Author's Notes:

If you haven't noticed by now, every chapter alternates from the view point of the humans (& Q) to the Equestrians (& Discord)--note: Q & Discord are one and the same

And it would appear that it's a common practice here to warn folks of any actual sex scenes. For here, I'm using text color to denote the graphic clopping. For those not interested, just skip down to where the text returns to black.

For anyone who's been going waiting for the clop, here is the first installment of what's going to be in this story. Don't worry, there will be more, and in the appropriate places

edited March 12--made some modifications due to Ryuu's revised calculations of the Equus Gravitational (not)Constant.

Enjoy!

Lieutenant Scott contemplated her hand, wishing she had some of these creatures' apparent "magic" that would allow her to peer deeper into her flesh, into her cells, into her atoms, into the very core of the nuclei and see the state of her quarks. And she wished she had the ability to read their state, to see the countdown—the number that would reach zero in about two months' time….

"Aww! Aren't you having fun?" an annoyingly high pitched voice called out to her, distracting her from her scrutiny.

"Not much to celebrate when one's about to die," she responded.

"Well, obviously you're missing out!" the pink creature gleefully shouted. "You do have something to celebrate! Nopony knows when we're gonna die. Tomorrow, somepony may get hit by a bus, or fall off a blimp, or even get sick and die from hoofing cough! They never know when their lives will end. But you know!"

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" Scott asked astonished.

"Why shouldn't it?" the crazy thing asked. "Look at Granny Smith over there! She knows she's got a whole lot more days behind her than she's got to look forward to. May not be tomorrow or the day after, but not much longer. Think she doesn't think about what's going to happen to her when she's gone? Or what's going to happen to her family when she's no longer around to care for them and guide them? Of course she does! But does she look like she's worried?

"She's lived a good, long, long life!" Pinkie continued. "Sure, she knows she's made mistakes and blunders, and she regrets them like nopony's business! But that don't stop her from pushing forward, every day, making sure she's doing her best to do her best! And she's done great over all her years. So, because of that, she's enjoying every moment of everyday, knowing that someday soon, it's going to be her last moment—and she's ready to make that last moment her Best. Moment. EVER!"

"Well, what about that guy, over there?" Scott challenged.

"Who? Cranky?" Pinkie asked. "Oh, he's just not used to smiling. (To be honest, I think his smiling muscles had atrophied something fierce)," she said in a stage whisper. "He spent his whole life searching for his long lost love. But believe me: he's very, very happy right now. See that mule beside him? That's Matilda, the one whom he was looking for, and he found her, right here in Ponyville! So trust me, he's very much happy!"

But just then, another song started blaring out from the boom box that Trevar somehow conjured.

♪If we burn our wings / Flying too close to the sun♫. Immediately, Pinkie perked up and turned to stare at him. So did every other equine in the place. ♪If the moment of glory / Is over before it's begun / If the dream is won / Though everything is lost / We will pay the price / But we will not count the cost♫

"♪We will pay the price / But we will not count the cost♫" Pinkie and every Equestrian pony suddenly began singing along. Scott recognized this from something she had listened years and years ago on the radio. She couldn't recall the group, but they sounded familiar. Furthermore, it was getting creepy how the equines began marching in place to the beat of the music.

There was a passage of instrumental, during which Scott took the opportunity to glance around. The only ones not joining in were the bipedal reptile, the griffons, Trevar and the big winged panther. The griffons looked like they were cringing a bit, with a nervous look toward the ponies. But Scott saw Trevar was looking at her with a questioning look on his face, to which Scott could only shrug.

What the hell was going on? she wondered.

"Wh—what—what just happened?" Trevar asked. "Are you guys okay? And how could you know that song?"

"I've never heard of that before," the purple winged unicorn replied. "Nopony has! It was amazing! But what do you mean if we're okay?"

"There was a huge buildup of—whatever y'all use—for your magic!" Scott heard Trevar say. "Bigger than what Celestia and Luna used for moving the sun and moon yesterday. Each of you were focusing, or gathering, that much power! I'd certainly hate to be on the receiving end of that much—force."

"But we weren't—" Twilight began, then changed what she was about to say. "Oh! We ponies just often react to our environment like that. Singing can—well—trigger a clearing of our channels. Yes, we can accumulate a large amount of power, but nothing's really being done with it. It's really harmless. In fact, it's quite pleasant to do so. And you wouldn't believe how much doing so has helped us solve problems in the past."

"Apologies if we perhaps made you feel uncomfortable," the tall white winged unicorn said stepping over to the man. "But then, your own—entertainment earlier—was a little disturbing to everypony here. Perhaps it's just a cultural quirk."

"Yeah, I've been in a few situations where such cultural quirks can be—surprising," Trevar laughed.

"So, Rainbow, you want to go and do some more races?" the winged black panther called out, now that Rainbow Dash had come into range when she accompanied Twilight and the rest of her friends.

"Oh, please!" one of the griffons yelled. "If you want a real race, why not go up against me! I'm just as fast as Rainbow Dash ever was!"

"So you have this magic, too?" Scott asked Pinkie, tuning out the rest of the conversation that was centered around Trevar. "Even though you're not a unicorn or pegasus or—alicron?"

"'Alicorns'. Not 'alicrons'! Those are the next brand of Transformers, by the way!" Pinkie corrected. "But, yeah, we earth ponies have magic, too. Ours is focused on the land. We can make things grow. The Apple family is one of the largest with farms all over Equestria. I come from a rock farm, myself."

"A rock farm? What do you grow at a rock farm?"

"Rocks, silly," Pinkie beamed. "What else?"

Non sequitur, she thought blinking.

"Well, try not to think of it too much," Pinkie told her. "Oh, you might like to pay attention to this next song he's going to play!"

"So you guys liked that piece?" Trevar asked.

"We sure did!" Twilight instantly responded. The nodding of all the ponies around her indicated their enthusiastic agreement.

"So, what did you think of those other tracks I played, the stuff from Two Steps From Hell, Immediate and Epic?"

"They were all very impressive, darling," Rarity answered. "I've never heard anything so compelling and soul stirring as those. But that last song—there was so much—power—in those lyrics! So much emotion!"

"Interesting," Trevar muttered. "Uh, if you don't mind, I'd like to try another song with you guys," Trevar said to Twilight.

"Sure," they all chimed in, including the other two alicorns. So he silently instructed Panthera to play another song by Rush, "Time Stand Still." This time, however, with the ponies ready for it, they were singing right along with Geddy Lee as if they knew it as well as the singer.

"♪I turn my back to the wind / To catch my breath / Before I start off again. / Driven on without a moment to spend / To pass an evening with a drink and a friend♫…."

And as before, Panthera had detected a tremendous buildup of power in each of the Equestrians, which simply faded away with nothing happening when the music was finished.

"Fucking incredible!" Trevar whispered in awe.

