I fled through the tunnels, up, up into the mountain. Within the fortress, the caverns and tunnels, these dogs sheltered themselves from the harsh world, from the cruel winter. At each mountain top, so high in the air, it is cold all year round. This allows snow to build and caps the peaks of the mountains with snow. The snow insulates heat, causing layers further down to melt, then refreeze into ice, then melt yet again. A constant cycle of freezing and melting. Over the course of thousands, if not millions of years, water enters small cracks in the stone, freezing and expanding it, then melting, letting more water fill the space, then freezing and expanding again. Water drips down through these cracks and falls to the cave floor. As it does so, it deposits minerals, either on the ceiling as stalactites, or the floor, as stalagmites. That is what I was looking for, and considering that these can form on even manmade structures, a place as ancient as this would definitely have some. That is what I was looking for.

The cave had a slight mist or fog clinging to the floor, and as I walked through it I could see my breath, the tiny vapor droplets crystalizing as I exhaled. It gave the entire area a kind of pristine beauty, even as the ice covered stalagmites sticking up from the floor melted, even the slightest light glimmered around the entire cavern. It could likely be considered a natural wonder, well, perhaps not, it wasn't exactly a massive cave.

I knew the hounds would follow me. They'd follow the stench of blood, now that it wasn't masked by ash or dust. That would be their downfall. After all, I was fleeing UP, meaning whenever they caught up to me, wherever I decided to make my stand, I would have the high ground. If you've ever been in an avalanche, or a flood, or even a strong under toe, then you know just how powerful water can be. It always tries to find the lowest point, everything does, that's a law of gravity.

If you have hundred of tons of snow atop a mountain, all melting and freezing in a cycle due to the changing of seasons, and the spring bringing increased heat, the water flows through the cracks at a faster rate, meaning more cycles of freezing and expanding the miniscule fissures, weakening the overall structure of the rock. It drips down more frequently, making a near constant trickle. I found myself in a large, dug out area in the mountain. It was likely mined for the stone used to make the fortress, rather than hauling it from a quarry, or, perhaps there was iron, or precious gems inside. Regardless, there was a cave, and it was old, and it had particularly large stalactite and stalagmites, while water dripped from each near constantly. Given another two or three thousand years, give or take since I'm not a geologist and don't know how long it takes for this shit to happen, the water would eventually trickle down enough to destabilize it completely, and there would be a cave in, flooding the entire tunnel system below it.

I didn't have a couple thousand years to wait. I did however have magic for both water and earth manipulation.

"Tremor!" I heard the barkers coming up the tunnel behind me, drawn by the scent I had coated myself in. They knew where I was. What they didn't know was what awaited them. As I looked to a spot a bit downhill of myself, I reached out with my magic and willed the cave ceiling to destabilize, to let the massive weight it had been holding for eons finally fall. The cave shook and as soon as the hunters laid eyes on me, they too felt the shaking. But it was too late.

All at once, it let go. Pockets of near freezing water, thawed by the spring warmth poured out of a hole in the ceiling, snow and rock and stalagmites rushing with it, down through the caves and tunnels. Standing above the splash zone meant I got nothing more than some wet feet, while my pursuers lived through one of their biggest nightmares.

"Let's play a game. I'll say a sentence, and I'll put in a blank, then you fill in the blank with whatever word goes there. 'Oh please oh please, don't let there be BLANK on the other side of this wall I'm digging through."

"Wadder!" Grog, Etch's son exclaimed excitedly.

I simply stood and watched as the cascade of snow, sleet, slush, and stone poured out of the hole and down through the mountain. So long as it had a slope, it would keep going, bringing ever more rock and debris with it as it smashed through whatever got in it's way. Soldiers, civilians, barracks, homes, nothing would be spared by the icy battering ram.

That was it though. After that, all the gems under my clothes were tapped out. I'd have to spend the night recharging them. It's not as though I could allow myself to fall unconscious anyways, lest I be caught unaware. No, until I made it back to Equestria, I couldn't afford such a luxury as sleep. Though, being well aware of the effects of sleep deprivation, I would have to spend the time I wasn't sleeping relaxing, resting, meditating, and charging my gems. Though... I would need something to eat.

