Author's Notes:

While I'm not wanting to subject anyone to possible spoilers, here's some suggested mood music to have lined up and ready for the meeting between Gilda and her father at the end of the chapter : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rss-xVvOBwo

Oh, yeah, before I forget: there's sex in this chapter--same colored text warnings as before

And...also, I know that some folks object to gratuitous 4th Wall breakage, so some warning text color for that, too.--however, skip that at your own risk, there's a very important Chekhov's Gun lying in there you won't see coming if you do.

"Thank you. You may go now," Tail Feather said, dismissing the last of the series of twenty couriers who had just delivered his portion of the daily correspondence at the crack of dawn from the Griffon Embassy in Canterlot. Or, rather his portions. The disturbing thing was, that last griffon wasn't the only one to deliver two scrolls. The fifth, ninth, and twelfth couriers had done so as well.

Tail Feather dropped the two unopened scrolls into the pouch among the others and waited for the final courier to close the door behind him.

Twenty-four scrolls? What the squit? the griffon emperor wondered.

Once alone, Tail Feather walked to the door and secured the bolts so that no griffon or any other creature could enter while he was busy deciphering the message.

He then took the bag full of scrolls through a side door of the throne room into a large study where he had thirty-four simultaneous chess games going. Four tables along the wall holding the door from which he entered were social play-by-mail games between him and the Equestrian Princesses Celestia and Luna, the Dragon Emperor Scar Flame, and the Minotaur Premier Anvil Horn. The other thirty, ten lined up along each of the other three walls, were for his messages between him and his respective embassies to those leaders. The purpose of those thirty games were to decode his messages.

Setting the bag of scrolls before the ten tables holding the Equestrian decoding system, he opened the first scroll he pulled out and read the first line: "Table 3—Queen takes Peasant at C5". However, that was an illegal move based on what was currently on the board, so Tail Feather tossed the scroll behind him to be the first of the discard pile. The next scroll, however, was a legal move for "Table 6—Castle takes Pegasus". Tail Feather chuckled at the utterly stupid move. Gustav was throwing that game away with the move subjecting his king, queen and just-moved castle to a three-way fork by Tail Feather's remaining pegasus—but it wasn't important. What was important was the fact it was a legal move. After Tail Feather set the game to that instruction, the scroll was tossed to the side and began what would become the decipher pile.

The seventh scroll, surprisingly, was a diagram. Although the move written for Table 2 was crossed out, it would have been a legal one, so Tail Feather had no choice but to put it into the decipher pile while not changing anything on the board. Over the course of the choices, there were three other diagrams, but only one other of those three had a legal move, also crossed out, so it was kept. The others, however, went into the growing discard pile.

The final tally was that nine of the scrolls were legitimate, including the two that were diagrams, were left to be decoded. However, given that several of them were utterly blunder moves, it made Tail Feather very concerned. It was assumed that making a few of the scrolls carry some seriously stupid moves might cause the ponies to discard those scrolls, thus hoping that it could delay Equestria's interception and deciphering of the messages. The idea seemed to have merit with respect to the dragons and minotaurs. However, based on reliable intel about the ponies, they never seemed to be fooled at all.

On each of the scrolls, which had a random-looking series of letters only immediately after the chess move, it gave the order in which the scrolls should be arranged. Tail Feather then sorted the scrolls based on that order, and once they were aligned, he took one of the discarded scrolls and on the blank back side, he used a quill to begin transcribing the message, one letter at a time from each of the scrolls in sequence (no reason to use a perfectly clean scroll for such when it all was going to be burned at the end of the his work, after all).

Once that was done, he took the resulting printout, and selected every third letter to copy in the available open space left on the back of another discarded scroll to get the actual message Gustav intended him to have.

Tail Feather sighed at the wasted effort. In theory, this should be a nearly unbreakable code. However, based on independent intelligence, he knew the princesses were still somehow reading almost every one of his correspondences—and squit! He suspected they were doing so almost as fast as he was!

It was only when he and Gustav would alter their procedures that it ever seemed to work against the princesses, and only for a short while. Of course, he knew they never threw anything away and they eventually would catch back up on the actual past messages whenever there had been a successful deception delivered.

It was an awful lot of work to go through to find out just how many doughnuts Celestia would consume before she'd touch an éclair made by that griffon civilian living in Canterlot, who incidentally was also named Gustav. But, hay! What else was there to do with a secret means to deliver messages? Plan for a war?

There were no wars….

Certainly, not after that last one!

But then, he knew the ponies' embassy in Griffonstone were sending similar messages about his diet.

Yeah. Incredibly high level state secrets we all try to keep from each other, he thought, rolling his eyes. Although it did make Tail Feather grin, wondering just how much the princesses were nauseated when they read about the amount of bacon he enjoyed for his breakfasts….

"Ah-h-h-h! Bacon!" Tail Feather said aloud, drooling at the ecstatic memories before shaking himself back to reality.

Then he read the message he had just deciphered and choked in rage.

"What the flying squit!?" he angrily exclaimed. "Gustav!! What is with these 'shadowcats' ordering us to build this machine before allowing us to discuss this 'Cat-Lord' you claim to have? Where the shell is your justification you were supposed to be sending for ordering those hens to take passionfruit and mate with these bloody creatures!? And what the bloody squit is an 'Enigma'!?"

Coincidentally, at the exact same moment in which Emperor Tail Feather was screaming obscenities at his absent ambassador, Princess Luna had just returned to her quarters after her meal. But instead of immediately retiring to bed for the day, she idly once more looked over the documents she had finished toying with prior to going to eat and where she had discussed her findings with her sister.

"Just … what is this … 'Enigma'?" she once more wondered aloud, looking curiously at the deciphered message. Puzzled, she held the copy of the scrolls containing the diagrams in her magic, trying to figure out what she was seeing. They seemed to be instructions on how to build some sort of mechanical device, much like a typewriter. However, this did not seem to improve on the models known to have been perfected from long even before the Age of Discord. Instead, it seemed to do little more than advance each of a set of four wheels arrayed on a spindle by the same set amount no matter which key was pressed….

"I stand relieved," Shadow Wing said, snapping off a salute.

"You stand relieved," Silver Thorn replied, and the Lunar teams left without another word.

It must have been a very boring night, Sergeant Silver Thorn thought, watching the night teams leave. There hadn't been the usual banter as Shadow Wing gave the pass down report when they switched off. But then, that was a guard's favorite kind of watch: Dull and Boring. Unfortunately, those two always invited their sister, Long. She never made such watches much fun.

The alternatives, of course, were not the kind that guards enjoyed. When Exciting and Interesting took the time to visit, it means that something went very, very wrong. And it were the guards on watch that would always, always get the blame.

Silver Thorn sighed. But he did so slowly and quietly, so much so that if one wasn't a guard, and in most cases even where one was, nopony would pick up on it. To be seen or heard sighing was considered unprofe—

"Corporal?" Drayla suddenly called out from around the side of Lieutenant Scott's home.

Rackorn looked to Silver Thorn and the sergeant nodded, letting the corporal know he'd keep an eye on the corporal's station so that Rackorn could consult with Drayla.

"Sergeant?" the inquiry came a short while later. This time, it was Rackorn calling. Drayla came around and took Rackorn's station, as their standard procedures called for before Silver Thorn stepped away.

Silver Thorn was puzzled as to what the problem was as he walked around the side of the house. Rackorn was looking at the ground near Private Drayla's station by the cellar door.

"What do you make of this, Serge?" Rackorn asked, gesturing to the scuffed up ground. It looked to Silver Thorn's eyes as though it was signs of a struggle involving three or maybe four individuals, and he spoke out his guess to the corporal.

"That was my guess, too," Rackhorn muttered.

"Serge?" Private Lynard called out this time. They looked over across the street to where they could see the pegasus' station by the hatch leading to Trevar's cellar.

"Drayla! Take the corner of the house!" Silver Thorn called out as he and Rackorn ran over to Lynard's post. They passed Drayla as the pegasus took the position so that he could keep an eye on all three stations while the two ranking unicorns went to meet with Lynard.

Here, there was another set of scuffed marks in the ground.

"Looks to be four, maybe five, involved here," Rackorn spoke up out of turn.

"Agreed," Silver Thorn said, nodding, not bothering to admonish his corporal. "What the hay's going on? Shadow Wing's pass down was that nothing of significance happened."

"Could they have conducted drills to relieve the boredom?" Lynard asked.

"Training grounds are for training," Rackorn sharply replied. "Posts are for guarding."

"Hmm. I've known sergeants and lieutenants to conduct drills at their posts," Silver Thorn said. "But that's not Shadow Wing's style. He's always conducted his teams professionally."

Silver Thorn thought again about it.

"And even if he did drill, it wouldn't necessarily rate a note in the pass down report if no one saw it," he said uncertainly. "Night duties are notoriously quiet enough that drills can be done without anypony being the wiser."

"Still, I'll check with him this evening," Silver Thorn decided. "Let's get back to our posts," he said, leading the way back to the street.

And they got back to their posts just in time to see one of the female griffons arrive.

"Hey, serge!" she announced as she landed in front of him. "Name's Gilda. I'm here to relieve Screaming Eagle."

"I think you'll find that all you griffons have been taking your posts inside the house," Silver Thorn told her. "They've all been going in through that bedroom window up there," he said, pointing.

"Works for me," Gilda barked as she launched herself up.

Across the street, Corporal Rackorn's eyes got huge even as his irises and pupils shrunk.

Three!? he silently mouthed.

