"A Sinodraconic?" Trevar asked, looking up at the creature.

"Draconequus," the odd creature replied. If Trevar remembered correctly, Celestia had called it "Discord." The thing blinked at him. "Hmmm?" it hummed, tilting its head at Trevar. Then it blinked again. "Wait…You know about those? This can't be good…!"

"More like a Chop Suey version of one," Panthera said.

"And a shadowcat that's not…a…" the creature whipped around to glare it Panthera, but then his pupils and irises went to dots. "Ohhhsssshhhhitt!" he exclaimed before vanishing. Immediately, there came a renewed set of screams from the entry foyer.

'That thing's running a different set of particles,' Panthera sent. 'Pretty close to these equines, but definitely different.'

"What was that about?" Twilight exclaimed, blinking.

"Isn't he one of yours?" Trevar asked, yawning.

"Sorry," Trevar muttered. "I must still be a little groggy from that fainting spell."

"Well, it is getting late in the day," Twilight acknowledged. "If you'll come with me."

"If you don't mind, I'd like to scan through more of these books," Panthera said.

"But you don't know how to read any of them," Twilight protested.

"As I said, I can translate from memory once I learn your writing system," Panthera replied.

'I find it quite intriguing that for creatures based on the mold of a prey species, they don't seem all that concerned about dragons,' Trevar sent to Panthera as he departed.

'I noticed that as well,' she replied as she resumed her scanning the book she held. 'This might lead to some useful opportunities.'

'Indeed,' Trevar enthusiastically agreed.

The purple alicorn led Trevar and the griffons back toward the foyer. Celestia, Rainbow Dash, and three of the guard ponies were still there, but Lieutenant Scott, the white unicorn and the other three guards were gone, as was the weird-looking chimera.

"Mr. Trevar, these guards will provide you your escort while you stay with us," Celestia told him. "Anything within reason will be provided for you about Ponyville, such as food, clothing and toiletries, so don't worry about funds."

"Thank you, Princess Celestia," Trevar replied with a nod. "That's most generous."

"Twilight, I would like to have the humans quartered in their own homes so as to not disturb your work here," Celestia told her. "But it may take a few days to arrange. Could you please accommodate them in some of your guest rooms?"

"Of course, Celestia," Twilight said. "Mr. Trevar was expressing his need for sleep and I was just taking him to a guest room. I'll take care of the lieutenant when she returns."

"Splendid," Celestia said. "Just be aware, they are not a mated pair. They should have separate quarters."

"No problem," Twilight happily responded.

"It's getting time for me to meet with Luna and retire the sun, so I'll leave it in your capable hooves," Celestia said, stepping toward the door.

"Princess Celestia," Gustav spoke up, causing her to pause. "Might I have a word with you?" The griffon ambassador peeled off their group as the two pegasi and unicorn guards joined Twilight, Trevar and Razor going up one of the spiral staircases. In a short time, Twilight led them to the door of a spacious suite. The others waited by the door as Twilight led Trevar inside.

"This room is a meeting room for when you have visitors. You'll find a bedroom, antechamber, shower and toilet through that door," she said, momentarily lighting up her horn and Trevar saw a corresponding glow about the door to his left. "A study through there," she continued, using her powers to illuminate the door on his right. "I'm sorry we don't have the study stocked with books yet. Oh, but I don't know…can you read our language?"

"If your books are written in the same script as the one I looked at, then no, I can't," Trevar replied smiling. "Don't worry, I'll find something with which to entertain myself."

"Oh, that's too bad," she said, pouting. "Oh, but Panthera explained the principles of that board game you two were playing. Maybe we can construct something like that."

"That sounds like a good idea," Trevar agreed.

"Well, I'll leave you to your rest," Twilight said, leaving him alone in the room as she closed the door behind her.

A biped figure cloaked in black robes stepped from the warp tunnel in the chamber that existed at the core of the artifact. As the figure cleared the threshold, he raised up arms to reveal human-like hands. The being used them to uncover its head, revealing a rather ordinary looking male human face.

"Did you miss me, old girl?" he called out.

The self-sentient systems controlling the spherical space station responded in its own fashion. The being, known to the inhabitants of the world about which the artifact orbited referred to the being as "the Black Wizard". The station's computer only recognized that this creature was NOT its maker.

