Hi! Hyena king here! This is the next part of the game, titled "The predator awakes." And before you say anything, yes I made a "Disney's Hercules." reference in the last chapter. Kudos to those who noticed it! So, without further ado, here's chapter 14!

(Sly POV)

It took some detective work, but the gang and I managed to track down where Rajan had gone into hiding. Somehow, he managed to turn a long forgotten temple into the thriving center of his spice operation. And it's there that we'll find him. The jungle, too thick to drive through, forced us to walk the long distance to our target. We ran into a few problems along the way, but pushed on. For the temple was more than Rajan's hideout. It was also home to the Clockwerk heart. A pump so strong and tireless, it could increase the spice production tenfold. Good for Rajan, but awful for the rest of the world.

Hope he's not counting on the heart too much, cause tonight it comes home with me.

"Sneak into the temple and take some recon photos so I can assess the situation." Bentley said. Currently, he was talking to Sly, Thunder and Lightning. Of course Twilight was with them, along with Applejack. The newly made anthros were now dressed in jungle explorer gear, with a few minor exceptions, such as Lightning had a lightning bolt adorning his hat, Thunder a cloud, Twilight a star, and Applejack was wearing her Stetson hat instead of the jungle one. Their suits were also color coded to match each pony's personality and traits.

The group was currently located outside the temple, the central spice-making plant in Rajan's control. Bentley continued to talk as they surveyed the place.

"Just be careful, if you get hurt, the nearest hospital is 106 miles from here. According to my map of the area, there should be a hidden passage into the temple behind that waterfall."

"Nice work, Bentley. I'll take a hidden passage over the front door any day." Sly responded.

As they made their way towards the waterfall, Twilight spoke up. "I was surprised when Sasha actually agreed to stay behind."

"Probably decided it was for the best this time." Sly responded as he scanned the area. Lightning spoke up then.

"Yeah, but Sasha normally would have just come with us. I haven't known her long, but I think she's scared of something."

"What makes you say that?" Sly asked with a raised eyebrow. "She's a goddess, what could she be afraid of?"

"Beggin' your pardon, but can we focus on the important thing here?" Applejack asked, somewhat impatient.

"AJ's right, let's get back to the mission at hand." Thunder agreed, moving to Sly's side. They quickly made their way into the Spice making Facility. Once inside, they made their way through the facility. This was easier said than done, but it was manageable. Whenever they were caught by guards, they took them out quickly. A favored tactic was for Applejack to lasso the guards and drag them to a secluded spot, where Sly, Thunder, or Lightning would knock them unconscious. Another strategy was for Twilight to simply blast them with her magic.

Thunder and Lightning soon learned that the moves taught to them by the Thievius Raccoonus were much easier to do now that they were anthros, and they demonstrated this as they moved along the area with Sly. Even AJ and Twilight were using the moves, they having been taught by Thunder and Lightning as soon as they got used to their new bodies. AJ did the moves gracefully, thanks to her natural athleticism that was rivaled only by Rainbow Dash, While Twilight did them a lot more clumsily, even at one point falling flat on her face during a maneuver, but other than that she was fine.

They soon made it to their destination, where they made some surprising discoveries as they took recon photos.

"Looks like half of the heart is being used to super irrigate the spice plants." Bentley observed. Said heart was being suspended on the ceiling of the spice room, blowing out spice at a superhuman rate. Sly then looked over and took a picture of Rajan, who was looking over his handiwork.

"Check it out! Rajan's carrying half the heart on that stick!" Bentley cried. The stick in question was in Rajan's hand, being held like a king's scepter.

"And just when I thought it was going to be easy." Thunder sighed.

"What's that?" Twilight asked, pointing to something in the corner. The thing happened to be the controls for the crane the held up the half of the heart that was pumping spice.

"That crane is keeping half of the heart suspended." Bentley said, stating the obvious. Finally, Sly took notice off the entrance to the spice room, near the very back.

"There's the entrance to this level, only I don't know how to get in here from the temples exterior!" Bentley said some distress in his voice. "Bring those photos back to the safe house. We really need to think about this one."

As the gang turned to go, Lightning spoke up. "What exactly is wrong with this spice anyway? I don't see how it's harmful." Instead of answering, Sly turned to Twilight. "Once we get back, want to do some experimenting?"

"Oh, OK." Twilight said, not seeing where Sly was going with this.

"Good, cause we got a volunteer here, all we need is some spice."

And there you go. You'll find out what happens with the experiment in the next chapter. R&R please!