Silver Thorn could only tilt his head and shrug his shoulders, almost imperceptive to anypony that wasn't in the Guard. The reply was clear, Not our place to question it.

"Whoa! Hay! TMI, guys!" Gilda yelled, holding up a claw to shield her eyes. Before her, Panthera was in the middle, with Mittens on one side, Screaming Eagle on the other, and the Cat-Lord was covering the rear half of the shadowcat's back and rump. And seeing his mangy-looking hide once more, she instantly understood why the Cat-Lord always wore those bed sheets for clothing.

"Oh, don't worry," Panthera said, purring. "We're not doing anything."

"Really? 'Cause it sure looks like something from here!" Gilda protested.

"That's because we've been done for about half-an-hour," Panthera happily sighed.

"… Not improving the picture," Gilda grumbled as she walked in off the window frame.

"We all know you're not interested in Trevar," Panthera said, sliding out from beneath the Cat-Lord. "Although, I'm interested in all you girls. Especially you, Gilda."

For his part, he didn't try to stand up, for which Gilda was eternally grateful. Not that she hadn't seen his—stuff—before. Still, she was grateful. Instead, he scooted over to lean against Screaming Eagle's flank and reached out with his arms to grab Mittens' rump and began pulling on her. Mittens responded by shifting over to fill the gap left by the shadowcat.

"Just so you know, you two need to get back to the castle," Gilda snarled at Screaming Eagle and Mittens as she passed them. "Lord Pardus has us doing some shopping for Lord Trevar, and we're all short taloned. Somegriffon needs to keep tabs on the room to make sure the ponies don't go sniffing at the contents while the rest of us are out hunting."

"They'll get on it shortly," Trevar murmured to her as he nuzzled his face between them.

"Please understand, Gilda, I love Trevar and Pardus," Panthera continued as she draped a wing over Gilda and began guiding her out of the bedroom. "So you're just going to have to get used to the idea of sharing me with them. However, as Pardus promised, I'm all yours today," she finished, directing her up the hallway toward one of the other bedrooms. But then she suddenly stopped.

"Oh! I'm sorry! Have you had breakfast yet?" Panthera inquired.

"A couple apples and a carrot at the castle before flying over here," Gilda replied.

"Well, shit, that's not enough!" Panthera protested, reversing their direction and giving the griffon a firm pull toward the stairs. "We've got bacon, eggs, and oatmeal and/or pancakes, whichever you prefer."

"Ah—I don't want to impose on you," she said as she was guided down the stairs. Except her stomach betrayed her at that moment with a loud growl.

"It's no imposition, whether I cook for just you or for them, too," Panthera said, tossing a nod behind her. "Besides, it's time those three lazy shits woke up, too."

Gilda could help but giggle. She would never have referred to the Cat-Lord, one of the creators of her species, in such a manner. To do so was a worse case of sacrilege than if one of the ponies had spoken of Celestia in a similar way.

And it suddenly puzzled her. She'd heard of shadowcats all her life. They were legend among the griffons. Some myths said they were created alongside griffons by the Cat-Lord and Sky-Lord's mating, others saying the shadowcats were the original offspring, and that griffons were descended from them, but near enough for the first griffons to have met both the Cat-Lord and Sky-Lord to know of their origins.

As a race, shadowcats were known to still be wandering about, going about their business, but were almost never seen.

But these two individuals seemed to have a close griffonal relationship with the Cat-Lord. They claimed they could speak for him, and he had confirmed that claim directly to entire team a few days ago. The only thing in Gilda's experience like it was akin to how Luna and Celestia were able to speak for each other.

While Luna was still rather formal with most of her acquaintances, Celestia was much less so. Beings whom the Day Diarch considered close friends were encouraged to relate to the alicorn as though they were equals. Being one of Ambassador Gustav's chicks, Gilda was counted as one such individual.

Her own experience, coupled with the reports from Mittens and Screaming Eagle, agreed that the Cat-Lord, as well as the shadowcats, all seemed to want to be treated in a similar, very informal manner.

She just couldn't help but feel honored and privileged by their acceptance, especially as how her father considered Gilda's tastes for who she invited to her bed to be a dishonorable act.

Maybe—if I ask one of them to mention something to Father…? she wondered but left the thought unfinished.

"Well, I am very grateful, Lady Panthera," Gilda said instead, honestly expressing her gratitude.

"Think nothing of it," Panthera replied. "And, by the way. Please, I've already told you the other night back at the castle, just call me Panthera. Also, it's not 'Lord Pardus' or 'Lord Trevar', either. We have no desire to claim titles which were never conferred upon us. It's just Pardus and Trevar. Although Trevar's also been known to go by the name of 'Allec'. As we understand it, his full name is Allec Reny Trevar, but he prefers to be addressed by either his first, or last, or both first and last. For some reason, he doesn't care much for his middle name."

"Why does he have so many?" Gilda asked.

"Well, Allec is a derivative of Alexander, who was an emperor in the Near—a—uh—a portion of Trevar's home world, called the Near East. Alexander was a Macedonian who had conquered several large neighboring nations that had rivaled his homeland," Panthera explained. "Reny is a Hebrew word, one of the many languages from his world. It means 'compact strength'. And Trevar is the name of his family."

"A family name? You mean, he's actually named for his blood-line? Is that sort of thing normal? I mean, in his world?" Gilda asked, astonished.

"Apparently," Panthera acknowledge.

"How strange!" the griffon exclaimed. "How can anyone's non-family keep track of who they are if all the members of a blood-line have the same name?"

Celestia smiled as she sipped at a cup of tea as she looked over the results of the spell she was currently using. Today's tea blend was a mixture of jasmine, chamomile, orange, and a few other ingredients.

Of the spell, she quietly chuckled as she watched a miniaturized version of her protégé sip at her own cup of tea within her castle's throne room and use a remarkably similar spell of her own design to keep watch over a certain cerulean pegasus mare who happened to have a prismatic mane and tail. It appeared that the loss of the Golden Oaks library tree a few months ago and the creation of a new library in the Crystal Palace had not diminished the amount of requisition expenditures for replacement windows whenever a certain pegasus spontaneously decided to make an unscheduled visit to the library.

Of course, Twilight Sparkle had long ago figured out that Rainbow Dash was, on occasion, deliberately smashing through the windows and disrupting the current (for that day) organizational order of the books on their shelves, all the while claiming they were just accidents. What the purple alicorn had yet to decide was what to do about it.

But Twilight, Celestia had no doubt, was taking her time to consider the options on how best to respond. It appeared to her that Twilight Sparkle's purpose in the meantime was most likely to keep track of the incidents in order to discern some sort of pattern from which she would one day develop a strategy to deal with the issue.

Still, Celestia smiled serenely as she refilled her cup of tea. By even using such a spell, her little princess was well on her way to growing up. It warmed the Sun Princess' heart immensely.

But then, something caught her eye in another part of the illusionary model of Ponyville. As she changed her focus, Celestia could tell right away what the proper response would call for. As she watched, she activated another spell to summon a parchment, quill and bottle of ink to her.

After dispatching Nurse Redheart to fetch the human mare for her next treatment session, Doctor Scalpel began drafting a very important letter.

Dear Princess Celestia,

During the routine treatment for diabetes as requested by the Crown, by way of Princess Twilight Sparkle, it has come to my attention that the human mare, known as Lieutenant Melisa Scott, is also suffering from what she described as a fatal dose of irradiation that has caused a excitation in her core's tertiocerous components. The nature of this excitation is such that in approximately two months' time, her biological processes will cease when her tertiocerous components begin to reset to their non-excited states.

Unfortunately, I am unaware of what sort of treatment or procedures that may exist which may cure her of this illness and thus preserve her life.

However, according to Melisa Scott, you had stated there once was a cure for such a malady.

I humbly implore you to find it in your heart to grant her mercy and provide this hospital the knowledge of any such cure so that we may assist in saving her from a certain death that can otherwise be prevented.

Your humble servant,

Doctor Scalpel

While Scalpel waited for the ink to dry on the sixth and final draft of his letter, the knock at the door alerted him to Lieutenant Melisa Scott's scheduled arrival. Thereafter, he and Nurse Redheart spent the rest of the morning performing their magical treatment to her organs.

Once the morning session was completed, Redheart escorted the human mare to the cafeteria to replenish, while Scalpel turned his attention back to the letter. He performed the routine of using his magic to roll up the scroll, melt a sample of the wax and affix it with his mark to seal it, and put it into his saddlebag.

By the time his patient finished her lunch, he would have delivered it to Princess Twilight Sparkle and make the request for her dragon friend to send it to Princess Celestia. Then he'd be back to the hospital in time to meet with Melisa Scott for her afternoon session while Celestia would consider his request. With any luck, she might even send a response by the time they were done this evening. He started out the door.

"*URP!*" the dragon upchucked a lick of flame that magically resolved itself into a scroll, whereupon the dragon caught it before it could land on the floor.

"Hey! It's for you, Doctor Scalpel!" he cheerfully said.

"Really?" Scalpel exclaimed in surprise. He had only just sent my letter to her. It can't be a response already!

But when he used his magic to open and read it, it was indeed a response to his message!

My Dearest Doctor Scalpel,

I have just received your letter and humbly beg your forgiveness.

Luna and I have lived through several millennia, prior to the Age of Discord, and even before that, prior to the move to Equestria commonly referred to by the events in the plays about Heartswarming Eve. And while we are long lived and have made our own humble efforts to learn as much as equinely possible, my sister and I are neither all powerful nor all knowing.