Discord reclined on the kitchen table, drumming his eagle talons while he listened to the party going on over in the Throne Room. It wasn't that he was avoiding it to spite this copy of his Allec Trevar, however this copy was made, or the shadowcats—such a thought simply never crossed his mind.

His problem was that he didn't know what to expect from them, or what to do about it.

Being what he was, he couldn't help but be aware of everything going on in the universe. That's just the way things were. His kind had solved the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, as well as a few other famous theoretical problems, eons ago. Once a race had done all that, then it really didn't matter whether you were looking at the particle, atom, molecule, cell, person, planet, or galaxy or not—YOU JUST KNEW EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING!!

And when someone with that kind of knowledge looks at a particle, they couldn't help but know exactly what they all were going to do, exactly where they were going to be, and exactly how fast and in exactly what direction they were going, right down to the exact femtometer and exact femtosecond AND ALSO know exactly what every other particle that ever interacted with or will interact with the one being observed had ever done or was going to do exactly, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Of course, he had tried to explain such a basic concept to many unenlightened beings he had encountered. And they inevitably scoffed that it was impossible for anyone to know such—they'd just point to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, or any number of other such stupid riddles, and declared it "completely unsolvable". Naturally, none of them ever called the first of those riddles the "Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle", except for the inhabitants of Earth, where the guy called Heisenberg came up with the observation there in the first place. No, such unenlightened beings called it, where those who were advanced enough to realize their version of "Newtonian Physics" was insufficient to figure out where anything was, their own discoverer's Uncertainty Principle. But they would repeat that it was "unsolvable"—like it was some sort of invisible god-entity they couldn't not believe in.

But that was the point—Discord's people Had. Solved. It! Along with the discovery of the preons and the subsequent Uncertainty Principle for the preons, and later the monoceros, which didn't have an Uncertainty Principle to worry about—rather, it was the Markovian equations for those—but all of that was just coincidental. And irrelevant. By that time, his kind had transcended anyhow where such matters over ordinary matter were all merely mute points of matter in any event.

No, the only thing he couldn't predict is what HE was going to do. Therein lay the rub: the same thing applied to those of his own kind. And a handful of others. One, being the Equestrians, who prior to their ascension, used to be their pets, which is why Discord liked playing with them.

While his race had been busy Ascending, their pets had continued to evolve as well. They also had learned to harness the monoceros particle! The Equestrians had become aware of the whole of creation! Although still far from Ascending. It was just as well that Discord's kind had Ascended when they had, for it was just in time to survive the Third Reset of the Well of Souls' computer. Fearful of the tremendous loss that was going to happen, Discord personally had taken their home world and shifted it to the base universe upon which the computer had overlaid the rest of reality, thus allowing their former pets to continue to live and develop.

However, near the time of the Fourth Reset, another species had also reached the last stage before Ascension and was unwittingly gathered by the Well of Souls caretaker only to be sent back out into the Fifth Universe. The creatures were astounding and their technology was just as astounding. It was from their castoff leftovers that he had acquired the artifact and used it to play with a small planet called "Earth".

Over tens of thousands of years, he had used the artifact, using it to modify the planet and its people. Occasionally, when he found an interesting point in the planet's history, and he would make a copy and toss the duplicated system somewhere across the galaxy, just so that there'd be a souvenir still about, just in case the artifact was ever discovered and confiscated. By now, there must've been at least a few dozen such versions of Earth floating about somewhere….

The primary reason though was, even though his kind could not easily know what he was doing, they knew when he was using too much of his power, since it was their power, too. Whenever he tended to get a little overboard, they always stepped in to reel him back in and ruined it all by "fixing" what he'd done—that was: "undoing all the fun he had been having." Oh, and the inevitable timeout period stuck inside a Plankstar, or a comet in the middle of some Oort Cloud, or some equally boring corner of the universe for an eon or two. Although, the time where they shrunk him down and made him ride an electron as it spun about and through an atom of diLith—oh, that's right, they call it equustite here—that wasn't too bad, as he got to enjoy the hyper-relativistic journeys. But even that got rather tedious after the first million years—and it was 5,656,389,770,886,300.6929718174312577 seconds, to be exact, before they let him off. They had even created that random number just for him the moment he was shrunk—just so he wouldn't know exactly when he was getting out.

But then, he remembered, there were those smattering of other races that had also learned on their own, the Heisenberg Solution, and that presented a unique opportunity. Instead of using his own powers, he reasoned, he should find a way to use theirs! Then his people wouldn't know what sort of fun he was having….

So one day, he found that pretty little marble, tucked away and forgotten, while its owner was busy helping her fellows build a really big lead balloon—literally—well, not exactly made of lead, but it might as well be. After all, what else would a transcended being call a warp driven Dysonsphere?

And Trevar was one such toy he had taken from Earth and remade with that pretty little marble (which just happened to be about half the size of Earth's Moon—but hey, it came with a really, really cheap but effective cloak made from trillions of trillions of simple light emitting diodes—come on! Who could resist that?). Of course, he wasn't exactly Trevar when Discor—the Black Wizard, as he was known on Earth at the time—(at least until his short stints identifying himself as Loki, but on those occasions, it was on a few of those duplicated Earths, so didn't really count as such)—where he took a lioness and transformed her into what would be known as Urbastet. Along with several other beings the Black Wizard had turned into minor deities, Urbastet was forced to perform her duties in the role he had made for her.

But, since the artifact was manipulating living souls, it never really released them after their owner got tired of playing with them all. And they ended up being reborn, incarnation after incarnation. And Trevar just so happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when the Black Wizard returned and used the artifact to reset the entire world as a fantasy roleplay setting just a couple decades or so ago.

Of course, Trevar, having been modified by the artifact (twice, now, Discord recalled, chagrinned), it made him a part of the technology that belonged to the artifact's real owners, which put Trevar out of Discord's ability to predict…only his Allec Trevar was still exactly where he was supposed to be on Earth (the original—accept no imitations, please).

However, this Allec Trevar, was—had to be—from one of those duplicated solar systems he, as the Black Wizard, had created. Except Discord remembered, the last time he had actually duplicated that blasted dirtball was some nine hundred years ago, in 1261 to be exact. He remembered it well. Lots of petty wars on all the duplicated Earths, and in one small corner of the galaxy, not too far away from one of the promising copies of Earth, was the Shadow/Mimb——

"WHERE THE BRONK DID HE COME FROM?!?" Discord angrily shouted, interrupting his own thoughts.

"More, importantly," he muttered, getting his fury back under control, "what am I going to do about him?"

While he pondered that, his mind also considered the Equestrians, who had evolved alongside his own kind to a level of their own sentience and sapience, learning of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle's solution as well as the preon and monoceros at the same time. But they hadn't yet ascended. While his own kind grew isolated and eventually fearful of their former pets, Discord took pity on them. They were as unpredictable as his own kind were, but there was something—a kind of understanding of their psychology that made them almost as predictable as the rest of the universe—almost, which is why he enjoyed hanging out with them. Occasionally, they'd do something unpredictable and random to surprise him, and yet never disappointed him.