On the one bit, it was quite irritated with the abduction this being had committed nearly ten thousand years ago. On the other, it did appreciate the fact that something actually paid attention to it after languishing in its rightful owner's possession, unused and ignored for millions of years since its true owner had last used it. At least, the small figure standing in the central control room did not require the artifact to do anything it wasn't designed to accomplish. It simply didn't matter as being important to the vast computer that the world to which its reality warping power was directed was already inhabited. The creatures below weren't the creator, after all.

"Well! Isn't that quite an accomplishment by all the little people!" the Black Wizard happily exclaimed. "The new creatures down there have actually managed to learn how to talk with you! Splendid! I was really hoping this experiment would pay off. Now, we can all have lots of fun!" the Black Wizard chuckled evilly. But then, he frowned.

"But I'm really curious as to how he got away from here," he muttered, going to one of the huge monitor panels.

The image that appeared showed a fifty-foot long gold dragon in a hospital surgical room, the only place large enough to contain the specimen. The dragon was in really bad shape, as evident from the bandages covering numerous locations about his body. One eye was also heavily bandaged and his wings where bound in close-fitting wrappings. The dragon even had a muzzle made from several rebar pieces holding his jaw closed, as well a similar cage around his right foot.

But his distinctive features were quite evident. Two short tusks from his lower jaw stuck up in front of his snout, between two descending longer tusks curving down from the corners of his snout. His eyes (at least the one uncovered by the bandages) were triangular in shape, blood red in color with silvery slitted pupils setting on the top of a meter-long alligator-like skull. His spine was unadorned with any ridges, spines or spikes, and his body was very lean but wiry, with a highly defined musculature. His forelimbs ended with hands that had clawed fingers, his wings were thickly opaque, and his legs were like those of a long limbed dog. His tail, which nearly took up half of his fifty-foot length, was thin and whip-like. All-in-all, not a creature that any sane being would want pissed at them.

The Black Wizard was thoroughly puzzled as he watched as the dragon carefully made its way to a window in the surgery theater to look out on the hospital grounds.

"The numbers are finally dropping off," a centaur mare standing at the entrance told the dragon.

'Is it because they ran out of people dying? Or because they ran out of people?'

"Because we ran out of people," the mare told him. It made the dragon sneer and then he hissed in agony. The centaur mare yelped in surprise.

'Sorry about that,' the dragon said. 'My control slipped.'

"How did you do that?" she asked.

'I'm a full telepath, broadcast and receptive. Empathy, too. I sent you my emotions about what you said, so there could be no misunderstanding. It's necessary because I don't have the same body language as we're used to. Some of my pain rode out on the message, however. Sorry. It's all still a little new for me.'

"More than just the pain from your injuries," she said, as a tear ran down her cheek. "I felt your loss. Your guilt. Your defeat."

'That wasn't my intention—'

"No, it's okay!" she interjected. "We all lost something. My husband—He was your friend, wasn't he? The other dragon?"

'After our Change—' the dragon began, but the Black Wizard stopped watching, and switched off the monitor.

"That's odd," he muttered to himself. "So he hasn't escaped from here. But I never forget one my toys! So who…or what…the bronk is that back in Equestria?"

Frustrated that he didn't have any answers, he quickly raised his hand to snap his finger then panicked when he realized what he was about to do and his other hand shot up to stop the gesture, crying out in an inarticulate yell.

"Whew! That was close!" he exclaimed, looking nervously about. "Lucky nopony from the Continuum was around to see tha—ftsss!—Listen to me! 'Nopony', indeed! I've been hanging around Celestia and the rest of that petting zoo for far too long!"

"Well, the question still remains," he said, thinking out loud. "If Allec Trevar is still here, then just who is it back there? And that shadowcat just reeks of THEM! Bu-u-u-ut—so long as THEY don't know about this place—I should be okay. After all, Equestria is our domain! THEY shouldn't be able to cause me any trouble there, so long as they can't trace anything of what I'm doing here back to me!"