All I can tell you with certainty is that the knowledge to such miraculous medical wonders for which you have asked did indeed exist back then, long before disasters such as those mentioned above and others befell our civilization. However, so much knowledge was lost through the ages through actions beyond either of our control. Unfortunately, and as a result, neither I nor my sister were in a position to have possessed such medical skills or the knowledge by which they could be rediscovered.

Therefore, it is with heavy heart that I regret to inform you that this level of medicine was also a casualty of those turbulent events in our history. We know it to be a fact any search for it would be fruitless, as we had reason to perform numerous exhaustive searches for the very same information centuries ago.

While the human mare, Melisa Scott, did in fact commit an unprovoked act of war upon her arrival to Equestria, unwitting as she may have been, it is certainly NOT my desire that she suffer a punishment that amounts to her execution. However, the actions she undertook prior to coming to our world has resulted in her own doom, as well as that of the human stallion who accompanied her.

It was by my mercy that her fitting punishment be undertaken under the conditions of an escorted probationary status for the remainder of her final days.

Please do as much as you can for her. It is our hope that you and your colleagues can aid her to make her inevitable passing as painless and comfortable as possible.

Your humble servant,

Princess Celestia.

After reading the contents, he continued to stare at the letter in astonishment. As disappointing as the results were, he was suitably impressed by the swiftness of the return.

"However did she reply so quickly!?" Scalpel exclaimed.

"Well, she is a goddess," Spike said with a helpless shrug to the bewildered doctor.

Princess Twilight Sparkle could only give a sheepish grin and a shrug of her own.

In her quarters, Celestia continued to sip her cup of tea as she watched the scene unfold, sadly shaking her head.

It was not the image she wished to convey of herself to anypony by doing that!

After breakfast, Lord Pardus, or rather, just Pardus, as he preferred, left to assist in the shopping for the embassy. According to him, he was still being followed by Pinkie Pie, of whom Gilda knew of all too well. The Cat-Lord, Trevar, had also left to go shopping for food. With the other two griffons now gone, it was indeed just her and Panthera alone together.

As Gilda laid with Panthera in the middle of the living room atop the mattress the shadowcat had brought down from the spare bedroom, there was some sort of music the shadowcat was magically projecting.

"What is that?" Gilda asked.

"It's just some music that Trevar taught to me," Panthera said. "Do you like it? Or would you prefer something a little more stimulating?"

"Not bad," Gilda replied as she listened for a few moments. "A little on the romantic vein, but I like the complexity. Somegriffon put a lot of thought into this."

"Yes. Yes, they did," Panthera agreed. "There's quite a wide range of different styles of music on Trevar's world. He suggested I use something to put you in the mood for some fun," the shadowcat said, nuzzling her.

And, for some reason she couldn't lay a talon on, she suddenly felt rather shy about being there with the shadowcat.

"Wh-rr-at's wrrong?" Panthera asked with a strong purr as she gently gave her beak a forehead-butting, followed by an affectionate lick. "Is the music too much?"

"I-I-I … don't know," Gilda finally admitted. "We're … alone."

"Yes," Panthera agreed with a chuckle. "That's how two individuals usually arrange it when they wish to be intimate."

That observation suddenly perked Gilda up.

"Yes! We are alone!" she announced, finally realizing what was wrong.

Panthera tilted her head as she looked at the griffon.

"Oh? So, are you something of an exhibitionist, then?" the shadowcat ventured her inquiry.

"What's that?" Gilda asked, puzzled by the term.

"You like having your … uh … fun … where someone can see it?"

"NO! Of course not!" Gilda instantly protested. She's had enough trouble with her father finding out she was a hen-plucker as it was.

"But maybe where they—might—catch you?" Panthera challenged, stressing the difference. "You don't want to be seen, but the possibility of being caught excites you, doesn't it?"

Slowly, Gilda had to grin, admitting she had been found out.

"How did you know?" she sheepishly asked.

"I've been around long enough," Panthera chuckled. "I bet I've seen things that would probably make all your feathers curl at the mere thought of actually doing any of them." And Gilda had to cringe and shudder at the thought of what it might have to entail to accomplish that.

"So. What would you like to do that will get you into the mood?" Panthera inquired.

Gilda gave it few moments of thought before she finally came up with an appropriate idea.

"Find a cloud to lay upon and we make out over Ponyville's town hall," she said. Then, grinning, she suddenly had a wicked thought. "Or better yet, over the Princess' castle."

"*cough!* Subtle!" Panthera muttered sarcastically after choking in reaction.

"Oh! How about you be laying on the cloud—while I—" she said, trailing off as she disappeared from view. Gilda looked about, puzzled, but then she suddenly felt something stroke her beneath her tail, making her squeal.

"—while I work on you like this—for a few hours?" Gilda heard Panthera's voice ask as she was stroked again.

"Oh—my!" Gilda exclaimed, shuddering in her excitement.

"Yes—yes, that—that just—might do it!" Gilda nervously agreed as Panthera became visible again.

"Unfortunately, we can't leave the house empty while we go and do that," Panthera said apologetically, "for the same reason we can't let your quarters at Sparkle's castle go unguarded."

"Oh," Gilda responded, sighing in disappointment.

"Not to worry, though," the shadowcat told her with a smile, as she magically projected a set of those automatic wing-preeners Gilda had the pleasure of being introduced to a few days ago. "There are many other pleasurable things we can do for a time besides dangling your tail out in front of the populace."

But after only fifteen minutes of the magically projected wing preening, Gilda was drooling, and not just from her mouth.

"La-Lady Panthera!" she groaned. "Pl-please! I—I need—you!"

"Thought you might," the shadowcat crooned as the projection vanished. Only the shadowcat had also vanished.

Gilda looked about in panic. If she was leaving, letting the hen hang…? But then a familiar touch let her know the shadowcat hadn't abandoned her.

"Don't move!" a disembodied voice commanded Gilda.

Gilda complied, not moving from her spot. However, the sensation beneath her tail caused her to arch her back to lift her rear to receive the promised pleasures.

The tickle of what she could only guess were Panthera's whiskers stimulated her excitement. The warm flow of air over her pussy confirmed that was exactly where Panthera was doing to her. Gilda quickly shifted her tail to facilitate the shadowcat's access.

Numerous soft, gentle ticklish touches to the entrance to her sex and the continued warm air wafting over her rear told Gilda that the shadowcat molly was eagerly sampling Gilda's juices before….

SLL—LLUU—UU—UURRP!

"EE—EE—ee—ee—YOW—WW—WCH!" Gilda screeched.

SLL—LLUU—UU—UURRP!

"EE—EE—ee—ee—eeeee!" Gilda screamed once more as Panthera's long raspy tongue stroked once more over, and partly into, her opening.

"I said, not to move," Panthera's whispery voice sounded just before a third excruciatingly slow sandpapery stroke began over her clit, pushed slightly into the bottom of her channel only to continue out at the top edge of her sex. Gilda whimpered as she gritted her teeth in that boundary between pleasure and pain, digging her claws deep into the mattress.

She hated the pain to be had from mating with tiercels, thus it was in part for her to decide to desire other females. But the raspy tongue lashings she received from Panthera actually turned her on. Although, getting hit three times in a row like this was a bit much.

Still, the shadowcat was never one to give her undo torture. She quivered there, waiting for her mate to relent on the stinging rebuke.

The press of the shadowcat's muzzle into Gilda's bony hind end made her cringe in anticipation. However, the smooth wet and rapidly thrusting probe entering her caused the griffon to sigh in relief and confusion.

How is her tongue able to do that? Gilda wondered even as the shadowcat's actions began to drive all conscious thought out of her mind. What followed was utter bliss as the shadowcats rumbling purrs vibrated her opening while the probing tongue continued to repeatedly reach deep into her. Gilda was already purring in counterpoint to the shadowcat's.

The passing of time was totally lost on Gilda as Panthera worked her magic on her rear. But the inevitable was bound to happen sooner or later. And all too soon, the wondrous tongue fucking had its affect upon Gilda, and she suddenly was roaring when the electric jolts shot out from her insides.

What Gilda truly appreciated was how Panthera never left her at such times as she felt herself suddenly shoot up into the stratosphere. Instead, the shadowcat always continued to work the magic upon her sex to gently guide the griffon back to the ground.

And when she was finally back down, it seemed for a moment that Panthera was going to fly her back up there, as the shadowcat's tongue continued to probe her a little longer than necessary.

"How was that?" Panthera asked. As if the bloody invisible creature couldn't tell just by looking at her!

"Wonderful as ever, Lady Panthera," Gilda sighed.

SLL—LLUU—UU—UURRP!

"Eeep!" Gilda squeaked.

"Just 'Panthera', please," Panthera growled.

"Y—yes, La—" Gilda barely caught herself before letting the wrong thing slip pass her beak once more. "Yes, Panthera," she finished, gulping nervously.

"Better," Panthera said, giving a much gentler stroke with the smoother tip of her tongue.

"Now, I've got a new idea," the shadowcat whispered. "Turn over," she instructed.

Puzzled, Gilda complied.

Once on her back, she spread her wings. She still couldn't see the shadowcat. But it didn't take long before the creature made her presence felt again—still nuzzling her pubic bone. Gilda nervously gulped, never having made love like this before. It was unnerving as it was, being on her back. But the added feature of not being able to see her lover was beyond odd to her.

Griffons had the sharpest eyes of anything on the planet, and Gilda's ancestry was eagle, so her eyes were better than many of her own kind—but there wasn't so much as a ripple of refractive distortion from the invisibility spell Panthera was using.

