Greetings from the dark (Scrappy, come here!)

[Syron]

Year 4, November 15, late night

Searching for Scintillance. AGAIN! Admittedly, this time it was her own fault, but the very reason why she had thrown him out was the reason why she didn't really look forward to actually finding him. It was a good thing she didn't intended to talk to anypony, or even be noticed, for her current mood would have made any interaction an unpleasant experience for everypony. Several times she had to stop because she felt herself losing too much control, especially when she couldn't even keep her eyes dry, and even when she was going on, she was silently brooding as she scanned the Undermarket for signs of unusually bright light. Three hours had passed when she finally decided to end it and get to the next topic of the day. Or night. See what the griffons were up to. Their HQ was heavily guarded, and approaching it was practically suicide, but a look from afar might already be enough to see - or hear? - something interesting, and so she soon was as near as she could safely get, which probably was already nearer than the griffons would have appreciated, but they would never know of her presence. That they had flattened the buildings directly around their headquarters forced her to dark side alleys too far away to listen to conversations near the entrance, but at least she could easily see what was going on. And who knows, maybe some griffon decides to stroll into her direction and deliver some audible information as well.

[Red Shirt]

Shade must have been crossing her hooves, because she got what she hoped for. One griffon patrolling the outer region of the HQ was relatively close to Shade's hiding spot when a colleague grabbed his attention.
"Hey! Wolfey! Wait up!" was shouted at him. Wolf, a nickname he had to deal with because his feather pattern made him look like a dog from afar.
"What is it Bluntclaw?" he said once his colleague got next to him. He wasn't mean't to be interrupting his patrol, nor was he mean't to be away from his post. "You could get into some serious mess talking to me right now, buddy." he replied shortly after. "Yeah, I know. But I wondered if you heard about the 3 soldiers that got killed over at that giant hole on the ground. I wasn't briefed so I don't know what the area was called.", "No, I didn't. What happened?", "The ones that got themselves killed where in the building close by. From what I heard from the other 3 stationed there, It was one pony. They said one of them had a crossbow bolt going from the back of his head, straight out his left eye!", "Your kidding, One pony?", "Nope. Not at all. They questioned a few ponies nearby for anybody that could have done it and if they weren't scared stiff they said something about a pony with a skull mask carrying a hurt Pegasus away from the hole.", "Great. You know our troops are good if one pony can wipe the floor with 3 at a time. And not even have the competence to try and go after him." He said irritatingly to try show that he needed to get back to work. Bluntclaw enjoyed spreading news around, it was surprising that he didn't have a nickname linked to that yet. "Look buddy, I need to get back to work. If I was your superior I'd be telling you to keep stuff like that to yourself. But I'm not, so I can't do much about it" he said smugly, before waving off his comrade and continuing his patrol. Getting a strange feeling of being watched.

[Syron]

They didn't have time to part before a faint blue glow took hold of both of them and jerked them into the nearby alley. That was about the last conscious decision Shade made before the emotions this conversation had brought up took control of her. Pulling to griffons was taxing, but if the fight was out in the open, Shade would have a real problem.

But after that, she was lost to her rage. The description was too obvious, and it brought cruel pictures to her mind. Apollo falling like a sack of potatoes into the hideout. Lying there with the bolt still sticking out of him. And his last message... Her self-control turned off and left the griffons to their fate.

Her victims might have screamed out of surprise, but when they crashed to the ground they had a better reason, especially if they feared being blind. Perfect darkness was all around them, they couldn't see their talons in front of them, and before they would fully realize that, hoofsteps could be heard and Bluntclaw would feel a knife with the weight of a light pony behind it being pushed into his shoulder before a pair of hind hooves connected with his sternum.

[Red Shirt]

Bluntclaw grunted from the impact on the ground, but he didn't scream. However, he did scream when he realized he couldn't see, and that a blade was stuck in his shoulder. He was being attacked by an enemy he couldn't see, one that must be crazy if they are willing to try this, this close to the HQ. Whilst he thrashed around trying to grab, hit and claw at his opponent, and actually managed to grab hold of what felt to be one of his opponents legs. Wolf had recuperated from the force of the pull, he heard the commotion and he also remembered which was was out because he skidded across the ground rather than just landed.

As much as he didn't want to do it, he had no choice. He got up on his claws and bolted to the exit of the ally, nearly tripping over some debris along the way. His trust in his own instinct payed off because he got out of the dark aura and claimed his right to see again. He didn't waste time trying to alert the surrounding area that there was a problem. "Hey! We have a hostile! North-West side!"
And like clockwork, any Griffon that was close enough to respond was on there way. Wolf drew his sword and looked back to the darkness, not sure of his friends situation and not sure of how he could help if he couldn't see.

[Syron]

One of her hooves got caught in her fast but mindless blows. Unfortunately for Bluntclaw that focused her rage on the talon that was restricting her, and in a swift motion her other front hoof had taken a throwing knife from her harness and driven into the griffon's elbow. Once she was free again she lowered her horn and jumped forward into the direction of the pained noises.

[Red Shirt]

Bluntclaw just lost the use of one of his arms and he just couldn't do much more than thrash around for his enemy. He was pretty much defenseless. What made it worse is he felt a pointy weapon pierce into his chest, what.. pure blackness, pointy weapon.. his opponent was a unicorn! But sadly that information didn't stop him from screaming in pain. And it didn't help is situation.
Wolf was getting agitated, he didn't know what to do and the reinforcements where taking their sweet time. He could hear Bluntclaw screaming but going in again is calling for his own death. For one matter, he needed some kind of help. And out of anger and agitation, he yelled out even louder than before.
"HURRY UP!"