"Alright," the Black Wizard said, deciding on a course of action. "We'll just have to see what this other Trevar and shadowcat are up to—wait—Twilight said there were two of them. So where's the other? Unfortunately, I can't trace any of those three—Qdammit! I knew it was a mistake for us to agree to that stipulation in the treaty!"

Getting up, he put the cowl of his robes back over his head, hiding his face and walked back toward the portal.

"I'll be back later to play with you some more, my pretty little marble," he called out over his shoulder before stepping into the warp tunnel.

Once he was left alone, Trevar went straight to the bedroom. It was quite spacious, just as large as the meeting room at the entrance and certainly large enough for his needs. After closing the door to his bedchambers, he quickly ran and grabbed the pillows from the king-sized bed and pushed them to seal the bottom of the door. Then, after removing all his clothing, he stood away from the bed and walls and concentrated.

Instantly, his body burst with such intense light that the sun would've looked dark in comparison. When the light faded, his body was replaced by that of a fifty-foot long gold dragon. Two sets of interlocking tucks were vertical at the front end of a half-meter long crocodilian snout. Above that snout, two blood red triangular eyes, each with silvery slitted pupils, sat on the back half-meter of the rest of the skull. He had a smooth spine running the entire length of his sinewy body and whip-like tail. His bat-like wings fought to unfurl, while his long arms, which terminated with hands that had clawed fingers, and his long legs were kept folded to keep his belly close to the floor. His twenty-five foot-long tail slowly meandered from one side to the other.

In this form, Trevar was a very powerful telepath. Instantly, he sent out his mind to sense the other creatures about. The pegasi guards were bored while the unicorn was a little intrigued. Razor stood by, eager for an opportunity to formally, or informally meet the being she thought was one of her creators. Twilight Sparkle was at that moment, going down the stairs and was engaged with the blue pegasus in conversation. Celestia was still speaking with Gustav, and she was negotiating with him over his desire to supplement her Equestrian guards with some griffons. Celestia had obviously overheard the conversation Gustav and Panthera had while they were flying here, and so, she had already decided to allow it, but she wanted Gustav to earn the privilege.

Celestia suddenly jerked up and looked about sensing something was looking at her, so Trevar quickly shifted his focus away. Panthera's mind warmly welcomed his caress as his focus swept over her. He found the small dragon-like creature easily enough, making himself busy cooking Twilight's supper. Spike, too suddenly jerked and looked about, so Trevar moved on once more. He sent his mind further out, finding the pair of pegasi standing by with their chariot outside the castle entrance. Then he found Scott, her escorts and the white unicorn on their way toward the place they called Ponyville. The town, itself, wasn't far off, and Trevar could sense hundreds of Equestrians residing there.

Satisfied by what he found, he ceased probing, and concentrated once more, and triggered the sub-space tap he and his fellows had termed "the Gateway" and returned to his human form.

After redressing into his undershirt and briefs, he set the rest of his clothes over the back of a chair and retrieved the pillows from the door and laid them on their proper places on the bed. He remembered to check the window and made sure to unlatch it but left it stand shut.

'Use the bedroom window to come in. I left it unlatched for you,' Trevar sent to Panthera as he slipped under the covers and settled for a nap.

'Roger that,' she replied.

Discord walked out from the warp tunnel threshold and immediately went to the control crystal. He reached up with his eagle claw and spun the dial off of its settings, causing the warp field to collapse. Then he pressed the dial, and it retracted back into the crystal. Once it was completely swallowed back up, he nudged it out of its bracings using his lion paw.

"Oooopsie!" he cheerfully exclaimed as the crystal once more shattered into thousands of pieces.

"Heh! That never gets old! No matter how many times you do that, you always end up with a new pattern!" he said, grinning in joy.

Discord then snapped his lion's paw digits and vanished from the chamber, his deep echoing laughter lingering for several moments.

Panthera continued to tirelessly scan books, one-by-one, into her memory, being careful to not upset whatever chaotic organization that the Equestrians might be utilizing. By the time Twilight had returned to resume her efforts to categorize and sort the volumes, she had gone through nearly a tenth of what was in that room and well past the location where the purple alicorn had been focused in her efforts. The small bipedal dragon joined Twilight in conducting the sorting process.