It was almost like making love to a ghost.

Other than by touch and hearing, the only way to tell where the shadowcat was was by seeing the disturbance made on the fur of her rear half. At the moment, Panthera's activities were focused upon her nethers.

This went on for several minutes, making her feel a little self-conscious for the attention to that spot, but at the same time, it was pleasantly exciting to Gilda. The shivers rushing throughout her frame as the shadowcat nibbled upon her sensitive flesh drove her beyond ecstasy. And the sounds Panthera was making as she worked on her….

Wait! Is she doing what it sounds like!?

"Hey! Are you…?" Gilda tried to call out as more waves of bliss shot through her body, her voice squeaking totally out of her control. "Are you—flea-biting me!?" However, the shadowcat took her time to reply, pushing Gilda closer and closer to her climax.

"Thought you'd never ask," Panthera finally muttered between hissing snorts and nibbles. When she resumed, she began flicking the tip of her tongue into her channel between nibbles. And before Gilda could formulate a response, her scream split the air as her body thrashed about on the bed; her body being held down by Panthera's paws firmly holding her about her hips while she came.

For a time, it felt as though she had passed out from the intensity. When Gilda was aware again, she felt the shadowcat's muzzle advancing up her belly and the mass of the invisible shadowcat was firmly pushing up between her rear legs. She looked down her belly to see the fur about her nipples disturbed as her invisible lover nibbled and licked at each of them in turn before moving to the other side or advancing up her belly for the next set to attack. The ticklish assault by the purring feline heightened Gilda's awareness as to what this was about, causing her still throbbing sex to spasm some more.

Finally, Gilda felt Panthera' breath upon her beak, and the shift of the shadowcat's stance told the griffon that the shadowcat's rear legs were now nestled to either side of her barrel while her front paws were on either side of her head.

"Now, Gilda," the shadowcat softly told her. "I'm going to introduce you to a favorite toy of mine."

Gilda glanced down her belly when her peripheral vision caught motion back there. She saw an object form from the shadowcat's magic—a thick bar bent in the shape of a U that had vaguely disturbingly familiar shaped ends.

Before Gilda could react, the object moved forward, well above her body, and from what she could tell from her touch with Panthera, the shadowcat shook as she emitted a low, throaty growl. At that moment, Panthera dropped her invisibility spell. The shadowcat's eyes glazed over as her throaty growl and shaking intensified, and then she was breathing hard into Gilda's face as her pupils widely dilated.

"Hmrr—rr—rrr," the shadowcat softly purred, moving her face right into Gilda's, nose-to-beak. "Now—yourr turrn," Panthera said, baring her teeth.

"Wh-wha-what are you—?" Gilda nervously asked as she felt Panthera's pelvis settle down between her legs, but her forming question was suddenly ended as she felt the blunt tip of something touch the opening to her sex. She barely had time to widen her eyes in surprise and gasp before she felt it push against her, wanting to come in.

It didn't go in that first time, and it gave Gilda a chance to beg Panthera.

"Pl-please don't hurt me!"

"I wouldn't dream of hurting you, Gilda," Panthera softly told her as Gilda felt another push, much like the first one. "You're ready to receive it. Just relax. I promise you'll like this.

There was yet another push, slightly more pressure to it, but it didn't go in this time, either. Gilda's nervous breathing increased, worried that it was going to go as previous matings had gone before.

"Relax," Panthera gently repeated to her. She rested the tip of the object against her without putting undo pressure behind it. "Have I ever hurt you before?"

"N-no," Gilda replied, nervously gulping.

"And I'm not about to hurt you now," the shadowcat told her. "Just relax your entrance and you'll enjoy this as much as I."

"Wh-what is that thing?"

"Just a dildo," Panthera replied.

"A what?" Gilda exclaimed.

"An artificial penis," Panthera explained.

"I know what a dildo is! Why are you using one on us!?" Gilda demanded.

"Because we're females and our bodies are built to accommodate such things," Panthera explained, smirking. "You had me worried, I'll have you know. For a second, I thought I was going to have to explain the basics of sexual self-gratification to you."

"But you know how I feel about males!" Gilda scolded her.

"I know how you feel about 'cactus dicks'," Panthera countered. "This, I promise, you'll have no such issue. The shape and feel is that of Trevar."

"The Cat-Lord!?" Gilda exclaimed with a squeak.

"If you insist to call him that," Panthera said, rolling her eyes. "Then, yes. The 'Cat-Lord'. His dick is relatively long, thick, stiff, smooth, and none of the penile spines that stimulate felines into ovulation. Except for when he needs to be," she added as an understatement.

"Bu-but-but—it's sacrilege!" Gilda protested.

"Seriously!?" Panthera exclaimed. "This, coming from the griffon whose assignment was to mate with him but aren't because you'd rather have sex with other females? You're calling what we're doing sacrilege!?"

"But why the Cat-Lord?" Gilda demanded.

"Well, I have absolutely NO interest in any other males," Panthera said snarling. "Therefore, it's either Trevar or Pardus, and his is one of those cactus dicks that you detest, so—"

Gilda was at a loss for words from that. But as she sought for something to say, she felt the tip of the dildo waiting to enter her suddenly push hard against her.

"Hey!" she screamed.

"Come on!" Panthera suddenly said, putting another push to the prop against Gilda as she spoke. "Come on! You know you want it!"

"Stop!"

"Come on! Come on! You want it! Come on!" Panthera teased, giving it another push on her entrance with each sentence.

"Stop!" Gilda screamed, laughing. But Panthera continued for a few more times before she finally relented, also laughing.

"You know you want it," the shadowcat sultrily said once more, but without the push. But the mischievous look in her eyes warned Gilda this wasn't over yet.

"You promise not to hurt me?" Gilda pleaded. Panthera's expression instantly took on a serious and kind expression.

"Absolutely," she sincerely told the griffon.

Gilda nervously gulped, then nodded her head. Reaching out with her arms, she wrapped them about Panthera's neck and hugged her tight.

"Then don't hurt me, please," she whispered into the shadowcat's ear.

As Gilda tried to relax her rear, the tip of the dildo was pushed in, harder than before. But just as the object's dryness caught on her sensitive flesh, Gilda cheeped and Panthera stopped. Instead, she somehow wiggled the intruding object side-to-side and up-and-down, before slowly withdrawing it, until just the blunt tip was once more was barely touching her opening.

Then another push, a little harder still, going slightly deeper, until the dryness caught again, making Gilda cheep once more. The cycle repeated, with each slow insertion going a little deeper, each wiggle inside taking a little longer, and each withdraw also going a little slower.

And each increasingly deep intrusion sent shivers of pleasure and lust up Gilda's spine, like electric jolts all along her inner flesh.

Eventually, the full length was inserted and Gilda felt the bend of the U grind against the outside of her pubic bone. When that happened, Panthera whispered into Gilda's ear.

"Now, the fun really begins," she said as she slowly withdrew the dildo all the way as before. However, when she pushed in once more, it was a little faster than the slow progress to spread Gilda's moisture over the object. Panthera began to piston the dildo in and out, gently increasing the speed; the thrusting intrusions catching Gilda's breath, making her gasp each time it was driven the full length into her depths.

Each thrust was like a lightning bolt bursting deep inside her, the bolt running through her frame and into her mind. And before long, there was a full blown wild lightning storm going on in her belly, soon accompanied with tornados and her screams were the thunder. But there, the similarity to storms ended. Natural storms had their most spectacular impact at the beginning. Hers, however, was at the end of the wild bliss blasting her mind and body.

And this time, when she fainted, she stayed out.

Pinkie watched as the human stallion and shadowcat tom left together. She knew they were up to something no good, and she needed to get the information to Princess Celestia in order to act against their nefarious schemes.

At some point, she knew they'd be splitting up, and she momentarily considered the options of following the human creature for the day. Except, she suddenly remembered he had an escort of Royal Guards, so that wasn't a wise choice. But following Pardus was, as Rainbow Dash would have succinctly put it: B! O! R! I! N! G!

She put a hoof to her chin as she thought hard about the problem.

"OH! I've got the perfect way of solving this!" she suddenly exclaimed to herself. Turning about, she jumped.

Unfortunately for Pinkie Pie, at that moment, Kevin Lee (not his real name) pressed the "send" button on his Outlook message. So, instead of giving Kevin Lee a heart attack as she had intended, her head popped out of the monitor of Ryuu's (not his real name, either) laptop, nearly scaring the shit out of a cat that was sitting beside him on the sofa.

"Oh! Was that Laser (yes, that was his real name)?" Pinkie exclaimed, instantly recognizing the gray tiger-striped house cat.

Unperturbed, Ryuu, just stared at her for a moment before reaching out to her with his right hand. Grabbing a hunk of curly pink mane and giving it a yank, he pulled the pony out of his laptop. With a yelp, Pinkie Pie suddenly found herself in a living room of a modest-sized home.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Ryuu demanded, glaring at her as he took his reading glasses off and set them down on the coffee table.

"Heh! H-hi R-Ryuu," she stammered.

They looked at each other for a few moments.

"I'm waiting," Ryuu growled.

"Waiting for what?" Pinkie eagerly asked, hoping to help Ryuu with solving whatever was evidently angering him.

"What? Are? You? Doing? Here?" Ryuu stressed his previous question.

"Oh! That?" Pinkie Pie muttered, realizing she was the problem that was irritating the human. "I—uh—was looking for Kevin Lee," she admitted, as her mane deflated a small amount.

