Rainbow Dash and a magically projected copy of Panthera were on a cloud, watching the mayhem down below in Ponyville.

"Wow! Twilight sure is trashing your butts!" the pegasus pony cackled.

"Nyah. That was all part of the show," the image of Panthera whispered. "We weren't putting in much power to sustain those illusions. Except for those last four, plus the real versions of Pardus and me…"

Rainbow Dash watched as the alicorn's blasts struck the indicated shadowcats directly. However, they weren't disrupted. Instead, they turned to face her and then visible shields sprung up to block any more of her blasts. The illusion sitting next to her indicated the real shadowcats who stood over Pinkie Pie.

"Let. Her. Go!" the purple alicorn's growling voice carried all the way up to the cloud where they sat, and the azure pony braced herself as she watch Twilight's horn start really charging up.

"Are you done shooting up the entire village, yet?" Pardus politely inquired.

"So, Pinkie. What other games can we do that—maybe—won't involve highly inappropriate and very disruptive military ordinance?" Panthera asked Pinkie Pie as the female winged panther finally released her prize.

"Wait! This was a game?" Twilight asked, perplexed.

"'Predators 'N Prey'. Ever hear of it?" Pardus asked, manifesting a holographic gamers' manual before the alicorn.

"That was rather fun!" one of the four additional shadowcats said. "At least up until that last little bit. Talk with you later, Panthera and Pardus!" it said, with a wave before it and the other three launched up into the air before their forms rippled into invisibility.

"Who were those guys?" Twilight asked, looking up after them.

"Nobody," Pardus replied with a toothy grin.

Blinking, Twilight Sparkle was left looking like she had egg on her face. And Rainbow Dash was cackling like mad as she rolled on her back.

"That was—so—awesome!" the Equestrian pegasus exclaimed after the purple alicorn departed.

"Yes, it was," Panthera's image happily agreed. "And thanks to this event, we really do now understand the basis of your magic."

School let out as usual, and the three troublesome fillies were soon on the road out of town, headed for their clubhouse nestled away in the middle of Sweet Apple Acres, discussing what their next goal at trying to get their cutie marks.

"Too bad we didn't get anything for helping that Pardus fellow," Scootaloo complained.

"Yeah! Especially since his eyes lit up so bright after we taught him how to read!" Sweetie Belle agreed.

"Well, whata we try next, ya'll?" Applebloom piped up.

"Hey! Itn't these the houses where they got them humans holed up in?" Sweetie Belle asked as they were passing the last two structures before the edge of town.

"Shore is!" Applebloom replied. "Hey! How 'bout we all check out 'em aliens?"

The three fillies suddenly stopped to look at each other as they all were clearly getting the same idea at once.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: ALIEN LIFEFORM INVESTIGATORS! YAY!"

There was no pony about to challenge them as they walked up to one of the houses and entered….

Silver Thorn and his counterpart, Rackorn, along with their respective teams, were bored with the escort duty assigned to them. After the two teams joined up, they all slowly wandered about town the rest of the morning and a good chunk of the afternoon. The two humans had gathered some edibles and finally started on their way back to their respective homes. The only thing of note was the replacement of Pardus with the odd looking griffon, Mittens that had occurred early in their travels.

Oh, and some azure colored pegasus with a colorful mane, who had been inexpertly stalking their group, suddenly screaming before ducking back behind a rooftop to yell at somepony, along with what sounded like a short burst from a canned air-horn. But those incidents were from before their two teams joined up. And the noise of some commotion a few blocks away.

The human mare still seemed nervous, albeit less so than she had been this morning. The human stallion, on the other hoof, was perfectly relaxed, if not excited with polite curiosity at all the routine goings on about town. When they occasionally spoke with one another there was a definite hostility between them, although most of that came from the mare; no doubt caused by the human stallion's positive responses to Mittens' flirtations toward him. And the clear indication from their conversation and the pass-down reports from Shadow Wing and Night Hoof, the human stallion and Mittens had already enjoyed each other's company at least once last night.