Then came the fateful day that his people decided to do away with their former pets. Having moved them into the base Markovian universe, Discord had caused the Equestrians to be out of temporal synch with the rest of reality. They had survived the Third and Fourth Resets of the Well of Souls computer as well. That fact eventually got the attention of the rest of the Continuum which had not authorized him to move their former world onto that plane of existence. And so, they sought to wipe out their former pets, by sending both the [star] and the Borg, two deadly menaces that had quickly evolved in this Fifth Universe.

He begged and pleaded for them to reconsider. Finally, he had no choice but to risk censure and he managed to hide a handful to help them slip past the destructive forces sent to wipe out the unsuspecting beings. The things he had to do to hide them, however, were not always appreciated. Perfectly understandable they might be a little put out, but you'd think they could be just a little bit grateful for having saved their lives?

"HA!" Discord snorted at the thought.

Eventually, his people had learned of what he had done, but he argued that by doing so, he had proved they could be trusted to have such knowledge and power and not be a threat to the Continuum. And he was surprised that they agreed. He thought for sure he was going to be spending a couple or three eons contemplating the crystalline structure of neutronium while he sat in a box of the stuff, but they accepted his argument.

His thoughts eventually drifted back to Trevar, which Discord was beginning to tire of the circular thought. He especially HATED the idea of repeating himself. That never got anypony anywhere, like spinning their wheels in the mud—while the pattern might be pretty when you do it, not much else gets accomplished. Now, there was a direction of consideration worth looking into, a part of his mind considered for a moment….

Later, he dismissively decided.

But back to the Equestrians, there was a little matter that was starting to rear its ugly head again—well, Discord had to honestly admit, she wasn't ugly until he had intervened to hide her from the destruction raining down upon her planet—but he had done it so that she and her kind could continue to live, after all. And while she was an Equestrian, and thus by definition, "unpredictable", he still knew her psychology pretty damned good, which made what she was doing right now very easy to see it was going to end badly.

So, snapping the digits of his lion paw, he went to visit her.

"Mr. Trevar," Twilight said as they finished cleaning up after the party. "I'd like to have the opportunity to study your magic sometime. I'm still trying to figure out how you do that."

"I'd love to help," Trevar cheerfully replied. "And I'd love to learn about how your magic works, too. The shadowcats and I have detected some sort of sub-quark particle you are tapping into."

"It's also intriguing about that Sinodraconic—or draconequus or whatever it is," Trevar said. "He's using a slightly different type of the same particle for his powers."

"Really?" Twilight asked, looking puzzled about something. "That's odd."

"Anyhow, all this excitement's made a mess of my normal sleep pattern," Trevar said yawning. "I'm normally a late riser and usually stay up through most of the night. And this party didn't help in that regard."

"Well please don't tell Pinkie," Twilight warned him. "She hates to think her parties weren't a complete success."

"No problem. I won't say a word. But to be honest, I'm not much of a party person," Trevar sighed. "I don't do well in crowds."

"You okay, Gilda?" Razor asked, nudging the other griffon. The poor thing still looked to be in shock, evidently over the matter of Rainbow Dash being able to break the sound barrier. But beyond that, Trevar couldn't figure out what was the problem. So the blue pony pulled a "Yeager" on her, what's the big deal?

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Gilda said, blinking out of her shock and standing up.

"If you don't mind, Razor, Panthera and I'd like to discuss that little matter about the guard schedule you had mentioned before I go to bed," Trevar made a point of telling her in front of the ponies. He knew the ponies didn't want him to meet with them in private, but he needed to make sure the additional guards that Razor had told him had arrived don't react with the same craziness that Ambassador Gustav and Razor had when they first met him. Whatever this "Cat-Lord" issue they had with him was about, he didn't want it to interfere with what he wanted to do while stuck on this planet.

"It would be my pleasure," Razor told him.

Trevar and Scott gave their regards to the three princesses before departing the Throne Room accompanied by Panthera and the griffons. Silver Thorn and the rest of the Equestrian escort fell in to guide them to their rooms. However, Lieutenant Scott paused.

"I've not had any opportunity to look about the countryside," she complained. "Is it true that I can do so for a little while?"

"Our orders were to enforce the curfew after the third hour after sunset," Silver Thorn replied. "We're to provide supervised escort, but yes, you can pretty much go anywhere so long as you're back by then."

"I don't see an issue," Trevar tossed in shrugging his shoulders. "No nukes," he teased, making her chuckle.

"True," she responded. "Well, since I'm going to be here for the rest of my life, I might as well get a lay of the land," she stated, heading for the outer door, followed by the team that was assigned to her. Silver Thorn and his two pegasi comrades stayed with Trevar and they went upstairs.

When they arrived, Trevar and Panthera were surprised by another group of guards waiting for them. Two more unicorns and four more pegasi. Only these ponies were quite different from Silver Thorn and his team. They were dark furred for one. Their eyes had slitted pupils like a cat or snake, and the pegasi had bat-like wings.

Silver Thorn introduced them as the night guard, with their lead, Sergeant Shadow Wing. Razor took that opportunity to inform the Equestrians that she and Gilda were to supplement their ranks where it came to providing Trevar with his escort, and that four more griffons would be joining the guard rotation. When there was the expected objection, Trevar stepped in and let them know that this was in accordance to the agreement Celestia and Ambassador Gustav had made, and if there was any confusion, that Trevar was ready to walk right back down there then and there and ask the purple alicorn to call them back from the capitol so they could be asked. And that when he did so, he made it clear he would be sure to literally drag one of the guards in alongside so there would be no ambiguity. There were no more objections.

"Good," Trevar said smiling. "Because I hate ambiguities. I've no problem at all in wiping them out with extreme prejudice. That is one of the greatest pleasures I still have in my life," And he led Panthera and the griffons into his quarters, sharing a knowing look with Panthera. Ambiguities were something they heavily relied upon when bamboozling the authorities. That, and threats like the one he just used.

Once inside, Razor wasted no time in opening the window of the meeting room, and very soon, four griffons flew in and lined up when they landed.

"Trevar, please allow me to introduce to you," Razor said, "Golden Slasher, Screaming Eagle," to which Trevar had to bite his tongue to keep from screaming out laughing, "Blood Feather, and," she mumbled something, to which Panthera snorted, but Trevar couldn't catch, partly because the spike in blood pressure to keep from laughing over Screaming Eagle's name was still affecting his hearing.

"I'm sorry," he said. "What was that?" And that dreaded moment came the instant he spoke: the four of them all reacted with astonished gasps and bowed low before him. He sighed and silently cursed.

Razor mumbled again.

"What?" Trevar asked again.

"Mittens," Razor repeated, just barely above a whisper. Trevar looked at the fourth griffon standing in line. She was different in that her front legs were those of a lion's while her back legs were an eagle's. In addition, her tail was avian as well. And she looked rather embarrassed by the attention given to her name.