"Well, you just missed him," obvious Ryuu said obviously. "It's 10:30 PM on the East Coast and their tomorrow's still a workday over there." Ryuu took that moment to quickly press Ctrl-Alt-Delete on his keyboard and locked his laptop.

"Oh," Pinkie sadly responded, her mane deflating a bit more as Ryuu stood up. "You didn't seem surprised. Why weren't you surprised? I was supposed to surprise Kevin, but I ended up here, instead. By the way, where is here? You said it was 10:30 at night, but it's still daylight here!"

"Well, he let me know you were on your way with his email," Ryuu muttered. "As for Kevin, he wasn't about to be surprised by your arrival. Fortunately for me, you were rather stuck in the file until I actually opened it."

"Oh, I see."

"And we're in Fiji," Ryuu told her. "So, it's only 4:30 PM here, with daylight's savings in effect in the middle of November. He had asked me to fill in most of the story between Panthera and Gilda's playtime and Twilight's reading your tomorrow's morning paper to you guys."

"Oh, I can help? What you need are random ideas! I'm good with coming up with ideas! The randomner, the betterer!" Pinkie instantly offered, hoping to cheer Ryuu up again. He looked at her for a few moments and then sighed.

"I'm afraid that would not be the best thing at all," Ryuu told her. "I know for a fact the only reason you're here is just here to try and find out what Pardus and Trevar are up to so that you can report to Celestia. I also know exactly what you are and how you relate to the Q. And how you don't exactly play by the rules of the game you guys are in. At least with Q, even as omniscient as he is chaotic, he never violates his role of the game in the show or our stories. You, on the other hand--"

"Oh, I can Pinkie-promise not to tell! Just let me know what they're doing, please! I promise I'll pretend to not know!"

"Nyope!" Ryuu instantly said, standing up and walking off into the hallway toward the master bedroom of the house. Pinkie stayed and tried to figure out the password to his account, but after several tries, she wasn't able to figure it out.

"I know he's got to be using the Foyer-series as the basis of his password," she muttered, still frustrated by her lack of progress. But then, she saw through the large picture windows looking out to the patio that Ryuu had changed to be wearing a pair of swim trunks and was just about to open the gate to the pool. Outside with him, was the other cat living with him, the white and yellow Siga (yes, that was his real name, too).

In an instant, she was through the hallway, the main bedroom, and there out on the patio beside him. But instead of being impressed or surprised, he angrily yelled at her.

"CLOSE THE DOORS!" he shouted.

"Awww~" she sadly began, but he cut her off.

"If those cats get together, I'm going to take a belt and beat the living shit out of you!" he yelled at her. "Close the doors!"

"You can't catch me!" she happily challenged him.

"Pinkie! This is Fiji! This is not Tahiti! This is not the magical place! So, guess what? You have no magic here. There's no escaping from this yard. I will beat you," he said, growling at her. "Close the damned doors! These cats are not ready to hang out together, yet!"

"Oh, okay," she said, sighing dejectedly. She soon had the doors between the bedroom and hallway as well as from the bedroom and patio shut. Instantly, she was back to the patio.

"But what about the story?" Pinkie yelled as Ryuu waded into the pool.

"I read up what Kevin sent me, and I'm letting the ideas percolate in my mind," Ryuu replied as he propelled himself about the small pool. "By the way, what are you doing here? Kevin said that you were supposed to be looking over Knight Breeze's shoulder."

"Knight Breeze's got a bit of writer's block on some of his stories at the moment," Pinkie replied. "So, I was hoping to catch a glimpse at what Pardus was up to."

"Well, that's cheating, bitch," Ryuu said, laughing. "And it ain't happening on my watch. Or on Kevin's."

"Aww, c'mon! Give me a clue!" Pinkie whined. But Ryuu ignored her and continued swimming. "Speaking of which, why is it I can remember Knight Breeze here but not in your story?" she asked, rubbing her chin with a hoof. "Or why I can't remember his story, or anypony else's when I'm in yours?"

"Because you're not currently in my story," Ryuu replied.

"Bu-but-but I'm Pinkie Pie!" she exclaimed. "You know? Fourth-wall breaker and all that?"

"True," Ryuu acknowledged. "Out here, you’re the P. But in the show or in any of our stories, you're still just a pony, even if you're letting your root personality show through, so you've got to abide by the rules—if only just some of them."

"Mmm, makes sense," she responded. "Hey! How long are you going to be out here?" she suddenly demanded.

"Fifteen minutes in the water," Ryuu responded, not looking at her. "Then fifteen to sunning on my belly, and fifteen on my back."

"Forty-five minutes!?" Pinkie screamed. "I can't wait around here for forty-five minutes! Pardus can just about be doing anything in that time!"

"Tough break, kid," Ryuu said as he back stroked. "See that, up there?" he asked, pointing straight up.

"Kid? I bet I'm older than he is," Pinkie muttered as she looked up into the sky. Aside from a late afternoon sun and this planet's weird waxing crescent moon directly overhead that could be seen during daylight hours, the sky was as perfect as a cloudless day could be had in Ponyville.

It must be some sort of guessing game, so she tried to figure out exactly what it was. Surely, Ryuu didn't want her to simply reply that it was a beautiful cloudless afternoon with a weird planet's moon hanging not too far from its sun. So she kept searching for whatever was hidden up in the sky.

And searching.

And searching.

But after searching for what seemed like forever, she couldn't find anything. Whatever Ryuu hid up there was hidden really good!

"It's a nice day. What about it?" she finally asked. At that moment, an alarm went off on his cell phone.

"This is Suva in Fiji," Ryuu stressed, reaching out from the poolside to reset the alarm. "This is not Nadi. Even in the so-called 'dry season', you'll hardly ever see a day like this in Suva, where there's not a cloud in the sky," he told her as he got out of the water.

"So, I'm trying to work on getting a tan while trying not to let it turn into skin cancer," he said, taking off his swim trunks. "I've got to do this in gradual chunks. I burn way too easily."

"Hey! You can't do that!" she protested. "This show's rated Y over TV!"

"If you were paying attention, this story's got both 'Sex' and 'Gore' tags," Ryuu countered as he laid belly down on the poolside lawn chair. "So, yes, I can go nude if I want, as horrific as contemplating that might be."

"Oh, yeah. But what about the story?" Pinkie cried.

"Don't worry about it," Ryuu replied. "The workstation's locked right now, so no time is proceeding in it at the moment. After I'm done with the flip side, I'll throw you back in so you'll arrive there just an instant after you jumped out. Think that'll work okay for you?"

"Oh! Sure!" she happily exclaimed. "By the way, did you know you look an awful like Trevar? Well, except that you're about ten to fifteen pounds heavier and you've got quite a bit of white in your beard where Trevar has light blonde stipes. And I've never seen him wearing glasses."

"Yep," Ryuu's voice sounded muffled from where he laid face down. "We're on another one of those worlds Q copied from the original Earth using the Black Moon. So I'm just another copy of Trevar but I know all of his history, both past and future. He was modified by the Black Moon's creators when taken from his Earth when he was about twenty-five. Only I'm fifty-four, now. I'm aging, and my eyes are going to shit. Trevar, on the other hand is effectively immortal. He just doesn't know it, yet. Well, in your story, anyhow."

"So … what would you do in his place?" she inquired, hoping to get Ryuu to slip up and reveal what she needed to know.

"You're just going to have to use your skills and tricks to figure that out, but from within the story," Ryuu replied. "Which, none of your tricks will work on me. Besides, this is mostly Kevin's story. I'm merely an advisor."

"Oh, bugger!" she quietly spat, but then she suddenly perked up.

"So, what are you advising Kevin about?" she asked, trying for a different angle.

"Trevar's back story and how he relates to Q—whom you already know as Discord, or as Admiral Tigerclaw calls him, 'DisQord'," Ryuu replied without elaborating further.

"This is boring!"

"Heh! Ya want me ta paint you blue and call you 'Rainbow'?" he asked with a chuckle and slipping a little into his native West Virginian accent. "That's what you're startin' to sound like."

"Can I play with Siga?"

"No."

"Can I play with Laser?"

"No."

"Can I—?"

"You try it and I'll take get my belt out and slap you silly with it … Well, sillier."

"How about I throw a party?"

"Nope. You're too late for Dewali and too early for Christmas."

"Well, what can I do, then?" Pinkie complained.

"There's a pool," Ryuu muttered, gesturing with his left hand toward the water without looking.

"Can I—?"

"Read the sign: No diving," he said, pointing to a sign nailed to the banister with his right hand, again without looking.

"…"

Ryuu didn't respond.

"You're good," she finally admitted.

"Hey, I was a troublemaker long before you were born," Ryuu replied, not bothering to look up. "And later, I was a troubleshooter before they finally bumped me up to a manager last year. But I still like to shut down glitches like you every day just for fun. Either way, I've got at least forty-nine years on you, considering how long your show's been running. You don't want to get on my bad side. So enjoy your time in Fiji while you still can," he finished with a click of his tongue.

"Okie dokie, artichokie!" she happily said, stepping into the pool—slowly wading in—down the steps….

Later, Pinkie stood up from inside the barrel, lifting the lid and with her head where it remained balanced. Her vision revealed that the shadowcat had a number of full bags levitating alongside him.

"Huh!?" Pinkie exclaimed in confusion. She tilted her head to look up at the sun and saw that at least four hours had elapsed since she stepped out of the story.

"HEY! RYUU!!" she yelled.

At her outburst, the dirt in front of her suddenly had a message that looked like it had been scratched there with a stick. It read, "What's your problem?"