Time passed quickly. Panthera's ears twitched at hearing Lieutenant Scott and her escort return a couple hours later; by then, she was about a quarter of the way through the mess. Incredibly, Twilight and Spike were also still going strong, although theirs was naturally a slower process. The three of them continued, but around midnight, Spike clearly showed signs of fatigue. Twilight, too, showed some symptoms, but if anything, the energy of her efforts picked up, offsetting the drop in Spike's output. And Panthera had not quite reached the halfway point in her scanning.

She could've easily gone on, but there wasn't a rush to get this accomplished. She sent a data burst to Pardus of the diagrams and formula from the Equestrian version of "The Principia" and a couple other books that looked like they might hold some astronomical observations and theories, hoping they would assist him in his own calculations of the Equus gravity field and got an acknowledgment of his receipt.

"I'll take my leave for now, Twilight," Panthera said, getting the alicorn's attention. "I would like to continue this tomorrow, if I may."

"Wh-what time is it?" she asked.

"It's past midnight, Twilight," Spike said. His voice conveyed some annoyance since he had been reminding her of the time every five minutes for the last hour.

"Oh, I had no idea that it was so late!" Twilight exclaimed, to which the biped creature rolled his eyes. "I should provide you with quarters!"

"If you wish," Panthera replied noncommittally. "My brother and I don't need to worry about shelter or rest for that matter. We are comfortable in whatever environment we walk in. But we know of you biologics' need for shelter and rest."

"It's no bother at all," Twilight said. "I had instructed the guards to put Lieutenant Scott in a room next to Mr. Trevar. I can put you in the room on the other side of his. If you need anything, Spike and I are in the rooms across the hall."

Once she was left alone, Panthera activated her cloak, then went to the window and unlatched it. Before opening it, however, she spied the dark alicorn hovering in the air outside Trevar's room off to the side staring intently toward his quarters as she slowly beat her wings. In addition, there was one of those strange flying chariots with a pair of pegasi harnessed to it—only this pair had bat-like wings and slitted pupils. Not knowing how long the creatures were going to remain there, Panthera had only one option: take her time in getting to Trevar's quarters.

Keeping the one, identified as Luna, in sight, Panthera began to use her tractor beam on an extremely fine setting on her window, pulling it open a fraction of an inch every minute or so. At the rate she was doing so, it would take about an hour for her to have enough room to slip through, but the motion of the window opening should go unnoticed by the creatures outside.

Half an hour later, a strong breeze gusted through the area, shoving Panthera's window all the way open suddenly. Luna obviously saw that motion, and shifted her hover over in order to look in. Of course, she could only see the hologram of Panthera sleeping by the door. As Luna satisfied herself that there was no threat, she moved back to where she had been watching Trevar's room. With her back turned, Panthera slipped out into the night unseen.

From her new vantage, Panthera saw that the same gust of wind had opened Trevar's window a little, too. Taking advantage of the situation, the shadowcat used her tractor beam to finish opening the window and slipped inside before the dark alicorn was in a position to see anything odd about the motion.

Trevar woke to the sunlight streaming into the window from a very vivid dream. The sight that greeted his vision was of a beaked face with huge eyes giving him an extremely close scrutiny.

"FUCK!" Trevar exclaimed in shock, scrambling to back away and getting tangled in the covers.

The griffon gasped in astonishment as its eyes did that double weird pupil and iris contraction, quickly looking about for an escape as its wings suddenly spread out. But the next moment, even as Trevar was still trying to get away, the griffon seemed to realize there was no escape, and resigned itself to fate. The griffon started to bow to him, but then apparently had second thoughts, and turned about before bowing low, presenting itself—no, definitely herself—with her rear raised up high to him, her tail lifted and to one side.

"I—I'm so very s-s-sorry for disturbing you, Lord," she stammered. "Pl-plea—please b-be ge-gentle!"

"…" Trevar looked at her, dumbfounded, as he was just getting over his own surprise.

"Uh…what are you doing?" he finally ventured.

"Y-you ordered me to m-m-mate wi-with you, Lord!" she fearfully stammered, glancing back at him and Trevar saw that tears were leaking from her eyes. At first, he thought she had been Gustav. Razor's plumage was gold, while Gustav's was white. In addition, Gustav wasn't wearing lavender eye shadow. But this was clearly a female, so it couldn't have been him, to which Trevar was eternally grateful. But that didn't answer who this was. Oh, that's right! He'd asked that other question.