"M-my br-breed w-was from the opposite pairing of the Sky-Lord and y-y-you, my Lord," she whimpered. "I apologize if my presence reminds you of a time you'd rather not remember when you had to change sex."

"To be honest, I don't remember any of it," Trevar said sighing. He walked over and guided her to stand back up. "But I find all of you to be magnificent looking creatures. If I could remember any of it, I certainly would be proud to call you my children.

"But please, all of you, stand up, already," he said. "This is precisely why you've been sent by Ambassador Gustav: to keep any other griffons from getting close enough to hear my voice and react as you're doing right now. All this bowing and scraping every time I open my mouth is going to get the attention of the ponies and they're going to start digging into as to why. As I understand it, you griffons don't want the ponies to know about the Cat-Lord, am I right?" he demanded.

"Y-y-you are the Cat-Lord!" Mittens exclaimed wide-eyed. "Ambassador Gustav said you were here!"

"Well, I guess I am," Trevar said, rolling his eyes.

"MITTENS!?!" Razor roared while Gilda just sighed as she facetaloned. The other griffons reacted with disgust.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Mittens cried, bowing down once more. "I'm just so excited to meet you, Lord!"

"Why Mittens?" Gilda demanded in a hoarse whisper to Razor

"Probably because she's in heat," Razor whispered back. "The rest of us at least don't mind mating out of season. Your father knows how important it is to secure the Cat-Lord!"

"Well, it's a good thing you weren't standing on the carpet," Trevar sighed, pulling Mittens to stand up again. "Just step over there and we'll take care of it."

"By the Fattest Egg Ever Laid, is it too late to tear out my own throat?" Gilda asked, watching.

"I'm afraid so," Razor replied, "since you never informed your father of your preferences."

"At least he doesn't have a cactus dick," Gilda sighed.

Mittens walked over as directed while Panthera stepped up. A short blast with a green beam from her eyes quickly cleaned up the mess. Of course, that nearly created six more messes.

"HOLEY SQUIT!!!" all six of the griffons screamed at seeing what the shadowcat could do.

Lieutenant Scott could see a village not far away and the beginnings of a road leading from the crystalline tree-castle, caused primarily by the beaten grass and a few small stones here and there. The path wasn't quite a quarter of a mile before she reached the outskirts of the village. Up close, she saw that the buildings greatly resembled a cartoon version of a quaint English or Northern European village circa Early Renaissance period.

Several of the creatures were setting up shop in what looked like the village market square in preparation for doing business.

"Hello again!" a voice called out, and Scott looked about to see a couple of the original six she had met, the orange one with the Stetson and the pale yellow one with the pink mane and tail. Applejack and Butterfly, if she recalled correctly.

"Hello," Scott greeted, walking up and looking confused. "Why are you all getting set up for market? Wouldn't you normally be closing at the end of the day?"

"Norm'ly, yeah," Applejack replied. "But seein' as how th' party went on all day long, everypony's gotta make up fer it. We still gotta have food fer breakfast in th' mornin'."

"Oh, I see," Scott said, guessing that made sense. "If you wouldn't mind, but there's something that's been bothering me. How is it we're speaking English?"

"We're not," Applejack shot back with a chuckle. "We're speakin' Equestrian."

"English, Equestrian, it doesn't really matter what we call it," Scott said annoyed. "You know what I mean. How can we be speaking the same language?"

"Ah don rightly know," Applejack answered with a shrug. "Sorry. Maybe the princesses could help. But be careful askin' Twilight. Ya might get too much of an answer."

"Thanks," Scott said with obvious disappointment. "That Trevar has some cockamamie theory that Earth and this planet had contact in the past, but I can't agree with that."

"Why not?" Applejack asked.

"It's too outlandish," Scott complained. "I mean, our ancient ancestors meeting? They were little more than Bronze Age raiders. But it is hard to think of another explanation for our legends of unicorns and pegasi. Pegasus was just a winged horse that one of our mythical heroes rode to destroy the Kraken."

"The Kr-Kr-Kraken?" the timid pegasus gasped. "Th-that's the monster Commander Pegasos the IX killed on that world he visited!"

"Wha—?" Scott exclaimed.

"L-legends have it that Commander Pegasos was stranded on a strange alien world populated by strange bipedal creatures," the yellow mare explained. "He actually made a friend of a one or two of them. They even had their own names, according to legend."

"Do tell!" Applejack exclaimed.

"Well, h-history was never my strong subject," she apologized. "I only remember a few of the odd monsters from mythology class. Percules, I think his name was. Or was it Herseus?" Scott was shocked.

"You mean Hercules and Perseus?" she asked.

"Hmm—if you say so," the pegasus squeaked.

"Wait! Hercules!?" Applejack exclaimed. "Yeah, Ah remember tha' name from mythogy class! He wuz th' monster tha' beat four o' th' worse criminal earth ponies tha' eva ran wild! Much like Sombra, who wuz a unicorn supremacist, they were Earthists! Podargos th' fast, Lampon th' shining, Xanthos th' blond and Deimos th' terrible were their names. They led a rebellion 'gainst Celestia thousands o' years ago and got banished ta another world."

"Oh my," the timid pegasus squeaked. "A rebellion!"

"Tha' ain't th' worst part about it," Applejack continued. "They were meat eaters!" The pegasus suddenly screamed and zipped away to hide behind Scott's guards.

"What happened to them?" Scott finally asked, after getting over being startled by the yellow creature's panicked reaction.

"They came 'cross a bipedal monster called Hercules," Applejack tried to remember. "Ah don't rightly recall exactly whut happened, but they eventually returned reformed an' brought back news o' their tale."

"Holy shit!" Scott whispered. She did remember one of the Twelve Labors dealt with a set of meat eating horses. Maybe there's something to Trevar's theory, after all, she thought.

"So—uh—I guess you'll all agree it's not a good idea to piss her off?" Trevar asked with a grin while giving Panthera a scritch behind her ears.

"That—that is pretty sound advice," Razor stammered before shaking off her surprise to address her comrades. "Alright! Gilda and I have already had our shift today guarding Trevar—and why the flinching, Screaming?"

"Sh-shouldn't th-that b-be 'Lord Trevar'?" she asked.

"NO!" Trevar, Panthera, Gilda and Razor all yelled simultaneously.

"What part of 'keeping his anonymity intact' don't you understand?" Razor all but shouted. "That's why we're here! That's the reason why we were chosen to do this!"

"Among others," Gilda muttered under her breath, twitching her tail.

Panthera's superior hearing caught the comment, and naturally she passed it along to Trevar, as she had when she had picked up Gilda and Razor's whispered conversation earlier when Mittens had her little accident.

"As I was saying, Gilda and I have already done our shifts," Razor said. "Any volunteers for tonight's shift?" And all raised a foreleg, making her sigh. "Alright, you know the drill," she finished while looking about the room. At that, the other four griffons all brought a wing about to their faces and plucked a feather out with their beaks.