"Ugh, what a disaster." Hundreds dead, either by drowning, being pulverized by the cascade of rock, suffocating beneath the snow, or hypothermia. Hundreds more wounded, impaled with rocks or debris from houses. In these caves and tunnels, the water had only a few ways to go, and lost nearly none of it's momentum as it funneled down through Ancientwell. The worst part was most of the casualties weren't even soldiers. Miners, farmers, builders, crafters, their wives and pups. It had taken an entire night of constant work on the part of both Ancientwell and it's guests to get everything cleaned up.

I held the body of a pup in my arms, the cold, limp little form had tears frozen on his cheeks. There were no visible injuries, which meant it hadn't been quick. Most likely he had been buried in the snow, separated from his parents as the tidal force rushed through the marketplace. There he became at least partially buried in the snow, where he spent hours, cold, alone, and afraid before he finally succumbed to the chill. All around there were parents and children crying, trying to find, or mourning, their lost loved ones. I found the little one's parents, who immediately fell into despair at the sight of their dead son. They kneeled and howled at their loss. It was all I could do not to break down and share their pain with them.

There he was, a child. Innocent, blameless. He would never reach adulthood. He would never grow up, fall in love, and have a family of his own. He would never create, he would never have the chance to make something that could be appreciated. He would never have the chance to be a hero, or a villain, or anything in between. He could have become anything, done anything with his life. He had that potential, and it was all stripped away so callously. It was all made even more terrible by the fact that I had known this pup.

He had always been an odd little dog. I'd often roam the warren, going out among my people to connect with them so I didn't become some unapproachable figure on a pedestal. That was something I hated about the pony princesses, and something I refused to do. At one point, the little guy worked up the nerve to run up to me and grab hold of my tail, burying his face in it. Of course, his parents were horrified, and the guards saw it as disrespectful, but I told them all I didn't mind, and I asked him his name. He told me it was Lert, and that my tail was soft and fluffy. I thanked him for the compliment and pat him on the head. He looked up to me with the biggest smile... I found him the next day, and I gave him a yoyo. I never really talked to him after that, but every time I saw him in the tunnels, he'd always be smiling, always playing with that little, insignificant toy that was so precious to him, because it was a gift from me. He'd smile and wave at me, and I'd do the same.

Even now as I swaddled his corpse like he was a newborn, so cold and lifeless, he had that yoyo clutched in his tiny little arms. I gave his body to his parents and turned away so they wouldn't see my tears, then went to find Ringo.

"Damnit! Damnit all!" I beat my fist against my table as I wept and screamed in frustration. I clutched the side of my head as tears streamed from my eyes. "I thought he was supposed to be trying to help us, to unify the clans! I thought all he wanted out of here was his family! But this.... this is too cruel."

"His motives then, have changed." Ringo growled in contemplation.

"It's because of that Trixie Pony. If he had just not tried to escape! His family would have been fine, and we could have followed your plan, and everything would have been fine!"

"You must think Fia, think of this from his point of view. He had no reason to believe you'd hold up your end of the bargain, and you had not yet been able to tell him of your plan."

"But what about letting that minotaur go?"

"A single instance of cooperation between enemies would not be enough to gain his trust. It was a good attempt, but in light of the boar attack, he likely saw fit to carry through with his original plan, regardless of what good faith you may have shown him."

"And what about now? Why isn't he just trying to escape? What does he want now? Revenge?"

"If he sought revenge, he would have done something more personal. No, he's either trying one of two things. He either will attempt to escape, and his actions are done in a desperate attempt to weaken Ancientwell and allow him more freedom to move within it's walls. It took hours of dedicated labour to clean up the mess he made with that natural disaster, which has bought him time. He got the ones chasing him off his back for a moment, and they'll think twice about coming after him again."

"That's the other possibility, isn't it? Making everyone think twice about coming after him again."

"Indeed. His plan may be a campaign of shock and awe. To cause such a horrific amount of destruction and death that no diamond dog, not just in Ancientwell, but in the world, would come after him. They'd be paralyzed with terror at the mere thought of it."

"But what could justify such an act! Up until now his entire goal has been to 'save us from ourselves' or some crap. Every time he's attacked a den, he's only EVER killed fighters, and never harmed the innocent. He'd always offer to take them to a safe place, like Marble Pillars."

"Simple. We kidnapped his mate, who is carrying his child, and killed his partner, along with a slew of his other crew members. We've put his back to a wall and pushed him into a corner. He may very well see us as beyond redemption."

"Are you saying that all this is okay!?!?" I roared. Ringo didn't bat an eye, not that I could tell with that full face helmet on.

"No of course not my child, I'm merely trying to help you understand his reasoning. What he has done is atrocious, and unforgivable, but if he has come to such actions, then it is a dark time for us all.

"And then? What if he really does see us as beyond redemption? I know he won't negotiate anymore. It's gone way beyond that."

"If that is the case.... then may the gods have mercy on us. He is far more capable with magic than we are, more than we could have imagined."

"But this doesn't make any sense! Even just a couple days ago he was still reasonable! He even went so far as to negotiate with me, even if it was just a ploy. He seemed completely calm, but now, when I watched him kill Sturg, the look on his face... it was wrong. He was covered in blood, except for two tear streaks down his face, and that smile. It was so sweet it was sickening. He murdered someone and talked about eating one of his best friends, but his face looked like he was giving free cupcakes to children! I know all about the reports of how he got driven off the deep end before, but even that was nothing like this. Something is very wrong with him... and I'm the cause..."

"Hmm?"

"I'm the cause of this. I wanted to unite the clans so badly I was willing to do whatever it took." I panted hard as I struggled to speak. "Ringo... I don't think we're dealing with Griffin anymore. I may not have known that much about him, but from what I've read he had always been a kind, caring person, who thought everything through, but this... he's acting like a wild animal now."

"Ma'am!" A guard had burst into the chamber without knocking. I'd forgive him his offence, since he seemed to carry an air of urgency.

"What is it?"

"The fourth guard barracks."

"Uuuurg..." I let out a growl of frustration. "How many this time?"

"Uh... just one ma'am, but... I think you need to see this for yourself."

I followed the guard to the barracks, flanked by Ringo and Greywall. When I entered, the scene before me was a grisly one. There was a body laying on a table, bits of fur covered hide stripped off and laying in a pile on the floor. The dog had been skinned. All his muscles were exposed to the air, though the right arm and leg had been stripped clean of meat. His organs were splayed out of his abdomen, spilling out onto the floor, with his small intestine wrapped around his neck and arms, holding them up in a way that made him appear to be either praying, or begging for mercy as he knelt. A strong, disgusting smell hung in the air, that of rotting flesh, half digested food, and bile that made several present with poor constitutions empty their stomachs, adding to the stench and filth that filled the room. I had thought earlier that Griffin was acting like a wild animal, and this corpse, this guard who's name or face I didn't know, looked like the victim of an attack by a wild animal.

"It seems he skinned him, spilled his guts, took some meat and then left him out to rot." Greywall stated. "Repulsive."

I left the room to clear my head of the smell, then turned to convene with the knightly dog. "Notice how he was missing some chunks?" He nodded. "Food."

"You mean to say he ate him?"

"No, he killed him, then took the meat to cook and eat somewhere else. From what I've heard, he can't eat meat raw. Almost all our stores here are gems, since we don't need much to eat in terms of meat or vegetables, just what the griffin riders need. So, there's not exactly a lot of edible food he has access to."

"Hmm, desperation would lead him to this course of action, though I wonder why he left the body in such a state, and position for that matter."

"It's a message. He's done this kind of thing before, though not nearly so gruesome."

"And what does it say?"

"Notice how he's in a position of submission? It's like he's begging... and despite that, he still had his guts torn out. Griffin is incredibly angry right now. He's furious, and with this what he's saying is pretty clear. It's a declaration. Not of rebellion, or revolution, not to try and change our ways, or save our lives... it's war." I looked back in the room to the groveling figure. "And there'll be no mercy."