"Please forgive me!" she continued.

Oh, great! Here we are, back to that again! Trevar thought rolling his eyes.

"M-my f-father ordered me to help guard you. H-he t-told me who you were, but I had my doubts!" she went on. "I had no—I know! I should have listened! Please be gentle! I'm not in season and I've never mated before!"

Trevar sighed, looking down and he saw his morning wood poking out from his underwear. 'She'd be pissing herself right now if she saw this,' he thought. Using his left hand to deftly tug on the fabric, he got himself covered hopefully without her being aware of his exposure. Then he looked at her presenting herself to him.

She was rather cute back there. A pink trisected buttonhole just below her anus brightly invited him amongst all that orange fur.

Her father? Probably Gustav's kid, then, he considered. Good job, "Dad"! Trevar sighed. But considering the fright she gave him, he wasn't going to let her off the hook that easy. He reached out with his right hand to lightly stroke up on the fur on the back of her far rear leg, causing her to yelp and tremble.

"You're very pretty," Trevar teased. He followed up with the same move on her left rear leg, making her whimper. "And you certainly have a wonderful gift to offer," he said, putting his hand on her spine just above her tail, applying just a little bit of pressure. She gasped, and closing her eyes, she gripped at the rug with her front eagle talons and braced her rear legs for the mounting that was to come. Her wings also spread out a little, held low to the ground.

"But I take it that I'm not your choice for a mate?" Trevar inquired.

"Y-you—you're the Cat-Lord!" she hissed in anticipation. "Wh-what I have to off-offer is y-y-yours to demand!"

"Your offer is certainly tempting," Trevar said as he got off the bed to squat down next to her flank. "And I do like the idea of taking you up on your offer," he said, gently caressed his hand over her thigh, admiring the well-muscled haunch. "When I do, I'll make sure you'll very much enjoy it as much as I," he continued as he reached his hand between her legs from the rear and lightly stroked her belly fur, teasing her with the tickling sensation attacking her public region as well as both her inner thighs. Both her wings shot out when he did that.

Then he stood to walk around her wing before squatting down before her. She suddenly opened her eyes to see him before her, and her confusion was quite evident on her face. He took her lower jaw in his left hand and his right hand beneath her shoulder and gave her a little pressure, guiding her to stand before him.

"But I promise you, that when I do take you up on your offer, it's going to happen when, and only when, you desire it," Trevar said with a closed mouth smile before giving her a light kiss on her beak. She just stared at him, blinking in confusion.

"I-I-I don't understand," she stammered. "When you woke up, you ordered me to mate with you."

"In my world, that—word—has many different meanings, aside from mating," Trevar said, laughing. "It was just an exclamation. I shouted out in surprise, that's all. I had no intension of ordering you to mate with me."

"So—you—don't find me attractive?" she asked, gulping nervously looking away in shame.

"Oh, I do find you very attractive," Trevar said, standing up to his full height so he could walk to the bathroom. "Again, I won't force you to mate with me if you're not wanting to do so. I consider that to be no different from rape. And I won't do that!"

"Oh, that's good to hear," the griffon said in evident relief.

"I think we're both very fortunate that I didn't yell 'shit!'," Trevar said as he removed his underwear and got ready for taking a shower. It obviously took a moment for what he said to sink in, and then the sound of laughter burst from the bed chamber. And then there was a sudden screech along with more laughter, as another voice joined in. Obviously, Panthera had decided to decloak, Trevar thought, grinning.

And while he took a nice long warm shower, he was grinning even wider as Panthera relayed her conversation with the griffon, who said her name was Gilda.

"And people always talk about how cats can poof up," Panthera said when Trevar got done with his shower. She was still giggling at Gilda, whose eagle plumage made her look nearly two inches bulkier in every direction. "Trevar, you should've seen her before she got her feathers settled back down!"

"Have you changed your mind about waiting to mate?" Gilda asked, nervously gulping at seeing Trevar's nude form.