"Here, use this," Gilda said holding out an empty waste basket to Razor, who took it and marched down the row, whereupon each of the four newcomers dropped her feather in. When the last one was in the basket, Razor covered the opening with her own wing and gave the basket a couple of shakes. When she was done, she reached in a claw and pulled a feather out.

"Mittens, you're on!" Razor announced. "Try not to gaff it up. The rest of you, take a room at the lodge, and we'll work out a formal watch schedule in the morning. Be sure to get a good night's sleep. Dismissed!" Once commanded, the three not selected flew back out the window.

'The feather she had pulled actually belonged to Screaming Eagle,' Panthera sent.

"Gilda and I'll pass along our situation to the Princess," Razor said, leading Gilda out. "Have a pleasant night, Trevar."

'Now why do you suppose she lied about that?' Trevar asked sarcastically, looking pointedly at the shadowcat.

'No idea,' Panthera replied with snark. "Hold up a second, I'll come with you," she spoke out loud to the griffons. 'Try not to get laid,' she sent as a parting shot.

'No promises,' Trevar responded as he was left alone in the room with Mittens.

"So," he said to her. "How'd you get started in this job?" he asked, breaking the ice. She nervously gulped with her tail quivering.

Just then, Pardus flew into the room using the window, making Mittens screech.

"Hello," he softly greeted to her.

"Pardus, this is Mittens," Trevar said by way of introduction. "Mittens, this is Pardus, Panthera's brother."

"Oh! Hello!" she greeted, quickly getting over her surprise.

"Mittens was assigned to be my guard tonight," Trevar told him.

"Ah, yes. Panthera has already informed me. I just have a few words I need to speak with Trevar about then I'll be on my way," Pardus told her as he walked toward the bedroom. Once inside and the door closed, Pardus gave his report.

"For whatever reason, gravity doesn't work the same in this system," he explained in a quiet voice. "It would appear that the Universal Constant of Gravity is not only of a different value, but of a completely different set of dimensions! Here, it's the length raised anywhere from the fourth through eighth, as opposed to the third power, but is still divided by the product of the mass and square of time." Pardus created a display illustrating the features.

"Interesting," Trevar replied looking over the diagrams.

"Within thirteen inches or so, everything's still normal, and there's a transition zone of a couple inches where things start to get weird. Between you and me in this room, we're experiencing a gravitational constant 2.525 times greater than normal but with the length dimension raised to the exponent of 3.0614," Panthera explained. "For anything just outside this structure, gravity is 116 times stronger while the G-constant's length dimension is raised to 3.315, while at a kilometer, the G-constant is nearly two million times stronger and the length dimension has nearly raised to the power of four, and so on."

"So what's the catch?" Trevar asked. "Why aren't we being pulled apart like taffy or already fallen into a black hole?"

"At these short distances and our small masses, even with the G-constant so large, the actual forces we're experiencing is still quite small," Pardus replied. "Despite the G-constant being two million times stronger at one kilometer distance, the actual force is only a little over three and a third times greater than it should be. We're noticing the planet's gravity more than any forces between objects like people or mountains. Fortunately, it's not noticeable until you're well away from the planet's influence where I was able to measure it with the test masses."

"How were you able to find out all of that?" Trevar asked.

"From the observations about their moon as well as those test masses I picked up and carried with me," Pardus explained as he provided a holographic chart. "Also, while Panthera hasn't found a means yet to translate their text, the equations that she sent me from the copy of their "Principia" were easy enough to figure out what's going on.

"For starters, their number system appears to be octal based," Pardus told him. "But you'll laugh at this next part I found out. They're actually using the hand as their base unit of length measurement."

"The what? The hand?" Trevar asked, surprised. If that's what I think he's talking about…?

"Well, I'm not sure if they're actually using the word 'hand'. But it equates to the same four inch standard used to measure the height of horses."

"How can you be sure?" Trevar challenged.

"From the fact the book references the neutral hydrogen 21 centimeter wavelength as the value of 2.074, base 8 of course," Pardus explained. "And they have it calculated out to over 80 deci—well, I supposed I should call them 'octimal'—places.

"Anyhow, their Sir Issac Colton found a base number of 1016.44623 hands in base 8, which, after I converted to decimal and into our measurement systems, it translates to 53.5 meters," Pardus continued. "My measurements in orbit confirmed that whenever the test masses were at distances which were in powers of fifty-three point five meters, it matched up precisely with what was in their book.

"Based on what I could decipher, the G-constant rises up to a maximum value of 2.909 times ten to the 24^th, with a length dimension exponent of 8.2845 at a distance of nearly 60,000 kilometers. It slowly goes back down to normal gravity just a little over a light-year.

"Whoever their version of Newton was, he or she figured out the smooth curve of the grav constants all the way out to the rest of the universe. But they assumed that all other star systems would follow the same pattern. I suspect they're going to think that we have someone on Earth to make our sun and moon go around us, or at least rotate the planet.

"But essentially," Pardus concluded, "everything within this system from about fourteen inches to a light-year distant experiences some level of a higher gravitational constant."

"Any idea what's causing it?" Trevar asked.

"Unfortunately not," Pardus replied.

"Their moon—well, I should say their solid rocky moon—is obviously much smaller in both mass and size than this planet, but it has the same surface gravity. At first, I couldn't figure it out. The falloff ratios of orbital velocity versus static acceleration versus the altitude were really weird. However, they did converge toward the normal expected values from two directions, one from the surface and one from way the fuck out there. Eventually, I found a point above their moon, 1,079.746 miles, where the ratio of the orbital velocity and acceleration matched that of Earth's area of space. From there, it was just a matter of curve-fitting. It was then that Panthera transmitted their 'Principia' to me, and shit started to make a little sense.

"That altitude, by the way, corresponds to a radius of 2,229.63 miles, or 3,588.242 kilometers to be precise, seems to be that convergence point," Pardus continued. "It also happens to be the same distance from the center of the moon which is equal to the radius of Equestria, and is why it was so hard to identify the value of the grav constant when I was looking at just this planet. As a result, static accelerations and circular orbits are following the shifting gravitational constant.

"Their pony version of Newton developed his equations for the grav-constant, acceleration, force, and orbital velocities," Pardus told him, projecting the Equestrian script before Trevar. It was extremely complicated. "But after I figured out their math base and just what their gravity was doing, I've figured out formulae to blend our understanding and theirs into something simple," he said, projecting a new set of equations:

G' = G°Rₑ^Δ = G°R_eⁿ=G°R_e^{({20/[σ√(̅2̅π̅)ε(Log_53.5{X}-μ)2/(2σ2)]}-0.034714579999999925510513411766)}

a' = G'M₁/X^(2+Δ)=M₁G°(R_e/X)ⁿ/X²

F' = m₂a' = M₁m₂G°(R_e/X)^Δ/X²

V'_o ~ √(G'[M₁+m₂]/X^(1+Δ)) = √(G'[M₁+m₂]G°[R_e/X)^Δ/X]

"I notice you have the same X in the delta exponent of the modified grav constant as you do with the modified acceleration and force equations," Trevar pointed out.