Once it became clear what their dynamics were, Silver Thorn did his best to tune them out, despite knowing that this was not the proper attitude of a Guard, since there might be some tidbit that would be of vital interest to the State that might get dropped during such conversations, like as military capabilities or deployments. However, he could never understand the fascination someponies had to mate outside their species.

Not that he considered himself a speciest; one of his best friends was a hippogriff, after all. Sure, Silver Quill, the famous political analyst and commentator, was a great drinking buddy, and his dad was nice enough for a griffon. But for somepony to mate with something which was just as likely to slice a pony to ribbons for dinner as to look at them, much less mate with? Like a griffon? Or a dragon?? Relationships with so-called "normal mares" were risky enough, since his own special somepony had a kick like a mule. Disagreements were common in any relationship, and his was no different. He couldn't imagine anypony being crazy enough to be willing to toss a set of talons or some flame breath into the mix. And the human mare clearly had thoughts along the same line, hence their apparent simmering conflict.

Fortunately, that came to an end, or at least a pause, when the two teams brought their charges back to their quarters and the humans separated to their respective houses. Naturally, Mittens accompanied the human stallion inside, and the rest of the guards cheerfully began taking bets on how long it'd be before they'd all be hearing screams coming from in there….

Silver Thorn sighed….

After her little bit of fun with the shadowcats, Pinkie Pie was back to the bakery, happily following a new recipe: "Let's see. Take one Panthera draco, toss in an Ailuroedus…I really hope Fluttershy never notices one of them missing," she muttered to herself. "Blend in foals of a Ki-lin, an off-spring of Poseidon and Gordon Medusa, and one of a Mongolian Wild horse until the screaming starts…."

"Y'all hear that?" Applebloom loudly whispered when the three all fillies froze at the sounds of someponies entering the house upstairs. They had explored all the upstairs rooms as well as the ground floor and were currently in the basement when they heard voices and steps coming from above them.

"Whata we do?" Sweetie Belle exclaimed in a hushed voice that likely carried all the way to the attic.

"Will ya keep it down?" Scootaloo whispered in a yell that rivaled Sweetie Belle for volume.

"I am not being loud!" Sweetie Belle loudly screamed. "And there ain't no way my voice can carry to the attic! There ain't no attic fer it to carry to!"

"Ya are, too, being too loud!" Scootaloo screamed, fanning her wings. "And I didn't say anythin' about an attic, but now that ya mentioned it, yer voice does carry!"

"Both of ya shutup before ya get us all caught!" Applebloom screamed at them.

"Ssshhh!" the other two loudly hissed at her.

They all paused to stare at their flanks for any sign of cutie marks.

"Crap! Still no cutie mark fer arguing!" Scootaloo sighed.

"Well, tha' wuz anotha loada roadapples," Applebloom muttered.

"What wouldan arguing cutie mark look like, anyhow?" Sweetie Belle asked. "We never did figure that out."

"Probably something like '#@&*!'," Applebloom replied. The others just stared and blinked at her for several moments.

"At least, that's what Pinkie Pie told me when I once asked about it," Applebloom continued. "Ah'm not sure wha' she meant by somethin''bout usall bein''TV over Y'." They continued to stare at her in stunned amazement.

"Dai-ya-amn, girl!" Scootaloo suddenly exclaimed. "It's bronkin' impressive that ya were able to say that! Is that really how she pronounced it?"

"Yeah, ah practiced fer nearly an hour with her until ah could repeat it," Applebloom happily responded.

When no pony came down looking for them, the three carefully made their way up the stairs to the kitchen to listen for who was there. All the noises they could hear seemed to still be coming from upstairs. There was the sound of water flowing through pipes and a conversation going on between a male and female, but they couldn't make out what was being said, so they carefully made their way through the kitchen, dining room and living room to silently go up the stairs to the bedrooms.

At the top of the stairs, they could hear the sound of the shower being used. The male's voice was coming from the bathroom, while the female's voice was coming from a bedroom across the hallway.

"So, where are Pardus and Panthera staying in here?" the female voice called out.

"Wherever they want," the human stallion replied just as the sound of the shower ended. "We haven't set up any assigned rooms yet."