"No," Trevar kindly said. "And if I had, you needn't worry about a cactus dick rasping you out," he then teased mercilessly with a wink. The creature's blush was quite visible despite all the feathers, in addition to her pupils and irises going to dots as her beak gapped in astonishment. Those were some of her words she had said to Panthera, expressing her relief that Trevar had not taken her up on her offer. Well, Gilda's exact words were "cactus dick rasping out her twat," but Trevar didn't feel it was necessary to go too far. She was no doubt wondering just how good his hearing must be to have caught that whispered confidence.

"Human males don't have a sheath in which to store their sex," Panthera said to her as he searched around for a set of bed sheets.

"It's part of the reason we wear clothes," Trevar explained, finding an appropriate piece. He quickly had it wrapped about himself and tied off in a toga style. "Unfortunately, I only have that one set. Despite taking a shower, they're going to get stinky rather quickly."

"Gilda, here, was just telling me about some of the history of Equus," Panthera explained. "Her people fought a war with Equestria over a thousand years ago. There were heavy losses on both sides. The griffons had lots of early gains and for a while, they looked to be the clear winners."

"But let me guess: the ponies pulled out some nukes?" Trevar asked.

"No, the ponies didn't have any nukes," Panthera said. "In fact, the nukes that were used were from the griffons. But that's when the ponies pulled out their MOADs."

"MOABs?" Trevar inquired, not certain if he'd heard correctly.

"Mother Of All Disasters," Panthera corrected. "After the griffons used some nukes to try and force Equestria to end the resistance and capitulate, Celestia and Luna got involved."

"Wait…Celestia and Luna? A thousand years ago?"

"Of course," Gilda said. "They're immortal."

'Speaking of Luna,' Panthera sent. 'She spent the night hovering outside your window. Whatever she was doing there, she didn't look pleased.'

"How about that?" Trevar muttered impressed. "And we thought Guinan was long lived."

"Who?" Guilda asked.

"Oh, I was thinking of a friend of mine, back home," Trevar explained as he stepped over to stand beside Panthera .

'Any idea what she was up to?' Trevar asked after taking time to think about it.

"Anyway, the griffons learned right then and there: don't fuck with the ponies," Panthera concluded.

'Not that I could tell. But whatever it was, she was clearly frustrated,' Panthera replied. 'When she left just before dawn, she was looking very unhappy.'

"Hey! That's not what I said!" Gilda snapped. "Besides, if that true, there wouldn't be any hippogriffs!"

"Like Trevar told you, 'fuck' isn't just for fucking, anymore," Panthera said laughing before Trevar reached down and scritched her behind her ears.

"oo-oh! oor-rr-rr-rhh!" Panthera purred, leaning into his touch. "Oh, yeah! That'zzz evvven ssooo muxxx betterr than sssexxx!"

"Whu—wait—when did you—you're mated!?" Gilda asked, astonished. "But father told me you only just arrived yesterday! When did you—?"

"When do you think?" Trevar asked smirking, still scritching on Panthera.

"Wow. You work fast!" Gilda muttered.

"Fasterrr than you can think," Panthera purred. The fact was, the first and last time Trevar had mated with Panthera was several years ago just after they had met. She did so with Pardus and Trevar simply because she wanted to know what it was like being the female. It was quite different from the memories she had as Trevar. It was pleasant with them both, but nothing that she was that interested in repeating. And naturally, she relayed her experiences to them both. But her apatite and taste for sex was still very much geared toward females as it had been before her mind was copied from Trevar.

All six of the Equestrian guards and Razor came to attention when they left his quarters. Then they all stared in shock and horror when they realized it wasn't just Trevar exiting his room.

Years of experience had inured them with the skill of silently communicating complex instructions with just an eye movement or twitch of a lip. They instantly agreed never to speak of the breach of containment that was supposed to be maintained over this individual's quarters. Although, Razor had a different communiqué between her and Gilda, to which Gilda merely smirked.

Trevar went down the hall and knocked on Scott's door. No doubt, the guards must've been dreading what they'd find when the Lieutenant opened her door … assuming she was still even in there….

"'Morning, Lieutenant! You up?" Trevar yelled.

