptions, sure, but they were extremely rare. In any case, the often deadly side effects were enough to keep most ponies away.

And speaking of side effects...

Could this be why her magic was so weak now?

It was true that Twilight had used quite a bit more magic than Rarity had back when she had single-hoofedly brought down that airship, but Twilight had a lot more magic to work with in the first place.

Rarity most likely used all of her magic and then some to hold down the giant magical construct, and she fainted in the process, just like Twilight had later. Unlike Twilight however, Rarity turned out just fine, her magic seemingly unaffected by her exertions.

So was this something unique to just Twilight?

But why?

What made her different?

"They're coming~!" Pinkie suddenly cried, snapping Twilight out of her ruminations. She looked over to see Pinkie sticking her head out the doors, "wowee, I think the whole town is showing up!"

Twilight nodded to Pinkie before turning to the rest of her friends.

"Alright, you all know what to do."

They all nodded in return and took their positions at a long table that had been set up facing the entrance.

"This is weird," Rainbow complained as she leaned back in her chair, "it doesn't feel like a party, it feels like one of those stuffy diplomatic meetings you told us you used to go to with the Princess."

"Um... isn't that more or less what this is?" Fluttershy asked quietly, "I mean... it might not be official, but like Rarity said, they haven't seen ponies before. Shouldn't we try to... y'know... represent how nice ponies are while we're here?"

"Yes we should," Rarity interjected as she sat herself down besides the yellow pegasus, "we don't want them thinking we're some sort of brutes now, do we?"

"Ah mean... ya say that, Rares, but--"

Rarity cut Applejack off with a scathing look and Rainbow snickered behind a hoof.

"They're here!" Pinkie cried, bouncing restlessly in her seat, "oh, this is gonna be great!"

Twilight smiled at the pink mare before turning her attention to the entrance, the double doors opening to reveal several griffons. They all poured in silently, many with grim or worried looks, much to Twilight's confusion and slight trepidation.

If Pinkie noticed, she didn't show it, as the pink party pony bounced right out of her seat and landed in front of the crowd of griffons with a wave of her hooves and a big smile.

"Welcome to Pinkie's Pinktastic Meet n' Greet Party!" she announced, "you like the name? I came up with it just now!"

The tall and powerfully built male griffon Pinkie was bouncing in front of eyed her with distaste before pushing right past her and addressing Twilight.

"You're the... 'leader' of this group, yes?"

The five friends seated at the table all looked at each other in confusion and worry before turning to Twilight. The lavender mare looked back to the griffon with a nervous smile.

"I... suppose so." she replied tentatively, "what can I do for you?"

The griffon didn't answer right away, choosing instead to sweep a critical, thoughful gaze over the decorations. Eventually his sharp grey eyes settled back on the mares in front of him and he spoke once more.

"I am Ingmar Grim Talon, unofficial leader of this hamlet, and I most certainly have a few... questions for you all."

Boy, this was a long one...