Applebloom motioned for the others to follow as she went toward the bathroom, and they quietly stalked their prey. She was sure the female voice was somepony, but she wanted to get a good look at the bipedal creature.

"We shouldn't have to worry about them dropping in while we're busy," the human stallion was saying as he stepped out of the bathroom. "Although, if you want, I can asked them to swing by so we can have a foursome." He had just finished using the towel to dry himself off and slung it to hang over his shoulder, giving the fillies a very good view. And he was stunned to see them standing there staring at him.

"Or—more?" he muttered, still in shock. Then he blinked. "Uh-h-h—NO!" he resolutely exclaimed shaking his head as he stared at the three.

All three fillies screamed and bolted back down the hallway and down the stairs.

"Bake until perfect," Pinkie was reciting, closely watching the oven.

"What the buck?" Mittens exclaimed at hearing the multi-voiced screaming. Instantly jumping from the bed to rush to Trevar's defense, she stopped in shock at seeing the departing rumps of three fillies flying down the stairs.

"This—isn't going end well, is it?" Trevar asked her, blinking at the scene.

"Mmm!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, as she sampled her new creation. "Munchingfourthwall-by-proxie! These things are goo-oo-ood! You oughtta try some!" she said with a wink.

The instant the screams were heard, one of the pegasi exclaimed how he was the winner of the pool. Instantly, a new set of bets began over which it was that was doing the screaming, with odds going 10-to-1 that it was Trevar, which all the guards, save Silver Thorn, jumped into placing their bits. They didn't have long to find out everyone had lost that new bet when three fillies suddenly burst out the door and bolted down the road out of town.

"What the buck just happened?" Silver Thorn exclaimed, blinking after them.

Quickly recovering his wits, Silver Thorn yelled at the pegasi, "Lynard! Skynard! Follow them and let me know where they get off to!" before rushing inside. There, he saw the human and griffon at the top of the stairs and ran up to meet them.

"What the buck just happened?" Silver Thorn demanded. "Who were those fillies? And what were you doing with them?"

"Those are our questions. Although, to answer your last one, I didn't do anything with them. They just appeared out of nowhere!" Trevar said.

"Another good question is 'how the buck did they get in here?'," Mittens demanded.

"Well, we'd better track them down and try to put out any stupid rumors this is going to create," Trevar spat. "I'll get dressed as fast as I can, but can any of your guys figure out where they went?"

"Already on it!" Silver Thorn snapped back.

Applejack was bringing a large load of baskets full harvested apple back to the barn for processing when her ears picked up sounds of commotion coming from inside. Peeking in, and after her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she could make out Applebloom and her two filly friends vigorously scrubbing each other in a makeshift washtub. Blinking in confusion, she approached them.

"Whut in tarnation ya'll don'?" she asked.

"Applejack! Stay back! It might be contagious!" Applebloom screamed, furiously working on Scootaloo's wing in a way that, if Applejack recalled from discussions with Rainbow, would be very painful.

"Scrub harder, Applebloom!" Scootaloo yelled as she tried rubbing the hide off of Sweetie Belle with the stiff-bristle scrub brush, who was doing the same to Applebloom.

Before she could process that, however, Applejack's ears picked up sounds of someponies approaching from the road, and she stepped out to confront them. There, she saw it was Allec Trevar, the human stallion, an odd-looking griffon, and three of Celestia's Royal Guards.

"This the place, Lynard?" the unicorn corporal asked one of the two pegasi.

"Yes, sir!" the pegasus replied. "Skynard and I followed them to the barn and I kept an eye on it while he reported back to you."

"Wut's goin' on here?" Applejack challenged, not liking the direction this encounter seemed to be headed.

"That's what we'd like to know, ma'am," the corporal stated. "There were three fillies who broke into the Ambassador's residence and they've been tracked to here."

"Come again?" Applejack asked, liking the direction less and less by the second.

"No need to make this into a diplomatic incident, Silver Thorn," Trevar spoke up. "I'm not mad at them. I'm just concerned that they—well—weren't traumatized by what they saw."

Applejack blinked at that.