"You said I was going to be returning to just after I left!" she protested as she climbed out of the barrel. "It's at least four hours later!"

"That's what you get for trying to ruin my dinner."

"Peanut butter with jam alongside salt and vinegar chips with red wine? Bluaeh!"

"Says the masochistic bitch."

"Hey! I'm NOT some kind of perverted diamond dog!" she protested.

"You're a masochist," the dirt scratches repeated. "And I can prove it."

"How so?" Pinkie demanded.

"Masochists derive sensual pleasures and satisfaction from experiencing pain. You put tabasco sauce on cupcakes. Even a fire-breathing dragon was giving you odd looks for that one."

"Oh, yeah," she had to admit, recalling the day she met Twilight Sparkle and Spike. "But it's not like I've got anything like all the porn you've got on your laptop. And—those—were an awful lot of dragons!"

"Big deal. So I like dragons. Especially the sexy female ones. How is that perverted? Dragons aren't chickens, after all."

"…" Pinkie started, but then she had to re-assess her response. "Good point," she finally replied. "But what about what Pardus was doing while I wasn't around to watch him?"

When she turned to look, the scratches in the dirt had changed to, "Not a problem. Nothing's changed. Even had you been there, all Pardus bought were more angle irons, wires, nuts, bolts and screws. As it sits, right now it's about lunch time, and you're synched up with what's been happening with Lieutenant Scott and the folks treating her diabetes, as well as Panthera and Gilda, who just finished their fun."

"But why send me back so late?" she cried.

"Because you would've been bored following him about all morning," the scratches in the dirt replied. "This way, you got all the info you would've gotten anyhow without the hassle of waiting for it."

"Oh! Cool! Okay! Thanks!" she happily responded.

"De nada," replaced all the previous writing in the dirt.

"Uh—Pinkie Pie? Wh-who are you talking to?" Pinkie heard Aloe's voice ask coming from behind her.

"Oh—uh—nopony," Pinkie replied, absently scuffing up the words that had been scratched in the ground. "Yeah! Absolutely. NOT a pony! So—uh—sorry! Gotta run! Bye!" And she was gone, chasing after the shadowcat, leaving Aloe alone sadly shaking her head.

As Pinkie followed Pardus, she took her notepad out from her mane and saw that during her visit to Fiji, the notes had been updated to show Pardus had stopped by several hardware stores buying up a number of screws, insulated wires, nails, some glue, more of those small wooden blocks … in short, just more of the same stuff he had purchased over the last couple of days. So, in the end, she was grateful for the time skip that her visit at Ryuu's gave her. But she was no closer to figuring out just what it was they were doing.

However, at that moment, several shadows passed over her and she instinctively looked up to see three griffons flying overhead toward Trevar's home. All three were heavily laden with shopping bags. But seeing as how they weren't involving her or anypony else, Pinkie resumed her focus on the shadowcat, who was calmly walking back toward Trevar's home.

Watching him plod along, she was still trying to figure out what they might be up to … when Pinkie suddenly stopped. She felt the gears in her head that had been turning smoothing suddenly jumped a cog before resuming their normal motions again. She blinked a few times, confirming what just happened. And then Pinkie suddenly gasped in shock.

"Why! Why that! Why that sneaky! Why that sneaky sneak!! Why that sneaky sneak-sneak!!!" she screamed. But, then, as she took a few moments to consider it, she had to admit it was a brilliant idea. "Wow! I didn't expect him to do that! He's such a clever po—OWWW!" she yelped when a rock suddenly bounced off her head.

She blinked in astonishment at the fact the rock had hit her without her Pinkie-sense kicking in. But then she noticed the rock had a note tied to it with a rubber band. Puzzled, she picked up the rock and removed the note to read it.

"Don't even think of jinxing Pardus with that!—Ryuu >:[" the note said.

"Okay, Ryuu," Pinkie sighed, grinning at how Ryuu had turned her own abilities against her. "You're certainly the clever pony," she quickly whispered. And then she waited for something to happen. But nothing did, and she sighed in relief.

But then, she suddenly noticed more words were scratched in the dirt in front of her. "You can't jinx me, either. This is NOT Tahiti, so you have no power to affect me here," she read.

"Oh, right," she said, remembering. "Tahiti is the magical place. Not Fiji. But now, it looks like I'll have to back track all the griffons to find out what they were buying all this time," she muttered to herself.

"Spying upon our colleague, Celie? Shame on thou!" Luna cheerfully called out when she came upon Celestia watching the goings on at Ponyville.

"Seeing Twilight's activities are—what can best be described as 'collateral damage'," Celestia calmly replied, still sipping her cup as though not startled by Luna's discovery. Luna suspected that it was because Celestia knew she was about to 'discover' her sister's actions….

"I'm more concerned with what the humans and those shadowcats are doing," she explained. "That Discord is worried is curious. That I'm only able to get vague and indistinct viewings of the human stallion and those shadowcats is quite disturbing. It's even interfering with being able to see Pinkie Pie clearly where she's following them."

"What of the human mare?" Luna inquired.

"Her? She's coming in clear as day," Celestia said, setting her cup and saucer aside. For her sister to display such unease was telling.

"What of you, Luna? Up early? Or very late?"

"Very, very late," Luna admitted. "I wilt admit, I was quite puzzl'd by the message sent to Tail Feather regarding the human stallion. That Gustav would convey they ne'd to change their messaging procedures on account of this Trevar and those shadowcats. It dost lend credence to Discord's unease, as doth the nagging feelings I get when I hear his name. It pulls at memories I shouldst make shift recall.

"I'm afraid I've come to have the same misgivings," Celestia said, staring at the display of the small town. "The items that the shadowcats have been purchasing could be for anything. But so far, they seem to relate mostly to the strange panels they've somehow been constructing in the basement."

"Any idea whence they're getting those?" Luna asked. "'R what the structure they art building is f'r?"

"Not a clue," the day diarch replied, finally dispelling the illusion of Ponyville. She rubbed her temple from the evident strain she'd been feeling. But Luna knew her pain wasn't from casting the scrying spell. "Those creatures have a cloak that is both complete and encompassing. Just thinking of the mess that's threatening to blow up in our faces when Discord reveals what 'help' he's summoning to 'our side', as well as whatever this 'Cat-Lord' business will bring, is giving me the mother of all migraines."

"Our moth'r wouldst not hast approv'd of such language," Luna teased.

"Indeed, she would not," Celestia agreed, giving her sister a much deserved smile.

Razor, Golden Slasher, and Blood Feather had overflown the male shadowcat, Pardus on their way to the newly established embassy, while carrying the first of the materials requested by the Cat-Lord and the shadowcats.

But they knew better than to delay their flight to meet Panthera at the embassy to speak with him, since he evidently still had the strange pink pony shadowing him. The entire effort was for him to provide the distraction to keep the ponies in the dark about the items they were acquiring on behalf of the Cat-Lord.

According to the schedule, Gilda was there as part of her appointment with the Cat-Lord and a passionfruit, while Mittens and Screaming Eagle remained at their quarters to guard the rest of the material still yet to be delivered to the embassy.

However, as they finally arrived at the embassy, there was obviously something wrong with the schedule: there was the Cat-Lord with his Equestrian pony escort evidently also returning to the embassy—however, no sign of Gilda! The pony guards left their charge to take up their positions about the embassy while the Cat-Lord approached the front door.

"Oh! Hi, girls!" the Cat-Lord happily called out to them as the three griffons came in to land.

"Lord Trevar!" Razor called out, instantly getting a reproving look from the Cat-Lord. Squit! I forgot! she thought, cringing.

"A thousand pardons, please, Trevar," she said, trying again. That got him rolling his eyes at her. "But did not Gilda arrive for her duties?"

"Yes," he cheerfully replied as he produced a key to unlock the door and opened it. "Yes, she did. She and Panthera had some business to conduct while we were out. Come on in," he told them, stepping aside to let them enter.

Razor and the others stepped through the threshold only to all suddenly freeze in shock at the sight of Gilda and the female shadowcat sprawled out on a mattress in the middle of the floor. Her heart skipped several beats, knowing there was no way of preventing the Cat-Lord from seeing this disgrace. As one, the three griffons all face-clawed.

"So, you managed to wear her out?" Razor heard the Cat-Lord cheerfully inquire.

"Well, it did take nearly the entire four hours," Panthera replied as Trevar walked past the scene towards the kitchen to put away the groceries. "And there wasn't any passionfruit involved, so I had that going for me." The shadowcat nuzzled and licked Gilda's beak but the griffon seemed to be passed out, insentient to their presence as her labored breathing the only sign she was still alive.

"Come on, girls," Trevar admonished, coming back in to retrieve more of the grocery sacks he'd left by the main entrance. "Give them some privacy. You'll all have your turns in time, if you're still wanting to."

"But she was supposed to be mating with you!" Blood Feather growled.

"Well, she's not comfortable doing it with me yet, and I'm not going to force the issue," the Cat-Lord replied. Then he snapped his fingers in front of their faces to distract them from the couple on the floor.

"Hey! Hey! Until she is comfortable with the idea doing it with me, I'll let her spend it with Panthera instead, if that's what she wants," he sternly said to them. "No one here should have a problem with that," he finished, picking up the last of the sacks and taking them to the kitchen.

"If you could, please take those items you brought downstairs to the first storeroom by the stairs," he called as he worked to put away the rest of the things he bought.

Pinkie sullenly watched as the shadowcat entered the residence, trying to think hard of how to backtrack the griffons.