"Because that's the same variable when you need to calculate them," Pardus responded. "That's all accounting for the distance between the objects you're measuring, remember?"

"Ouch," Trevar said, wincing. "How's this all going to affect the others when they get here?"

"I've already sent out a warning to the ship. They'll be ready to drop their speed to lower warp on approaching the system from a quarter light year beyond the outer zone of affect," he finished. "Even so, they should expect a rough ride coming into the system, but they'll be ready to drop to sublight if it gets too severe."

"So it's possible it could take a full year before they get here?" Trevar asked, to which Pardus nodded.

"Depending on how rough the ride will be, then yes," Pardus said sighing. "We've never tried to forcing warp fields to interact before. The ship will be a dynamic warp field mixing with what is essentially, a static warp bubble. We have no idea of what's going to happen."

"Anything else that seems to be going on with physics?"

"Not so far as Panthera and I can measure. Speed of light, mass versus charges of the electron, proton and neutron, everything else seems to be what it should be," Pardus replied.

"Well, it would seem to explain why they need to have those two alicorns shift the sun and moon every hour on the hour," Trevar muttered. "I noticed how when they were here for that stupid party downstairs, they had to go out to shift the sun."

"Except they're not exactly 'on time' every time," Pardus commented.

"True," Trevar said. "Panthera noted how there seemed to be one fellow with an hourglass branded on his butt who kept going up to Celestia to tell her 'it's time' to which she would excuse herself and Panthera let me know what she was up to outside before she would return."

"Very ineffective and subjective time keeping," Pardus muttered. "Anyhow, now that that's done, I guess I can start helping out Panthera with some of her tasks. Be sure not to do anything with Mittens that I would do," he whispered with a smirk as he left the room.

"You betcha," Trevar shot back.

Panthera accompanied the two griffons downstairs and soon located Twilight and Spike, still working on completing the massive sorting job.

"Princess Twilight, I'm to inform you that the rest of the griffon guards have arrived and we will be assisting your Equestrian guards in providing diplomatic escort duty for Trevar," Razor told her. "We've secured quarters at your local lodge, so Gilda and I will take our leave for now. Good night."

"Oh, but you don't need to waste your money doing that," Twilight spoke up. "I've got plenty of room in the castle. Certainly you can make use of some of them. Our guards are doing so here as well."

"That is most kind of you," Razor said. "We will consider it. But for now…"

"If you don't mind, I'd like to have an opportunity to speak with Gilda," Panthera spoke up. "However, I have a bit of a project here I need to accomplish involving these books that will eat up a few hours. If you become bored waiting here, would you please mind waiting in my room?" she asked Gilda.

"Well, I was planning on getting something to eat from the Everfree and join the others to shoot the squit," Gilda said. "A few hours, you said? How about I come by later?"

"Of course. Would three hours be alright?" Panthera asked, noting how queasy looking Twilight Sparkle had become with the mention of her hunting.

"See you then," Gilda said as she was departing. "You want me to bring you something?"

"No, I'm fine," Panthera replied as she resumed scanning the books from where she had left off. As she began her scanning, she noted how Twilight became excited over one of the books back where she was working on and left the room with it, leaving Spike to continue working on the sorting.

A short while later, Pardus silently joined her, and their scanning progress doubled. Twilight returned a little while later, evidently pleased with something, but the two teams each continued working on their respective separate tasks and didn't interact much.

After Pardus left Trevar and Mittens alone, they both stood there with a bit of awkward silence.

"Well, I'd better let you get on with your duties," Trevar finally said, turning toward his bedroom.

"Uh—uh—Lord Trevar?" Mittens asked, stopping him, making him dread what was coming. "C-c-could I-I ask you a-a-a fa-favor?"

Damn! he thought. "Sure, you can ask," Trevar said, slowly turning back toward her.

"W-w-would y-you mate with me?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"You know, I'm not really comfortable with all this Cat-Lord worshipping bullshit," he began. "I don't like taking advantage of someone—"

"I-I-I'm in season," she cut in, gulping her next statement. "I have no mate. The other griffon males, they don't consider me a real griffon."

"And I suppose Gustav knew all that when he assigned you, right?" Trevar sighed. Her blush, visible even through her plumage was clear what the answer to that was.

"And don't you griffons mate for life?" he asked, and the question clearly made her wince.

"We—we—we used to," she stammered. "Before the war with the Ponies, almost a thousand years ago. But after—there were too few of us left. W-w-we had to find—we had to give up—" She couldn't go on with what she wanted to tell him. Instead, she dropped to the floor, weeping. Trevar stood there for a few moments, then he went over to sit with her, taking her head off of her own paws and shifted her body so her shoulders leaned against him, and he held her head in his arms, using one hand to stroke her.

"Shhh," he said to her, trying to comfort the creature. "It's okay. It's okay," he whispered. "It's not so bad. It's not your fault." He kept stroking her, using his fingers to comb through the plumage covering her head.

"We—we had to—to—to give up—" she tried to resume. "We had to give up our fidelity to our mates. There weren't enough of us left. They were dead! Our mates were dead!"

"Shhh. Don't cry. You did what you had to," he softly told her. "The mates of your ancestors would not have wanted their loved ones to die as well. They died to protect you. They would've wanted you to live—finish raising your young—find new mates and start the next generation."

"It was so hard! So hard!" Mittens wept. "Only now, have our numbers begun to return to what they were before the war. The old instincts, they're coming back."

"No, not exactly," he softly said to her. "Your instincts never left. You had to override them to survive, but that need is what's departing. Nothing more." He continued to hold and comfort her, losing track of time. After a while, she stirred.

"Oh! I sh-should n-not burden you with our problems!" she exclaimed trying to get up.

"Nonsense!" Trevar growled, holding her down. "You are in pain. You're in heat and you've a racial past that's put the survival of your entire species on your shoulders. No one should be forced into that! No one!" She stayed there, letting him continue to stroke and comfort her, probably for another five or ten minutes, before she moved to get up again. This time, he let her get up.

Standing, she towered over him sitting there. He smiled up at her.

"Feeling better?" he asked, gently using his hands to stroke over her leonine shoulder, as well as lightly brushing along the leading edge of her folded wing.

"Y-yes! Yes! Thank you!" she exclaimed, leaning into him. He gave her a hug in return as he stood, which made her suddenly awkward as he now suddenly towered over her. Her avian tail twitched up and fanned out slightly, and she moved to present herself to him, but he held her wing to keep her from turning.

"I—I'm still in season," she began.

"Mittens," he said as he guided her wing to stretch out. He was pretty confident that having been a dragon for several years, he knew a thing or three about erogenous zones in wings. "When you asked me to mate with you, you didn't just pick a fucker. You picked a lover. I'm going to make sure you enjoy this," he warned her as he bent down to give her wing a kiss.

