Gillian doubled over as an earsplitting screech blasted across the snow covered clearing. A pillar of oil-stained flesh fell with a loud CRASH! Black globs of viscous, oily blood splattered onto the ground, where they melted snow, burnt grass and hid away deep into the soil. The titanic claw slowly went slack and opened as the last drops of oil pooled onto the ground, leaving the severed limb as nothing more than a dull red statue.
Gillian loosened the grip on her ears just a little bit. When the wailing had assuredly come to an end, she stood up and ran around the house to check on the rest of the group.
Twilight descended from the sky to come to Cadance's aid. the crystal princess's orb had finally given out in the chaos. Fortunately, a new orb, glittering with opalescent violet pigment, had been summoned to take its place. The other griffons had gathered around Sam's arm. Though they watched it bubble and twitch with grim interest, they kept their eyes on the spot where Sammakott had once stood. Twilight's sphere, which was doing a fantastic job of keeping Sam's magic out, also prevented any of them from seeing outside of its border. The faraway tree line, bright blue sky, and giant monster that waited outside were now invisible and soundless, which rightfully festered a feeling of paranoia.
For now, however, the only thing that mattered was the princess. Gillian walked towards the crowd, mindful of the now stagnant puddle of ooze that surrounded Sam's severed limb.
"Is everyone alright, Ma'am?" Gillian asked her superior.
Gilda looked Gillian in the eyes, then tossed a quick glance towards Twilight's direction. "What's going on there?"
"O-oh, right..." Gillian shrank a little. This would be difficult to explain. "Well, me 'n' Twilight kinda made up a plan b'forehand 'n' I-"
"Let me stop you right there, Fluffs," Gilda held up a claw to silence her compatriot. "You were supposed to keep her inside no matter what. That was an order from the princess, ok? Not only did you directly disobey an order from the princess, but you also withheld information from both of your superiors."
Gillian shrank more. her wings drooped to her side, and she could feel her tail begin to cool as it went slack and fell into the snow. "...Sorry."
Gilda grunted. Gillian was unsure what it meant, but Gilda hadn't shouted at her yet, so that was a good sign. "Well, what's the deal with her then? Is she cool or not?"
Gillian turned to the two princesses. "She uh... She probably won't be affected by Sam anymore, which is good..."
The brown and white griffon watched Twilight as she helped her sister to her feet. "Seems good to me. Alright boys, stop poking the arm and let's have a chat with the princesses."
Gillian stuck to the back of the pack as the griffons walked up to the small herd. Many of them were huddled together closely. Rarity sat, brushing Fluttershy's hair with her hoof in a vain attempt to calm her down. Rainbow and Applejack stood back from the rest of the group, their attention alternating between the bubble, the arm, and Twilight. Spike remained at Twilight's side, trying his best to get the hand to open fully. Unfortunately, the massive, scythe-like fingers didn't budge. After a minute, Spike gave up with a restrained sigh and slumped down into the hand's massive palm.
Cadance blinked slowly, the effects of the spell still lingering in her mind. "Ughh... Tw... Twilight? What... what happened?"
Twilight held Cadance upright with her wing, slowly guiding the weary pony away from the lifeless hand and the pool of viscous fluid that surrounded it.
"It's alright Cadance, you're alright now," Twilight comforted her sibling.
"But... where's Sammakott? Why can't I... remember... what happened?"
"He's... well..."
"He's still out there," Gilda interrupted, "and we need to stop him before he comes up with another plan."
Rarity looked up from her friend to confront the griffon. "Well we certainly can't put a stop to him ourselves. We're much too understaffed! With one princess out of commission, and the other being a tad unpredictable, no offense darling, our options aren't as numerous as we'd hoped."
Twilight stared at the pearly mare for a moment, annoyed, but quickly returned to helping Cadance down onto the snow. "I agree with Rarity, but we don't have a choice. We need to make sure he won't threaten us again, and the only way to do that would be to send him to Tartarus."
Gilda stood in place for a minute as she took in Twilight's words. Her mouth hung agape in perplexity. "...Tartarus? Are you for real right now? We need to kill that... thing right now!"
"And how do y'all expect us to do that?" Applejack asked.
Gelgen stepped forward this time, his already raggedy features looking worn from stress. "Well little miss magic here aughta be able to figger something out. I mean, she's all of a sudden able to pull off all these fancy spells and whatnot when we coulda used it earlier. Or didja just not want to use your magic before, 'Princess'?"
Spiked suddenly popped up from behind Twilight and climbed onto her back to stare the elderly griffon in the eye. "Hey, stop blaming Twilight for everything when we already figured out that Sam was mind controlling her since we got here."
Gelgen stood his ground against the little dragon. "Are you gonna make that demon go away, ya shrimpy little termite? Didn't think so!"
"Alright," Twilight shouted above the group's arguing, "Fighting with each other is only going to waste more time if we want to stop Sammakott. I can probably trap him in another bubble spell like this if we keep him in one place for long enough... and if he isn't already dead."
"Seems fine to me," Gilda grumbled.
"Yeah, fine. Whatever the 'princess' says," Gelgen added.
Twilight huffed in finality. She closed her eyes in focus, and an odd, wriggling, violet light began to snake around her head. Gillian watched with boundless interest as the little magical sliver rapidly uncoiled itself from the princess's horn and flew up to the roof of the bubble. Upon hitting it's mark, a wave of magical energy careened across the sphere's surface, turning the opaque purple surface into a light mauve glass.
"Alright, let's see if he's-" Gilda started, but stopped as she looked ahead.
Another much larger pool of tar lay just beyond the bubble's reach. Sammakott was nowhere to be seen, but a trail of tar stained the peaceful snow like a long dormant scar. The trail of black blood painted the ground until it finally stopped at the forests edge, where a wide path had been carved through the woods. Trees were overturned and half buried in the disturbed snow.
Gillian, along with the other griffons, looked at the scene with unshakable terror.
"Twilight, open that bubble now!"
"Gilda wait, before we jump to action-" Twilight tried to speak, but was interrupted by Gilda's screaming before she could finish.
Gilda pointed to one of the faraway mountains. The path that Sammakott had made was aimed straight at the closest one. "Twilight, don't you get it!? He's headed for Griffonstone!"