It was quite clever of Trevar to use them, she had to concede. There was no way she could follow everypony, even with the methods she sometimes employed. And now that there were quite a bit of items collected already, she had the added difficulty of finding out just what it was they had bought.

Why, those griffons could have gone almost anywhere! she thought morosely. Then she brightened, suddenly realizing something.

"No! Not anywhere!" she happily exclaimed. "Twilight bought out all the quills from Quills and Sofas and they haven't restocked their supplies yet. And none of those sacks were large enough to hold a sofa. So—that's the one place they couldn't have gone! And they've not been to Sugarcube Corners to buy any cupcakes! That narrows things down quite a bit!"

As she sat there by the side of the road, watching the house, she tried to think of other places that could be eliminate off the list of possibilities. But a buzzing sound coming from up the road distracted her. Shifting her gaze between the last two houses in Ponyville, she spied a dust plume rapidly approaching the town from the direction of Sweet Apple Acres.

Immediately, she realized that it had to be Scootaloo with her friends off on another adventure to look for their cutie marks.

Suddenly, the thought hit her, almost dislodging the gears in her head once again.

She jumped into the middle of the road before they could blast past her. Waving her hooves over her head, she loudly called out.

"STO-O-O-O-O-OP-P-P!"

The look on Scootaloo's face showed her shock at Pinkie suddenly appearing in front of her. She barely had time to shift her wings to apply a hard breaking thrust, as she popped her scooter into a fishtail slide to drain off their momentum. After all, there was the wagon and her friends to think about, too.

The entire group was enveloped by the dust cloud for several moments before natural breezes began to dissipate it. In a short while, the dust cleared enough for everypony to see again.

Scootaloo had managed to bring her scooter to a halt just hands shy of running into the pink earth mare and the back end of the wagon holding three foals was still up in the air, balanced on its front wheels. They all looked at each other and how close they had come to having an accident.

"THAT! WAS! AWESOME!" Pinkie, Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle all exclaimed simultaneously. A very small earth pony colt with dark brown eyes, a mottled white coat with tan splotches, and two-toned brown mane and tail, and no cutie mark, who was also riding with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle was breathing hard, with his pupils and irises reduced to dots.

He settled back in the wagon, getting over his shock, only for his motion to momentarily renew his panic when the action caused the wagon to settle back down to all four of its wheels with a loud retort.

"You okay, Pip?" Applebloom asked, noticing the colt was non-responsive after they landed.

"Uh—uh—y—yeah," he stammered after getting his breathing under control.

"Hi girls!" Pinkie cheerfully called out.

"Hi Pinkie!" the three fillies happily replied.

"Oh, but I didn't mean to ignore you, Pip!" Pinkie added, only just noticing the colt in the wagon.

"H-h-hi…" the pinto colt stammered a reply.

"Whatcha doin'?" Pinkie inquired.

"Just going around for a spin," Scootaloo answered. "Thought we'd take a break from cutie mark crusading for the day after Big Mac confiscated our flamethrowers."

"Aww, that's too bad," Pinkie said in sympathy. "Oh! But how'd you like to try earning your cutie marks in investigating?"

"Investigatin'? Investigatin' whut?" Applebloom inquired.

"That Mister Trevar," Pinkie told them in a conspiratorial whisper.

"Oh, we already tried that," Sweetie Belle said with a shudder of the memory. "We found out he's got the mange!"

"Oh, no, no, no," Pinkie said. "He doesn't have the mange. Although, I can see how you'd think that," she muttered, thinking back about Ryuu by the pool.

"No, I mean, he's been using those shadowcats and several griffons to help him gather up some things," Pinkie told them. "I think he's building some sort of Evil Overlord superweapon to help him take over the world!"

"Oh! Maybe we can git ahr cutie marks by Evil Overlordin'!" Applebloom exclaimed, instantly perking up.

"CUTIE MARK CRUADERS: EVIL OVERLORDERS! YAY!" the three fillies all exclaimed.

"I have to think that's more of an adult profession," Pinkie countered. "Something a bit after getting your cutie marks. Or maybe that's something for the other CMC to chase after," she finished, enlisting a chorus of "awwws" from the girls.

"But I think you can try again with investigating by tracing down the stores the griffons have been visiting and finding out what they were buying," Pinkie suggested.

"Oooh! Like Roan Connery as Manes Bond in 'Goldhoof'?" Sweetie Belle inquired.

"Roan's okay, but I liked Roger Mare better in 'Moonbucker'," Scootaloo spoke up.

"Yer both wrong! Rassilon was best pony in 'Th' Livin' Daylights'," Applebloom protested.

"Girls! Girls! We can all argue who's best Manes Bond later!" Pinkie stepped in, "after we find out what the griffons have been gathering. Besides, everypony knows it was Pierce Brony who was the best in 'Goldeneye'," she challenged with a grin.

With the four foals helping her, Pinkie was feeling confident they'd be able to find out what the human and griffons were planning. Already, Applebloom found out one of the griffons had bought a couple Elway Shunt Deharmonizing Regulators from Bon Bon, and Scootaloo reported a Psychokinetic Phase Motion Rotator had been purchased by a griffon from Trader Yohan, while Pinkie had just learned another was acquired from Thaumaturge-N-Things. The next store on this street was Quills and Sofas, and Pinkie remembered that she could skip that one.

But just as she was coming up on the store's entrance, a terrified looking brown earth pony with an hourglass cutie mark bolted out with a bag held in his mouth, immediately followed by an angry lavender alicorn.

"COME BACK HERE!" Twilight Sparkle yelled galloping after him to tackle the pony in the middle of the street.

"Please! I need this for my work!" the brown earth pony cried.

"REALLY! YOU NEED ALL SIX OF THEM!?" Twilight growled as she stood over him, snorting in irritation. "I've been waiting for WEEKS to get a replacement for my lab! I need JUST ONE! But every day I've tried, they're out of stock! NOW, I SEE WHY!"

"I've only got just the one! I swear!" the earth pony cried. "Here's my credit card! Check the record! I've been waiting for weeks, too," he said, holding up his card.

"Whatcha doin', Twilight?" Pinkie asked, hopping over to them, hoping she could make everypony happy again. She had to wait for the princess to get through scanning the brown pony's card with her spell.

"Hmf! Seems you're in the clear this time, Doctor—this time," she grumbled, levitating the card back to him. "So the question is, who's been getting the others?"

"Twilight?" Pinkie asked again, puzzled what was making her friend so upset.

"Oh. Hi, Pinkie," Twilight said, backing off to let the brown earth pony up and run off. "I've been trying to get a Svengali-Machiavelli Spin Schemer Manipulator for weeks and Quill and Sofas finally got some in stock. But every day I've been by, somepony," she emphasized with a glare at the pony who was running away, "comes by to snatch them all up."

"I thought Quills and Sofas only sold, well, quills and sofas," Pinkie muttered.

"They do sell them," Twilight confirmed. "Although, they're out of quills at the moment, too. I do tend to go through those things quite a bit."

"So, this Seven Gollies thing?" Pinkie asked.

"Svengali-Machiavelli Spin Schemer Manipulators," Twilight absently said, correcting the pink pony. "I need one for an isolation shield chamber modulator. I've ordered two, one to replace the burned out unit and one as a backup. And I've been waiting for weeks, now! Q&S doesn't stock that many, since there can't be that many ponies needing that sort of high level shield chamber modulation. I've suspected him for some time of snatching them all up. But he's in the clear. For now."

"So," Twilight said, finally looking at Pinkie Pie directly. "What are you up to?"

"Oh, I've been trying to figure out what Trevar has been up to," Pinkie happily told her as they started back up the street back toward the main part of town. "I'm sure he's up to building some sort of Evil Overlord superweapon."

"The human?" Twilight asked, perplexed.

"Yeah," Pinkie confirmed. "He and the shadowcats and the griffons have been going about buying up all sort of stuff," she said, handing the list over to Twilight.

"Hmm…." Twilight vocalized as she read the items. "Two Psychokinetic Phase Motion Rotators, and two—'Elway'?" she paused as she struggled over Pinkie's writing. "Oh, you mean an 'Lei-way' Shunt Deharmonizing Regulator—wait—what's Bon Bon doing selling those?" After considering the puzzle for a moment, she resumed reading out the rest of the list.

"Well, there's quite a number of things that can be made from these," Twilight told her. "Although, not all of them can be categorized as 'superweapons'."

"Well, we're still early in our investigation," Pinkie said. But she suddenly stopped, with her ear twitching and her back left hoof quivering.

"Something wrong, Pinkie?" Twilight asked, a little nervous, seeing the signs of Pinkie's Pinkie sense going off.

"I—I'll—I'll be right back, Twilight," Pinkie shouted as she rushed back and went into the Quills and Sofa's store.

A few minutes later, Pinkie came bounding out of the store, a happy grin on her face as she bounced up to Twilight.

"Well, mystery solved as to where your Swen Jollies got to!" Pinkie told her.

"Svengali-Machiavelli Spin Schemer Manipulator," Twilight grumbled through grinding teeth. "So, what did you find out?"

"The griffons bought five of them," Pinkie told her as she scribbled onto her list. "As well as 360 golden-ratio rhombic plates of chronithril."

"What?" Twilight exclaimed. "Wait—how many plates of chronithril? How big?"

"Oh, about yea-by-yea big," Pinkie said, using her hoofs to describe them, about three hands long and one and three quarter hands high. "About 360 plates. Why?"

