Twilight knew she couldn't diffuse the situation.

She knew it was too late, that the damage had been done. She and Pinkie had revealed the truth of the matter and the griffons in the room weren't happy in the slightest.

Horrified gasps turned into cries of sorrow, which turned into angry murmuring, which themselves quickly turned into outraged shouts and it only got worse from there. The viral lavender unicorn watched it all unfold before her eyes with growing fear.

It wasn't a fear born of enraging the populace, but of what she and her friends might have to do to them all.

What she secretly wanted to do to them all.

"Twilight!"

Twilight snapped out of her ruminations and turned to the orange cowpony who had just shouted.

"This is bad, Twi," Applejack continued in a quick urgent tone, "them griffons are gettin' mighty ornery, an' ah don't think now's the time ta be zonin' out like that."

Twilight shook herself and looked at the increasingly angry crowd of griffons.

"Girls, whatever we're going to do, I think we'd better do it now," Rarity added, eyeing the griffons warily, "it looks like they're about ready to start doing something... unpleasant."

"Seriously, Pinkie, what the buck was that all about?" Rainbow asked, rounding on her pink friend with an accusatory glare, "everything was going great and then you start murdering griffons out of nowhere? Because you didn't have any money?"

"I-I'm sorry, Dashie," Pinkie replied shaking her head and staring at her hooves, "I... I didn't mean to do it... they were really nice and they let me take the party supplies for free at first since it was my first time there and they probably wouldn't be able to sell them anyway.

"But... but then I came back after Twilight told me to get replacements and..." she raised her hooves to her head and shuddered, her breathing picking up, "a-and then... and then they said I had to pay this time -- that they weren't a charity! I didn't know what to do! We needed those party supplies and they were getting angry and suspicious and I panicked and the Voice--"

"Voice?" Rainbow interjected with a confused frown, "what voice?"

"FILTHY MURDERING OUTSIDERS!"

All six mares snapped their attention to the enraged griffon leader, who took an aggressive step forward and gave them a baleful glare.

"We did you the kindness of welcoming you into our town, offered you help when you needed it, a place to stay, and my good friends -- rest their souls -- they even gave you supplies for free out of the goodness in their hearts, and how do you repay us?"

"Girls..." Fluttershy warned, backing away from the slowly advancing crowd, "w-what do we do?"

"By brutally slaughtering two innocent store owners who did nothing but their jobs!" Ingmar continued, stomping towards the mares threateningly, "are all of you ponies this vicious? It was that damned war wasn't it? Turned you ponies insane, lashing out like feral beasts from what I heard!"

Twilight's eyes widened in shock.

"W-What? War? What are you talking about?" she asked, "ponies aren't... we aren't normally like this! Ponies are kind and caring creatures by nature! Many of us wouldn't hurt a fly!" she stared at Ingmar with pleading eyes, willing him to understand, "our circumstances are... different!"

Twilight had remembered that Asger had mentioned something about a war, but hadn't dwelled on it due to everything else that had happened. Even as she tried to make her case, the lavender mare made a mental note to investigate the matter further.

"She's right," Fluttershy added, a quiet conviction behind her scared tone, "please don't blame all ponies for what we do."

"BE SILENT, MURDERER!" Ingmar bellowed, "AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED, NONE OF YOU ARE INNOCENT!"

Fluttershy flinched and took several more steps back in response, causing Rainbow to glare at the griffon dangerously.

"Fluttershy didn't do anything wrong," the cyan pegasus shot back, taking her own threatening step forward, "and if you wanna keep your stupid head attached to that stupid neck, you'd better leave her alone."

"You're not helping Rainbow Dash!" Rarity hissed, never taking her eyes off the crowd that was quickly closing in, "what we need is diplomacy," she gave Twilight a side glance, "do you have any ideas, Twilight?"

Twilight's wide eyes rapidly shifted from griffon to griffon as she furiously thought of a way out of their dire predicament.

"I... I don't--"

"Threats!" Ingmar cried indignantly, "even now, all of you are prepared to kill us in cold blood though we've done nothing to deserve it!" he narrowed his eyes at the six mares, "well... you're certainly free to try, ponies. There are far more of us than there are of you, and many of us here are trained fighters."

The angry cries of the crowd surged at his words, spurring Ingmar on further.

"You can come with us quietly and face your judgement, or we will drag you towards your fate, broken and beaten," the griffon leader gestured grandly towards the crowd, "there are more than enough of us to take you no matter what you plan to do, ponies! So what's it going to be?"

Twilight looked from the expectant griffon, to her friends, silently asking them what they thought the best course of action should be.

"We can take em', Twi," Rainbow replied immediately upon noticing Twilight's questioning gaze, "you know we can take em'."

"Just because we could don't mean it's a good idea, Rainbow," Applejack answered disapprovingly.

"I'm sorry, girls, I'm so sorry," Pinkie whispered, shaking her head as she backed away with the rest of her friends, "It's all my fault. I just wanted to throw a party for all the nice griffons and... and..."