[Syron]

Shade didn't notice the blood streaming over her horn and down her face when she pulled out again, while she was already bringing her second throwing knife to Bluntclaw's throat and finally ended him. She turned towards the other griffon and was about to jump at him as well, but something stopped her. She would die if she did this. Like a light breaking through the darkness there was suddenly something next to her rage. Scrapper. She couldn't die. She would die if she did this. With an angry snarl she turned away from Wolfey. She was far from in control again, all the think of was ripping those griffons apart and especially that Blackwing. Blackwing! She had to get him. She had to stay alive. Shade pulled her combat knife out of the griffons shoulder and used it to cut of his tail. She was just as blind as he had been, but the darkness was her home, and even blind ponies found the ways through their homes. Cutting his gut open as well she used the tail as brush and the blood as paint to quickly write a message on the wall, in big, crimson letters. When she was finished, the reinforcements were already coming in, and seething with anger she gave them one last look before she darted away, taking the darkness with her. However, this aura, though it hid her appearance, made it easy to follow her, and that her cloak was dripping with blood wasn't helping either. The weapons she had used flew towards her and disappeared under her cloak before they could be seen by a griffon. It was hard to keep enough focus to simply run away, she wanted to run into the HQ and find Blackwing, but she also wanted to be with Scrapper. And so she ran along the small street and took the next best turn, a way that would eventually lead to main street, as she didn't notice. As she moved away, the message on the wall became readable:
MIND THE SHADOWS, BLACKWING!

[Red Shirt]

Bluntwing's screams just stopped when the reinforcements finally got there 6 more griffons had shown up, all staring into the blackness until it suddenly started moving away. Revealing the aftermath, naturally, all 6 including Wolf began to follow until he saw what became of his friend, "Holy crap..." he said, stuttering when he saw the message as well.
"Wolf! Go back and notify HQ about this! Warn whoever this Blackwing is too, he'll need it. We'll go after the target!" yelled one of the griffons who arrived, Wolf was about to protest but he was a superior officer. It wouldn't have helped. As he watched his comrades take off he gave his former friend a look before flying back to HQ.
The 6 griffon's followed the black shadow for every turn, in the sky and on the ground.

[Syron]

Everything was just a haze, as usual when she slowly came back to her senses. She kept running, but she knew that the flying griffons would be at her in moments. She couldn't focus on her shurikens, she had only two in her harness. Not enough to give herself some cover.

Suddenly she made a sharp turn to the side of the street and chose the easiest way to get protection from above: Going inside. It didn't matter to her what was inside, it was good enough that she could will her body to do as much as it did right now.

[Red Shirt]

The Griffons lost sight of Shade around a building, out of some anger the leader yelled, "Where the hecks the target!?" and none of them responded for some time, until one suggested something. "Sir! There's a blood trail leading into this building!", "Ok, you 3. Start from the roof. You 2 with me." He ordered.
As they entered the building, from the top they saw nothing. But near the bottom, it was full of homeless ponies. All wearing cloaks and some actually carrying shanks. It was some kind of poor house, and the violence in here seemed to be high anyway. There was no shortage of bloodstains and already bleeding ponies that seemed too exhausted to even bother looking at them.
The leader gave a signal to spread out and have a look for Shade. And they followed.

[Syron]

When Shade entered it room she couldn't see anything, and this time she didn't know how the place looked. She managed to reduce the intensity of her spell, making her visible as faint shadow against the windows. And she saw that the room she had landed in was filled with ponies. Quickly she rushed to the door and found even more ponies on the corridor. She ground her teeth at the urge to eliminate them all, that was the rage speaking. Keep in control. Her spell identified her among those ponies. Her spell was known...

Only now she realized that, but she didn't have to think about it. Making sure her hood was pulled deep into the face she reduced the spell to a level that only kept her face from sight and cowered down in a free corner. Shade wouldn't be surprised if the other ponies around her pointed her out when the griffons came by, but maybe they still had enough solidarity with them.

By now Shade was also realizing the blood in her face and all over her horn. Her cloak was blood soaked as well and was only slowly stopping to drip. That was a problem. Under the cloak she held a throwing knife at the ready. If a griffon should take interest in her, he would regret that quickly.

[Red Shirt]

The Griffon's searched the building, room by room. Finding nothing but sick ponies, hurt ponies, exhausted ponies and more. When the group of 3 led by the main leader got to Shade's room, they had already been through a bunch already and didn't check as closely as they did before. One of them looked right at Shade, examining her but seeing nothing different than before. He'd seen other ponies with blood all over them and they tried to stab him was small shanks. He'll at least take this one not trying anything. The 3 that came from the roof met up there and reported nothing. After a while longer, the leader could be heard calling throughout the building. "Ok everybody! Target lost! Let's just get out of this dump!" and after that, they left. No other pony planned on giving Shade away, because if it wasn't for the Griffon's they'd be in a much better situation.

[Syron]

Shade was staring back at the griffon, only one false movement away from throwing her weapon. Seeing the griffons right before her again made it hard not to follow the urge. Not a moment to soon came the releiving command and the griffons headed off.

With the danger gone, it was easier for Shade to calm down a bit, but she still felt distressed, Apollo hadn't left her mind, and she didn't have Scrapper to calm her. After a few minutes she slowly stood up and walked to the door. Thanks, she said as she stepped outside and left the building in the search for an entrance to the sewers she could use.

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