When the appointed three hours was up, Panthera quietly left, leaving Pardus to continue. But by now there was only a couple hours' worth of scanning left to do, so he kept at it at the furious pace, racing to see if he could complete the work before midnight, and he just managed to get the last one finished a couple minutes after. By then, Spike was giving his customary hints that it was time for him and Twilight to go to bed. Oddly, she didn't seem to ignore him this time, as her sorting process had at some point in the night taken a back seat to her studying another of her tomes.

"Oh, of course! Sorry Spike," she immediately responded. "Hey Panthera! Are you reaching a stopping point?"

"Uh, Twilight? That's Pardus," Spike spoke up to correct her.

"Don't be silly, Spike," she admonished. "Pardus still hasn't come back from whatever it was he left for."

"He came back while you had stepped out earlier and started working with her," Spike explained. "Panthera left a couple hours ago."

"Now, Spike," Twilight sighed. "You should know I'd notice something like that. This is Panthera."

"Don't worry about it, Spike," Pardus replied amused. "Actually, we're completely finished scanning all of your books."

"Really?" Twilight asked astonished. "You weren't quite halfway done with them when you left off yesterday."

"And you got every book?" Spike asked, equally astonished.

"Unless something got moved to some stacks we covered already, we should have," Pardus replied.

"Then what's on the page Twilight's reading?" the small dragon challenged.

"Spike!" Twilight scolded him, but Pardus chuckled.

"Hold the book up, please, so I can see its cover," he requested. "And what page is she looking at?"

"Three eighty-six," Spike replied.

"I still can't figure out what your symbols say, but," he said, projecting the image of the page called for in the space above them.

"Whoa!" they both exclaimed.

By the time he had finished with her wings, Mittens was begging for him to mount her. Still, he refused to rush. He let go of her stiff and trembling wing to use both hands to stroke along the right side and belly of her leonine body.

"So magnificent," he softly told her as his right hand found the first of her nipples while his left reached about her waist where the feathers covering her rear began. His head and shoulders were just behind the feathers of her wing and he leaned forward to give her a kiss on her back as his right hand stroked back and forth over the row of nipples adorning her belly.

"Pl-pl-pleeeeaz!" she hissed as her whole body trembled in her anticipation. Her rear legs were set wide and slightly forward and her talons were spread with the claws as wide apart from each other as possible. Her rump was especially exposed as she held her pelvis back and arched up to receive him once he would be in position behind her, and her tail was arched up almost over her back, the fan of feathers spread wide.

He realized she was teased to the breaking point and with one last hug about her waist, he stood up, simultaneously unknotting his toga to let the bed sheet drop to the floor. His own arousal was by now quite evident. He had been turned on by her being turned on, and his member was very stiff, ready to take the plunge.

Stepping around to her rear, he took the time to examine her sex. At the base of her bony tail sat the small circle of pale bare skin that was her anus. But what really caught his eye was the wide and thick fleshy chevron carved into her feathers just below that circle. Both sides of the chevron must've been about three inches long, ramping up at forty-five degrees to bracket her butthole with the upper points of the V. And the center of bare patch must have been at least an inch thick, which held a deep vertical slit connecting the top and bottom edges of the fleshy groove.

Panthera had deftly interrogated Gilda about griffon physiology earlier while he was in the shower, secretly relaying their conversation as well as he participated in it. They learned that all griffon females laid eggs, even though they shared the mammalian feature of a separate vagina and anus, a fact that pleased Trevar to no end. Gilda and the other griffons' sex was easy for Panthera to scan and confirm their conformation resembled a lioness' genitals, but seeing this on Mittens was truly amazing.

"Marvelous!" he told her as used his left index finger to trace first one leg of that V then the other toward her treasure spot, making her gasp and flinch with his teasing touches. "Simply marvelous!"

When he wedged the head of his dick into her slit, she whimpered and held as still as her trembling body could manage. Still, the vibrations sent shivers through his dick and he almost rammed straight in right then. But he was determined to make this a moment both of them would remember.

He leaned over to his left to get his torso around her avian tail, and gently used his body to ease it off to the side so he could lean forward and grip her about the waist with his arms. He could see the rest of her, her lion paws were outstretched before her and her claws fully extended, as well as her wings were stiffly spread out. She was looking back over her left wing to stare back at him with one eye that held a severely dilated iris and pupil.

"M-my lord!" she begged with a growl. "Please, Cat-Lord! Please flood into me! Put out my fire!"

"Mittens, you're one of the most magnificently beautiful creatures I've ever seen," he told her as he slowly slid himself into her. But he only got an inch further into her when he felt the head of his dick reach the end of her channel. Puzzled, he pulled back slightly and moved forward again, once more encountering the end of her passage.

"Um—are you a virgin?" Trevar asked. Mittens' iris and pupil both contracted for a brief moment as she suddenly pulled her forelimbs toward her chest. Then a sudden lurch to the rear almost sent Trevar flying backward. Almost. Instead, he ended up hilted inside her as she exclaimed with a short screech.

"I was!" she said, after gasping for a few moments as her channel tightly gripped him with spasms. "NOW BRONKING FLY ME, ALREADY, DAMN YOU!"

Trevar barked a laugh. "What happened to that reverence to the 'Cat-Lord'?" he asked laughing as he began to thrust in earnest.

"Mmm! Yes! Much, much better!" Mittens crooned in a voice mixed with a purr.

Trevar didn't even think Panthera was this warm when he had mated with her. This creature was downright feverishly hot inside. And nicely tight, wet, and deep. He was going to take his time to enjoy this….

Panthera returned to her room and opened the window to await Gilda's arrival and she saw Luna outside again watching Trevar's room. This time, the dark alicorn stood by the chariot that evidently had brought her.

"Good evening, Luna!" she called down, startling the equine. "Looks like a beautiful night we're having."

"Yes, We are glad thou appreciate it," Luna returned. "We dost try to put in the effort for our ponies to enjoy them." Panthera had to blink, trying to make sense of the response.

Perhaps just her own sense of humor, she finally concluded. Trevar and his monitors had pulled enough such jokes like that of their own in the past.

"Art thou planning to fly out and hunt tonight?" Luna cheerfully inquired. Panthera noted how this one didn't seem to mind the idea, unlike the purple alicorn had.

"Thank you, but no," Panthera replied. "I'm waiting for one of the griffons to return. I have a few things to talk over with Gilda. Ah, here she comes now."

"Good evening, Princess!" Gilda called down as she came to a hover.

"And valorous evening to thee, Gilda!" Luna responded. "Didst thou has't a valorous hunt?"

"Indeed I did!" the griffon said, rubbing her belly. "I nailed a cockatrice before the little bastard knew what hit him!"

"Ha! An impressive accomplishment!" Luna exclaimed, obviously pleased. "And a formidable opponent at that!"

"Nothing to it when you've got eyes like a griffon or an eagle," Gilda responded. "Those chicken-headed lizards can't stone anything they can't see, whileI could see him way too far for him to reach me!"