"It's okay, Pinkie," Fluttershy replied, attempting to give the pink mare a reassuring smile, "you... you probably couldn't help it... given what we are now," she turned to Twilight with a sad frown, "I don't want to hurt anypony if we can help it, Twilight."

Twilight grimaced and looked over to Rarity who gave her an encouraging nod.

"I'll leave it up to you, darling," she said with a determined frown, "I trust your judgement, you know that."

Twilight managed a weak but grateful smile before turning back to Ingmar and the rest of the griffons. She took them all in, sweeping her gaze from furious griffon to furious griffon until her eyes stopped on Svanhild.

The griffon in question had the same angry look as the others, but Twilight could see there was more. Behind the anger she saw guilt, hurt, and worst of all... betrayal.

It was at that moment that Twilight made her choice. Without turning from the crowd she spoke her decision aloud to her friends.

"Girls... we're getting out of here."

"What?!" Rainbow Dash cried incredulously, "but, Twi! They--"

"No, Rainbow Dash," Twilight replied, cutting off the cyan mare, "we've... we've done enough damage here, and I don't want to kill anymore innocents. All of this was a terrible mistake, something that shouldn't have happened."

Twilight saw Pinkie wince and quickly made to reassure her.

"I know you didn't mean to do what you did, Pinkie," Twilight said, looking back at her with an understanding smile, "but it's like Fluttershy said, you probably couldn't help it. It's like I said back at the facility, we are what we are, and we can't change that now. The only thing we can do is to try and control ourselves as best we can."

Pinkie gave Twilight a weak but grateful smile to match the one Twilight wore only moments ago.

"Um... I'm all for running away instead of fighting," Fluttershy said quietly, "but... how are we going to escape?"

"Yes, just how are you going to escape, cowards?"

They all turned back to Ingmar, nearly forgetting all about the griffon as they talked amongst themselves. When he had all of their attention, the griffon continued.

"I should have expected you all to flee like the vermin you are," he hissed, "planning on killing our own and running off into the night like some lowlife mountain bandits, is that it?" he shook his head and spat in disgust, "you all sicken me, but it doesn't matter. With our numbers and the exit blocked there's no way any of you will escape."

Rainbow's fur bristled and she stomped a hoof.

"Seriously, pal, I'm about three seconds away from--"

"Would ya knock it off, Rainbow?" Applejack growled, "fightin' ain't the way to go here right now! Let's just do what Twi says an' get the hay outta here."

"A little more urgency would be appreciated, dears," Rarity called out, "I don't think Mister Grim Talon can hold back the other griffons much longer."

Twilight closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath before exhaling and opening her eyes again.

We don't need to be heartless murderers. We still have the power to choose what we want to be, and I choose not to succumb to my urges.

"Applejack, the wall behind us."

Applejack looked behind her and turned back to Twilight a moment later with an understanding nod.

"Can do, sugarcube."

Before any of the griffons could react, the stetson wearing earth pony lifted both her hind legs and bucked out behind her, blasting out the wall with a deafening boom.

Bits of debris flew in every direction along with a small cloud of dust. When all was clear, a large opening could be seen in the wall, leading out into the snowy night.

"RUN FOR IT, GIRLS!"

Needing no further prompting from Twilight, the other mares turned and sped off through the hole, Rainbow giving the outraged griffon leader one last glare before following after her friends.

"AFTER THEM!" Ingmar cried, "I WANT THEM BACK HERE, DEAD OR ALIVE! THEY'LL PAY DEARLY FOR WHAT THEY'VE DONE! JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED!"

With various cries of agreement and anger the crowd of griffons flocked out of the building and started after the fleeing ponies, save for one. Svanhild held back and watched them all chase after the six fugitives with all the fervor of a predator chasing its prey.

Svanhild herself couldn't understand why she was hesitating. She wanted justice and vengeance as much as any of her fellow Squawken townsfolk. In fact, the blame she had heaped upon herself for leading them all here in the first place only made her want to take them down all the more.

But there was something stopping her.

It took her a moment to realize that it was that same odd sense of foreboding she had felt when she first met them all. Her instincts were telling her there was something wrong with them all -- even aside from the sudden murder.

The gut feeling was so strong she wondered how the other griffons hadn't felt it.

In any case, she knew there was more to these ponies than what they had all seen on the surface. She may not have known exactly what this feeling was, but it certainly wasn't anything good, and if her hunch was right, whatever secret those six were hiding was bound to be far worse than just the murder that had taken place.

Still she couldn't just stand around worrying about what may or may not have been the case. Dangerous or no, she was part of the Town Gaurd, and those ponies had committed a grave crime that had affected the entire town.

With a grim frown, Svanhild pushed back her unease and headed back through the front doors of the building. She wasn't going to leave the other griffons to deal with the ponies without her, but she wouldn't ignore her instincts either.

A quick stop back to the barracks to grab her rifle and she'd be back to deal out the punishment those mares deserved. They wouldn't get away with this, not if Svanhild had anything to say about it.

And she had plenty to say.

Like I said, everything will be fine... for now.

But who knows what the future will bring...