"Wait! Whaju do ta them!?" she angrily yelled at the human.

"I didn't do anything to them!" Trevar protested. "But—well—Mittens and I—we—we were about getting ready to—well—have some quiet time together."

"'Quiet', my—" Skynard muttered, but Trevar's hand loudly smacking him on the back of his helmet was so fast and the human's face didn't change as he continued speaking, Applejack was almost uncertain it happened at all, if it weren't for the angered look the pegasus got from the unicorn corporal.

"And, with them being just kids seeing us getting ready—well, you can understand how inappropriate the situation would be."

"Hnf!" Applejack snorted. "Yeah, I can. Well, it's not like nopony's ever seen that sorta thing, but they shur shouldn't've broke inta yer home 'n all. I wuz just 'bout have a talk wi' them."

Trevar was staring off into the distance for a moment. "Ah, I forgot, you guys wouldn't have those nudity issues," he said, snapping back to the present.

As they entered the barn, the fillies all looked up and screamed at seeing Trevar.

"Applejack! Look out! Run! GET AWAY FROM HIM HE'S GOT THE MANGE!!!!" they all yelled before bolting for different corners of the barn.

"Say—wut?" Applejack stammered. She looked at the human and he looked to be stunned. And turning as bright red as her brother.

"Da'fuq?" Trevar muttered.

"Actually, I wasn't going to saying anything," Mittens whispered to him. "But, now that they brought it up…." This only served to make his hide take on a deeper shade of red before his head sagged with a deep sigh.

"I DON'T have MANGE!" he growled. "We humans just don't have that much fur!"

"You three git back here 'n 'splain yerselves, raight now!" Applejack yelled.

Slowly, the three emerged from hiding and trudged back to stand before the washtub, looking like they had already received the punishment they were all anticipating. But they were also trembling, as if they were all still terrified.

"Ya'll care ta tell us wut thizis all 'bout?" Applejack demanded.

"Well, after we failed to get our cutiemarks for teaching that winged panther to read," Scootaloo began.

"We wuz tryin' ta git our cutie marks fer Alien Life Form Investigators," Applebloom piped in.

"But then we saw Mister Allec Trevar come out of the shower," Sweetie Belle continued.

"SO WE ALL RAN BECAUSE HE'S GOT THE MANGE!!" they all screamed in unison.

"Uh—come agin?" Applejack asked.

"Seriously? Kids, I don't have the mange!" Trevar growled.

"Well, Ah'm not able to tell wut's goin' on," she said. "Can ya please show me wut they're talkin' 'bout?" Trevar rolled his eyes, and Applejack had to suppress a giggle. For as an alien non-pony like him to have such authentic pony reactions…. Trevar untied his toga and let the sheet drop.

"Satisfied?" he asked, deadpan.

"Uh—yer not plannin' on makin' a go wi' yer griffon friend raight now, are yah?"

"That's another feature about being human," the human growled as he arched an eyebrow at her. "It doesn't retract any further than this."

"Well, Ah can see why they thought ya had the mange," Applejack said, sighing.

"I ain't got the mange!" Trevar growled louder.

"You sure about that?" the griffon asked.

Trevar's already red face turned an even deeper shade of red as he hung his head once again in shame. Picking up the sheet, he quickly tied it into a toga about himself as he turned away and started walking back to the road back to town. Applejack just watched as Trevar's escort filed out behind him. Then she chuckled to herself.

"Heh! 'Mange'!" she laughed. But then she sighed, remembering her sister and her friends needed to be disciplined.

As the pony guards retook their positions, Trevar and Mitten reentered the residence. Next door, a mare with pale, light gold eyes, a raspberry coat, light amber with pale amber highlights in her mane, and three white lilies as a cutie mark watched from the upstairs bedroom window.

Meanwhile, a mare with pale, light gold eyes, a raspberry coat, light amber with pale amber highlights in her mane, and three white lilies as a cutie mark was unconscious inside a sack being carried a mare with pale, light gold eyes, a raspberry coat, light amber with pale amber highlights in her mane, and three white lilies as a cutie mark into the Everfree….