"Well, well done anyhow!" Luna said. "Far too many of our subjects has't been lost to those vermin."

"Thank you, Princess," Gilda replied. "But I've kept Panthera waiting long enough. Good night, Princess Luna."

"And valorous night to thee, Gilda," Luna finished. Gilda flew in as Panthera stepped aside to allow her entry. Then Panthera went back to the window.

"And a good night, to you Luna," Panthera called down. "Enjoy the evening and good hunting to you."

"Likewise to thee, Panthera," Luna said before Panthera closed the window.

"Celestia's pretty cool, but Luna's totally gnarly!" Gilda cackled. "And she's got the coolest guards, too! Hard to believe that Twilight Sparkle is an alicorn, now. She's still so lame-o," the griffon said, shaking her head sadly. "So, what'dja wantta gab about?"

"Just an observation that's gotten me a little curious as well as a little concerned," Panthera said, sitting down to stare at the griffon with her head slightly cocked.

At that moment, they were interrupted by a loud, high pitched, drawn out screech accompanied with a series of at least five or six hissing, low pitched, throaty roars.

"What the purratz was that?" Gilda exclaimed, jumping up ready for battle.

"Just Trevar and Mittens finishing their discussion," Panthera calmly supplied, turning her head about to glance out the window. Yep. That woke them up, Panthera thought to herself, grinning. Probably did the same to the guards in the hallway. I wonder if it reached the purple one…no, Pardus is still with her. Bemused, Panthera looked back at the griffon before her. Gilda's eyes had nearly gone to dots. Interesting how they shared that feature with the equine species.

"I—didn't think—he had—a cactus dick," Gilda stammered in shock.

"He doesn't," Panthera informed her, twitching her tail.

"Really?" Gilda asked staring at the shadowcat. "Wow! He sounded just like a griffon male! And Mittens sounded just like she was getting flown by one!"

"As you keep pointing out, he is the Cat-Lord," she replied.

"yeah-h-h," Gilda softly murmured.

"Anyhow, it was rather obvious during the party that you and Rainbow Dash seem to have some sort of history," Panthera began. "I mention this because in the short time that we've known her, Pardus and I—well—we're rather interested in her. But if you and she still have something going on, I don't wish us to have any conflicts."

Gilda had obviously tensed up as Panthera spoke, and remained so for several moments after. But then Gilda blinked and slumped in her stance, releasing a heavy sigh.

"No—there was—but not anymore," Gilda quietly said, looking defeated. "I had hoped that we could have something. But if she's able to do those sonic rainbooms like she's claimed, then she's obviously left me in the dust." Gilda just sat there, staring way beyond a spot on the floor, not moving, and if it weren't for Panthera having heightened senses, she could easily missed Gilda actually breathing, it was so shallow.

Panthera got up to walk over to the griffon and draped a wing over her.

"I suppose—I had hoped—I had hoped that she and I could have a bond—to have a relationship," Gilda continued. "If the promise of a griffon couldn't keep her with me, even if I could match her move for move…But she obviously went wild and hooked up with five other mares. Talk about overkill in making a herd!" She sighed. "I guess I just couldn't compete with that. And to top it off, now she's broken the sound barrier, and not just once it seems. No wonder she's left me behind," she finished, turning her face away.

"But hey!" Gilda sat up, back to her proud stance. "If you and your brother want to have a go at her, be my guest. Just—just—don't expect any sort of commitment from her."

"We're not asking for any," Panthera told her.

"Heh! Cool!" Gilda snapped, whipping her head about to go beak to muzzle. "To be honest, my dad forced me to attend the Cat-Lord. He picked all females, hoping to score a few strings to attach to him. Sounds like Mittens got a claw snagged in him tonight! Me, I'm rather uninterested in him. Or for your brother. But you, on the other claw, I'd like have a shot at!"

"I'd like that, myself," Panthera purred. "But, again, no commitments. Neither I nor Pardus are going to be staying around long."

"Hmm, disappointing," Gilda said, considering her options. "But done! I'll take what I can get!"

Once more, a combination of a loud screech and a series of throaty roars came from the other room, and Gilda's eyes went to pinpoints again.

"Holey squit!" Gilda whimpered, staring at the wall separating the suites.

'Enjoying yourself?' Panthera sent to him as she began nibbling at the leading edge of Gilda's wing which immediately got the griffon's attention.

'Sure am,' came Trevar's reply. 'Whatcha doin'?'

'Getting set to seduce a catbird,' Panthera responded, digging into the elbow of Gilda's wing.

'Wait—aren't you one now?' Trevar sent with snark.

'Yep. Kinda,' she said, letting Gilda reciprocate on her own wing. It really felt nice having such appendages. She seriously considered the idea of keeping them after they left this world.' Still makes it a worthwhile goal.'

'Well, just be mindful of that beak,' Trevar sent with a laugh.

'I'm counting on it!' Panthera responded with a purr.

"Okay, your turn," Pardus told Twilight Sparkle. Spike had long since given up on trying to get her to go to bed and had left on his own.

"Wait! I'm not ready!" the alicorn exclaimed, backing away.

"Why not? I let you do it to me," Pardus complained. It had been when Twilight began using her horn on the shadowcat that he quickly got out of there. He wasn't having any of that!

"But I need Spike!" Twilight yelled.

"He bailed," Pardus told her, inching closer to her. "Said something about us needing to get a room."

"But how can I do this without Spike?" she wailed.

"I can do it for you," Pardus softly told her.

"Y-you-you can?" she stammered in shock. "Y-y-you mean—at the same time you're—doing—that—to me?"

"Surre! No prroblem. It's verry easy to do and I know what you want," he purred.

"Okay, if you say so," Twilight said, uncertainly.

"Just hold out your paw," Pardus told her.

"Hoof," Twilight corrected.

"Sorry. Hoof," he repeated and she did so. Pardus gripped it in his tractor beam and when he signaled, she tried to pull away. He was able to measure about five pounds per square inch of resistance when she suddenly slipped free.

"Hmm. That's about the same as it took for me," Pardus said, lifting up the scroll to use his eyebeams to burn the notes into the parchment.

"AHHH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO USE QUILL AND INK!" Twilight screamed.

"This is neater," Pardus replied, showing her the writing on the scroll. There, in clean, sharp, easy-to-read Times New Roman, were the conjectures, descriptions, parameters, and results of their testing each of their "magic" and of their apparent ability to resist the other's hold on them.

"Oh," Twilight gently cooed, licking her lips. "That is good!"

This went on for another half hour before they finally called it quits for the night. Twilight said that she had an important experiment to perform as soon as it was daylight.

Trevar slowly woke in his bed, still held by Mitten's paws. He gave her a kiss on her beak, waking her up. Snapping her eyes open, it took her a moment to remember where she was, and then she smiled as Trevar stroked her paw stretched out across his chest.

"I'm afraid we've got a busy day ahead of us, so we'd better get cleaned up," he told her. A quick check with his monitors and he knew it was already midmorning.