The snow was pristine, and utterly lacked any semblance of disturbance, which was beginning to become frustrating for Twilight. How was Sammakött able to hide so easily? He was the size of a building, surely he'd leave something behind to show where he went.
Twilight tossed an uprooted bush out of the way, only to see more of the same. Guess not.
She looked up to the branches above. "Found anything yet, Rainbow?"
"Nothing yet," came a voice from somewhere above Twilight. "But I think I-" Rainbow Dash suddenly went silent, giving Twilight another spike of anxiety.
"...Rainbow", she called out to the sky. "...Rainbow, are you there?"
There was silence for a moment. Rainbow spoke up against the whistling of the wind after too long. "Y-yeah, just thought I saw something."
"Well did you?"
"...No, I don't think so."
Twilight stared suspiciously up at where Rainbow probably was. She would have liked her friend to stay on the ground where she was less likely to be caught by Sam's light... and so Twilight could stick more closely to her.
In the darkness of the forest, Twilight couldn't help but accept the building fear within her chest. Everyone was so spread out, and with Sammakött seemingly having vanished into thin air, Twilight wasn't so sure of their collective safety. Was Sam even able to teleport? She didn't know, but considering how much she was able to do with Aether magic despite discovering it only a couple days ago, she had a feeling that a vengeful spirit with fifteen thousand years of free time to practice his magic would be much more capable than her. And speaking of Aether magic...
Twilight took in a deep, cleansing breath. Though she had followed the griffons to the edge of the Hyperborean Mountains, she was still maintaining both the bubble back at the cabin and her own mental ward. This was more handleable when she had adrenaline rushing through her system from the thought of losing somepony she loved. However, now that her terrified energy had run its course, her wards were quickly becoming quite the task to uphold.
...Wait... Why hadn't she put a ward on her friends?
Twilight brimmed with renewed energy once again. "Rainbow!" she shouted, "Rainbow, get down here!"
In the blink of an eye and a gust of wind, Rainbow skidded through the snow to stand next to her friend. "What, what is it? Did you find Sam? Where is he? Did he see you?"
"No, no. I want to give everyone a protective spell to prevent Sam from affecting us."
Rainbow's eyes flicked up to the canopy. "Can you do that?"
"I haven't tried, but I don't see why I couldn't."
"Well c'mon then, let's tell Gilda and the others so we don't get all mind controlled."
"What are you telling Gilda?" The short griffon asked aloud. She slinked her way out of the canopy's shadow like a snake. The other three followed her movements almost perfectly, their faces all unchanging slabs of stone.
Twilight restrained a gasp. "Oh, hey Gilda. You startled me."
The griffons didn't respond. They stood as still and as intimidating as statues. "You had best be careful of hiding anything more from us, Princess. Our trust can only stretch so thin before it snaps." Gerret spoke lifelessly.
"Enough, both of you," Gillian snapped. "Come with us, Princess. I believe we've found a clue as to where Sammakött might have run off to."
"What, did you find footprints? Alright let's see em!" Rainbow trotted forward, but was quickly stopped by Twilight.
The princess sauntered slowly forward towards the statuesque flock. "What did you find, Gillian?"
The griffon frowned. "The trail of blood seems to veer eastward. We believe that Sammakött has decided to take a more diagonal path. Perhaps he has decided to take a path around the quarry instead of over it? We thought it would be prudent to seek your counsel on this matter, as you know Sammakött the best out of all of us."
"That I do... Gillian..." Twilight's expression was just as stalwart as the griffons'.
Twilight kept her eyes locked onto them, watching carefully for any sudden movement. Out of the corner of her vision, she could see Rainbow start to piece things together. The cyan mare walked forward, standing next to Twilight. She could see that Rainbow was having a hard time keeping her composure, but the griffons didn't seem to notice.
Rainbow spoke up, her voice cracking slightly in her anxiety. "Hey, I-ahem-I think I found something as well, do you want me to show it to you?"
"Feel free to show us, if your words really are true," Gerret droned.
"Sure," Rainbow growled. In a split second, she flapped her wings as hard as she could, sending a cloud of snow high into the air and into the faces of the stone-faced griffons.
Gilda roared in frustration, and began to furiously claw all around her, missing Twilight's snout by a hair.
"Run Twilight, now! I'll keep them back!" Rainbow shouted. Not a moment later, Gerret launched himself towards her. She swerved out of the way, ascending into the air as Gillian clawed at Rainbow's hooves with rabid vigor.
Twilight stood frozen in shock as the snow began to settle, It was only the loud crunching of the trees in front of her that convinced her to sprint away as fast as she could. She turned to run, only to be slammed by Gilda's shoulder into the frosted ground. Rainbow noticed, and rushed over to the two, tackling the frenzied bird and throwing her across the snow.
The crunching of wood grew in volume, now adjoined by a low, gurgling growl. With a fresh dose of panic setting in again, Twilight scrambled upright and sprinted further into the forest. She didn't dare look back as she heard a deafening roar cut through the empty forest with ease. She looked down at the snow below her, terrified to look up when she saw a bright yellow light illuminate the foliage around her for the merest moment. With that flash of light, Twilight came to a grim realization. Now in the middle of this frozen forest, she had no one to turn to and nowhere to go. There was nothing she could do now except run.