"Coming!" the call was returned. In a few moments, the door opened and Scott, back in her uniform—well, the replacement that the white unicorn had to create. But then, Scott was taken aback, stunned by what she saw.

"What? Are? You? Wearing?" she asked, every word a question.

"A toga," Trevar replied deadpan.

"It—looks more like a—bed sheet," she said, her lower right eyelid gave a twitch.

"Well, technically, it is a bed sheet," Trevar said, continuing the deadpan. "Now, it's a toga."

"Burgandy?" Scott stressed.

"Well, I sure as fuck am NOT going to use the pink ones!" Trevar finished before turning to continue toward the stairs.

"Does anyone know where we're supposed to go this morning?" Trevar asked his escort.

"We were instructed to bring you to the Throne Room when you woke," one of the unicorns told him. Like all the guard, this one was completely white wearing matching gold and white uniform components that consisted of some type of open and loose-fitting armor. The only distinguishing elements to them were their brands, which seemed to be unique among them, and the fact that two were unicorns as opposed to pegasi.

"Then please. Lead on, MacDuff," Trevar said.

"Silver Thorn!" the unicorn snapped.

"Hmm?" Trevar asked.

"Sergeant Silver Thorn, of Princess Celestia's Royal Guard!" he proudly announced.

"Then, please. Lead on, Sergeant Silver Thorn. Lead on," Trevar said, grinning.

"I don't think they've heard of 'MacBeth', Mr. Trevar," Scott muttered to him after they were descending the stairs.

"And they probably still haven't," Trevar responded. "It's a common misquote. That line isn't actually in the play."

They came to the ground floor and were led past several of the chambers that had been set aside for the developing library, and finally to a closed set of large double doors. The six Equestrian guards all took up station, the unicorns next to the doors and the pegasi, two on either side of the passageway.

The unicorns' horns glowed and a similar glow enveloped the ridiculously tall door handles, pulling them toward the visitors. Inside the room was very dark. Before they could proceed, however….

"SURPRISE!!" at least a dozen voices all screamed at once. The inside of the Throne Room lit up.

*POOF!* Gilda's feathers standing on end had nearly tripled the volume of her front half. The guard barely flinched but were unmoved. Even Panthera had hunkered down by about an inch.

It looked like a kid's birthday party.

Trevar looked over at Gilda then he smirked over to Panthera. "I see what you mean," he muttered.

"Ohno! Not these dweebs again!" Gilda facetaloned.

"Were you surprise? Were you surprised? Huh? Huh? Were you? Were you?" the creature named Pinkie Pie, whom they had met back at the castle yesterday, was suddenly bouncing on all four hooves in front of them like she had springs in them. Then, somehow, she stopped in mid-spring—literally while still in the air—and gasped.

"Gilda?!?" Pinkie whispered in astonishment.

"What?" Pinkie Pie suddenly yelled at nothing Trevar or Panthera could see. "You think I'm going to make a mistake in semantics like that? I may not be as honest as Applejack, but I bucking well know MY RECORD is still unblemished!! Oh! And you were expecting me to say 'bronking' just now? Didn't you? DIDN'T YOU?!? Well! I'll have you know that's a completely different word with its own special obscene meaning—oh, right—sorry—the story's still going on…!"

The next moment, Pinkie Pie had shot back into the deeper part of the gathering, screaming "Gilda is he-ee-ere!"

"*sigh* Might as well get this over with," Gilda muttered. "Thanks, Dad! I knew I was coming back to Ponyville, but one would've hoped the 'Princess of Friendship' would have better class than to hang around with that bunch of … wait! … Is that—Twilight Sparkle?!? She a freaking alicorn!?! NOWAY!! SHE'S THE PRINCESS?!?!?"

"OH! BON-BON! I told you there were humans here!" another voice suddenly shouted, distracting Trevar from what was freaking out the griffon. The owner of the voice turned out to be a mint-green unicorn who was pushing her way through the crowd surrounding Scott and him. There was an cream-colored earth-pony with a pink and dark blue two-toned mane and tail who accompanied the green unicorn.

But then, Pinkie Pie had suddenly returned, muttering, "Grrrrr! Nopony, but nopony escapes Stalag Ponyville!"

Author's Notes: