The Hunters of Secrets

The first wave crossed the meeting point where the King and the mysterious hooded pony had their talk.

Back at the Griffin army, Steel Beak said, "Well, this won't take too long. Someone get me a chair and something to eat. I want to see the battle!" He began to wonder, 'How come the hooded ponies are doing nothing?'

Back at the first wave of Griffins, past the meeting place, several trip wires were triggered and a bunch of Griffins fell into pit traps with wooden spikes. The unlucky Griffins who forgot to flap their wings were impaled. One of the Griffins in charge was yelling, "Yippee Ki Yay Mothe-" but he didn't get a chance to finish his cry as he fell to his death. Meanwhile, a handful of nets buzzing with electricity scooped up more Griffins until the rest of the wave was trapped in the net and fried to a crisp thanks to the constant electricity going through.

Back at the Griffin army, Steel Beak tossed his food to the side, jumped off his chair, and realized they had trapped the entire field. Several of his Griffins began to look a little worried that they might end up just like their comrades in the first wave, but the Griffin king had a smile on his face as he said, "Fear not my fellow Griffins. They may have trapped the land that we walk on now, but remember we can fly and there's no way they could trap us in the sky."

One of the Griffins said, "That's right, the sky is always changing, and there's no way they can trap the sky itself. We can easily fly over the traps and bring the fight to the enemy." With those words, every Griffin in the King's army regained their confidence and started forming a second wave, spreading their wings to take off.

The second wave of Griffins was composed of three rows of the Griffin army. When they took off into the sky, they created quite a gust of wind. They started to fly in the sky and Steel Beak said, "Let's see you deal with this wave."

The second wave passed over the meeting place and the wave’s shadow went over the field. A dark green glow became present. Suddenly, an arrow hit one of the Griffins, which came crashing down to the ground. As a shadow went over a certain spot in the field, the ground opened up to reveal a number of crossbows aimed right up to the sky. Five arrows shot upward every time a shadow went over several certain areas in the field. Several more spots of ground opened up revealing more crossbows firing straight up in the air. The second wave started to notice that their comrades were falling from the sky.

The Griffins then noticed something else, a hooded Chiroptera who seemed to be a mare, on top of a cloud. The pony said, "You came all this way, and you were so close, but alas, you must prepare to die!" She drew out a silver sword and hit a button on it. The blade started to separate until it became a long whip with the blade bits still on it. She swung her blade whip and slit several throats with it. Then she flew away and several more hooded ponies popped out of the clouds with crossbows ready, firing repeatedly at the Griffins. The wave expected more arrows. What they didn't expect was those arrows exploding on impact. The Griffins survived the explosions but they couldn't fly because their feathers were burned off. So they fell to their deaths. As for those who were capable of flying, having avoided the explosive arrows, were still in danger of being slayed by the Chipotera and her weird blade whip. She continued to take down Griffins, seven at a time, by dashing from one side to the other with her whip bladed trailing behind her. It didn't take too long for the second wave to fall entirely.

Steel Beak angrily brought down the spyglass into which he had been looking, threw it to the ground, and yelled, "Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me! They can make traps in the blink of an eye, fabricate very creative lethal weapons, and walk on clouds! That is just not fair! It's not! I just sent five rows of Griffins to their deaths. Well, now I definitely want to know what happens in this town and what's so special about it. I’ll find out if it's the last thing I do! Now, charge!" He said this to his last three rows of Griffins. Many of them had fear in their eyes as they looked at each other. Steel Beak noticed this and said, "Don't worry, this time I know we're gonna win because I'll be leading the charge." This got every Griffin to go along with him as picked up his shield and two-handled ax.

They flew past the meeting place and, immediately, five arrows came every five feet or wing flaps. Another wave of five arrows came at them, and when they finally got to the cloud line, the Griffins lost half of their final wave. Steel Beak lost his shield from the bombardment. As the Griffin king started to look around, it didn't take him long to find that same hooded pony who made her first appearance at the beginning of the second wave’s fall. She was standing on a cloud with the blade whip in her hoof. She looked at the army of Griffins and said in an excited tone, "Came back for more? I didn't think you had the guts." She smiled real wide before continuing. "And speaking of guts…" She used her weapon and whipped at the nearest Griffin, slicing open his abdomen and spilling his actual guts before he fell to his death. Excitedly, she cried out, "Yay! One down, ninety-nine left to go!" She returned to the here and now as seven Griffins came charging at her, but she simply swung her blade whip a bunch of times at their heads. Some of the Griffins were completely decapitated while others’ heads remained attached to their bodies as they fell. A couple more Griffins came at her, but she used her blade whip and those Griffins fell to the earth too, their guts spilling out of their sides.

Several hooded ponies popped up simultaneously out of the clouds, crossbows up and ready to fire. When their arrows hit the Griffins, seven explosions of lightning ignited and the impacted Griffins were burned to a crisp. Steel Beak somehow managed to get close enough to the hooded Pony with the blade whip that, with one swing of his battle ax, he decapitated her. The king looked around, seeing his men and the hooded Ponies engaged in aerial combat; some were swinging at their opponent's attacks while others were blocking or flying around and trying to dodge several arrows that were fired at them. In the chaos, the king saw another hooded pony flying straight at him with his spear pointed right at him. However, the spear broke and bounced off of Steel Beak's armor. Steel Beak, very frustrated, swung his ax at the hooded pony’s stomach with such anger and strength, he managed to cut him in two, killing him instantly. As he brought his ax back to his shoulder, he looked through the chaos again.

He saw the same hooded pony from the ground meeting, still holding that enchanted spear. With it, he had just gone through three Griffins. As he landed on a cloud, he chanted something in old English. The runes on his spear began to glow red and the dead Griffins that were still impaled on it started to glow yellow before they melted into the spear. When they disappeared completely, the runes stopped glowing. Silver Tip said, "Oh, gods of old, I prayed for a swift victory." He raised his spear and it began to glow yellow. Then the clouds above him started to rumble. A golden lightning bolt struck several Griffins in the air, causing every one of them to immediately disappear.

King Steel saw this and allowed his anger to take him over completely. He blindly charged straight at Silver Tip, yelling out, "Murderer! And Insulter! I Shall Take Your Life Today!"

Sugar Mist was slowly becoming a magnum statue. To put it simply, he was scared that this would be the end. If he had a choice, he would choose death instead of this constant pain that plagued him. The heat rose until it reached a boiling point, and the magnum quickly covered his whole body. For a while, nothing happened. Then suddenly, two black pairs of wings and a black horn blasted through the now cold magnum statue, resulting in three or four gallons of lava exploding across the lawn. Sugar Mist eventually broke out of the magnum statue, using his earth pony strength. As he busted out of the magnum statue, more lava came out. When he was fully free and the pain went away, he said very dryly, "Does anyone have a glass of water?" He took a look at his back and saw that it was as black as tar with several orange cracks across its surface, all the way to his wings.

Whatever armor he was wearing had been melted down. As a result of this realization, he became scared. And with that fear, his newly formed horn lit up, creating an orange barrier around him. Soon after, the magical barrier dropped; he couldn't believe it. Then he started to feel around his forehead with his hoof and discovered the new coat was hotter than his average coat. And yes, he could tell the difference. He felt a general surprise as his hoof came upon a newly made horn on his head. For a moment, he began to feel confident again. Then, suddenly, chunks of cold magma sprung up and latched onto him, forming into some kind of magma armor. The coat around his eyes turned black with several orange cracks. Then his eyes began to glow orange. And with one flap of his wings, he flew up and formed a cone of orange magic in front of him. He dove straight down to the barracks where the Solar captain's office was.

He dropped through the Solar captain's quarters, destroyed the transmitter on his way out, and landed in front of a group of Unicorns who were concentrating on keeping the shield up, even though there was a hole in it. Everyone heard his entrance quite clearly. He then got up from the pony-sized crater he had made.

The only Solar guard in the room yelled, "Intruder! Everypony, drop what you're doing and prepare for combat!"

But it was too late. Sugar Mist slammed his hooves on the ground and, quickly, the five Unicorns who were keeping the magical shield up in the Barrack were submerged in lava. Each of them cried with agony for help. Only the Solar guard tried to come to the rescue, but he couldn't get there in time. The closest Unicorn sank into the magma, burning alive.

"Ow, so sad, but too bad!" The Alirag said with a grin on his face. He stepped through the lava pool and faced the solar guard Unicorn who stepped back. All seemed hopeless until two Pegasus, one flying through a door and the other flying through the hole from where the foe had landed, flew around the room and used their front hooves to hit the Alirag in the face and send him flying back toward his crater. The two Pegasus flew up and landed next to the Solar guard.

Sugar Mist flapped his wings to slow his fall back into the crater, but two Earth ponies that were waiting for him jumped out of their hiding spot and used their rear legs to kick him through the wall, leaving behind a Sugar Mist sized hole.

As the Earth ponies made their way into the main room, an unearthly roar was heard. It sounded like a mixture of a dragon roar and the scraping of fingernails on a chalkboard, as if the chalkboard had fire emerging and cracking in the wake of the scrapes. A second layer of a humongous fire spell blasted through the wall of the main building in the Barracks, roasting both Earth ponies alive. The Alirag walked into the room through the newly formed hole that he had just made.

The two Pegasus flew straight at him, foolishly believing that they could take on a Monster like this.

Sugar took off into the air, charged up his horn, and fired one devastating fire blast after another.

As the Monster went after one of the Pegasus, the other flying pony chased after him, now and then managing to hit him in the face, causing him to miss his target. After the ninth hit in the face, the Solar unicorn charged up his horn and fired an ice spell at the pesky pony. He missed, hitting the wall. He tried again, and again he missed. Then, with a frustrated expression, he decided to move to the center of the room. He called out to one of the Pegasus, "Fly towards me and I'll freeze him!"

The flying pony must've heard him, since she flew right over him, giving him a chance at a direct hit. He lit up his horn with an ice spell and managed to hit his target right in the left wing. The Monster was sent crashing right through one of the wooden beam pillars.

But the ice melted quickly as he got up. A piece of his magma armor behaved like a bullet. It shot out and hit the Solar guard in the face, causing third degree burns on his coat.

Both Pegasus watched with horror. They both used their speed to fly out of the room and back in again, and again and again, each time hitting Sugar Mist in the face or the throat.

After the tenth hit in the face, Sugar charged up his horn creating a fire blast. As the Pegasus entered the room yet again at top speed, the feathers on their wings got burned off and both ponies hit the ground. The Monster made his way over to them and said, "You thought you could stop me?"

One of the ponies replied, "We were doing what we thought was right, stopping a Monster like you."

Suddenly, that pony was killed with a fireball spell. The other pony tried to shake him awake with the belief that he wasn't dead. Despite seeing this heart-wrenching moment in which a brother was being held by his sister, the Monster answered coldly, "You thought wrong." He grabbed the sister by the neck and began to pull her neck back. As he did, several bones cracked in her body, her coat ripping open and her spinal cord flopped out. He raised the pony’s head up, then turned around and walked over to the unicorn. He tossed the head on the Solar pony's lap and said, "Don't get in my way." Then, using his hoof, he broke the unicorn's left leg.The pony let loose a bloodcurdling scream, and the Alirag turned around and walked towards the big wooden doors. As he made his way out, he cast several fire spells at several more ponies who tried to stop him. They all ended up becoming Kentucky fried chicken, overdone.