"Well, those other items in your list and the five Svengali-Machiavelli Spin Schemer Manipulators," she trailed off as she thought about it. "In various combinations, there are about twenty-two million different uses that have them all, assuming he might be making more than one. And of those, seven are capable of being used for superweapons. But nothing that would be able to use all those items. Certainly nothing that uses two Lei-way Shunt Deharmonizing Regulators or that many rhombic plates of chronithril at the same time. It's very puzzling."

She then looked at Pinkie Pie.

"Wait! How did you find out it was griffons who bought them?" Twilight inquired.

"I asked them," she cheerfully replied.

"Whut?" Twilight's lower left eyelid began to twitch, which caught Pinkie's notice.

"Ooooh! Are you developing a—a Twilie sense, too?" Pinkie happily asked.

"They wouldn't hardly give me the time of day," the lavender alicorn growled. "I asked, and they wouldn't even let me know that I had ever bought anything from them! 'Customer confidentiality,' they claimed!"

A small white rabbit shadowed Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie for the time it took them to separate, Pinkie going on to the cake shop and the purple princess continuing on to her castle. When it was clear the ponies were on their way to separate destinations, the rabbit went in another direction, quickly leaving town and headed for the dangerous Everfree Forest.

Once concealed from prying eyes, the white rabbit was suddenly enveloped in green magical fire and was replaced by an earth pony colt with dark brown eyes, a mottled white coat with tan splotches, and two-toned brown mane and tail, and no cutie mark. He quickly took an evasive route to reach the hive.

"Jimmy Olson here to deliver a verbal report on our targets," he hissed as he calmly walked toward the entrance of heavily concealed cavern an hour later.

The changeling known as John Drake stepped out from the cavern that led to the Hive proper to meet him.

"Any problems?" the changeling hissed at him.

"Other than suffering from numerous heart attacks due to those three menaces as part of my cover, no. None," the colt hissed back. John Drake snorted in amusement.

"Report to the Queen," he told Jimmy Olson.

In the depths of the hive, the young and very small colt with dark brown eyes, a mottled white coat with tan splotches, and two-toned brown mane and tail, and no cutie mark bowed reverently to the changeling queen.

"Mother, I bring news of our targets and the activities of his allies," the colt reported. "It would appear that they are gathering supplies and are in the process of building something. The ponies are now aware there are plans being made by the targets. At present, they have a partial list of items gathered by the targets' allies. However, they do not have all of the information."

"Let me hear it," Queen Chrysalis commanded.

"So far, on behalf of our targets, the griffons had acquired 360 golden-ratio rhombic plates of chronithril, two Psychokinetic Phase Motion Rotators, two Lei-way, or Elway, Shunt Deharmonizing Regulators, five Svengali-Machiavelli Spin Schemer Manipulators. The ponies know of those items. However, they do not yet know there were also thirteen Differential Thaumaturgic Discriminators and three Piezo-Manna Variable Transducer Regulators also acquired by the griffons."

"Interesting," Queen Chrysalis uttered thinking the matter over.

"In various combinations and permutations, there are trillions of devices that would have need of those components," she told her drone. "However, in total, there is nothing that could make use of all of them. And yet—there is something—"

"You say the ponies do not yet know of the last items in your report?" she asked after several more minutes of thought.

"That is correct, my Queen," the pony said, bowing. He waited as his queen took several minutes to think about the problem.

"Suffice to say, it is necessary to cooperate with the ponies—for now," Queen Chrysalis finally told him. "Provide the additional information to the ponies and we'll let Twilight Sparkle's mind stew with those ingredients. Let us see what she can make of them. Keep an eye out for any more components our targets are acquiring and report your finding as soon as you are able."

"Yes, my Queen," the pony said with a bow before leaving.

On his way out, he passed through a chamber holding dozens of cocoons, each containing a pony. He paused by one particular cocoon holding a very small colt with dark brown eyes, a mottled white coat with tan splotches, and two-toned brown mane and tail, and no cutie mark. He looked impassively upon the figure for a few moments before resuming his journey out of the hive and back to the town of ponies.

That evening, as the night shift arrived to relieve them, Silver Thorn, quietly spoke to Shadow Wing.

"This morning, you had nothing of significance to report," Silver Thorn said. "Yet, after you left, we found signs of a struggle. Did you guys have any problems? Or were you running a drill?"

"Yes. A drill," Shadow Wing replied in monotone. "We conducted a drill."

"I see," Silver Thorn muttered. "I'm rather surprised, since you normally don't do that sort of thing. Still, just be careful you don't get caught."

"Agreed," the sergeant replied. Then he came to attention, waiting for Silver Thorn to initiate the final action for the turnover.

"I stand relieved," Silver Thorn said with a sigh and snapping off a salute.

"You stand relieved," Shadow Wing replied, and the Lunar teams took their positions without another word.

As his team departed for the evening, Silver Thorn was still puzzled by something that he couldn't quite put his hoof on.

"Twilight! There's a letter for you from Princess Celestia!" Spike announced as when he finally found her (of all places) in the Library.

"Thank you, Spike," she said, taking the scroll from him. She silently read the letter after breaking the seal and frowned at what was written.

Then, without a word, she levitated a blank scroll to her desk and used a ready quill to write her response.

Dear Prin Celestia,

I have also been puzzling over the list of items purchased by the griffons and Mister Trevar. While it is true that in certain combinations, there are seven or eight destructive devices that can be made from some of the components, there are literally trillions of possible things to be made from taking into account every combination and permutation. But there is reason for me to suspect it's something other than weapons of magical destruction that Trevar is pursuing.

Primarily of which, even if he tries to make the seven or eight weapons, he doesn't yet have the necessary components to make any one of them. Given that, it also makes no sense for him to have acquired items that are not related to any specific WMD when he's clearly lacking such important components.

Secondly, with what he has purchased, were he to be pursuing any of the prohibited devices, the components he has bought not related to any of the possible superweapons would be essentially useless in the remaining combinations and permutations.

And most importantly, their acquisition of thirteen Differential Thaumaturgic Discriminators and three Piezo-Manna Variable Transducer Regulators makes no sense. One would only get such if they intended to put together some sort of multiphasic device. Yet, none of the seven or eight known WMDs from the earlier list can be utilized in any sort of a multiphasic design.

Plus, he's got too many Differential Thaumaturgic Discriminators for a five-phase dimensional device yet too few for a six-phase dimensional mechanism.

This leads me to believe he's intent on creating something entirely different from our worst fears. What that item might be, unfortunately, currently eludes me. It's quite likely that he's not gathered all the items he needs, for whatever that might be.

The source who provided us the information as to Trevar's activities is still pursuing leads. However, it looks like the search will have to be expanded to other cities, since obviously griffons can fly. They've certainly exhausted the supply of such high-end magical components they might get here in Ponyville.

Unfortunately, only when we get a more complete list of items can we even begin to guess at what he's trying to construct.

I'll be sure to make this a top priority. Between you, me, and Luna, I'm sure we'll be able to figure this out.

Yours truly,

Twilight Sparkle.

P.S. Would you have any idea of why Bon Bon would be doing selling Lei-way Shunt Deharmonizing Regulators? That one, I just can't wrap my head about.

Then she quickly rolled it up and applied her seal to it.

"Thank you, Spike," she said, addressing the waiting dragon. "Can you please send this to Princess—" She paused to look out the window. "Well, I guess it'll have to be Princess Luna, then," she sheepishly said.

"S-sure thing, Twilight," he said, taking the scroll and breathed his green flame over it. "Must be pretty important, huh? To not dictate it to me to write."

"I'm sorry, Spike," she sadly told him. "This is a rather sensitive matter. It's not that I don't trust you, but the Princesses asked me to keep the number of ponies who know to a minimum."

"Sure," Spike forlornly replied. "I understand."

King Sombra's consciousness awoke from the horror of his failure. He had been so close to regaining the Chrystal Empire when that pink alicorn, who had evidently come from nowhere, literally DID come from nowhere to snatch the Chrystal Heart away from his grasp just as he had been reaching for the falling….

Intense pain suddenly distracted his thoughts.

Pain, he was quite familiar with … or so he had assumed. This was pain at a whole new level. And just as he was about to scream once more, the pain was gone, but the lingering memory was staying quite fresh….

"Now that I once more have your attention…" an odd voice spoke to him.

Confused, King Sombra cautiously opened his eyes, fully expecting the pain to resume.

"Don't worry about the pain," the voice said as his eyes opened. "That is, unless you try to be uncooperative again." The image that greeted King Sombra's vision was of something that made no sense to his mind.

"Wha—what—what are you?" he demanded, sitting up.

"You don't recognize me, Sombra? How disappointing," the creature, looking like a hodge-podge mix of different beings, said.

"That's KING Sombra, Beast!"

"Oh? Heh! Ho! Ho! 'King', is it?," the creature asked laughing. "Well, I guess you can call me the King of Kings—oh, wait—that title's already been taken. Or you can call me Q. Or Peon. Or even Minion, if you so desire—oh, wouldn't those last two be ironic?" it chuckled to itself. "Truth is, I really don't care what you call me. Just so long as you know I'm the one in charge!" it added, this time with a voice dripping with menace.

"Such arrogance, speaking to your betters that way—" King Sombra began.

"I'm arrogant?" the beast exclaimed laughing uproariously, cutting him off. "I'm the one who just got through bringing you back into this world, I can take you right back out again, junior—only this time, you'll feel what it's like to be dead," the creature said; once more the tone of its voice filled with peril.

But then, King Sombra felt all the strength in his body suddenly depart.

"Can you breathe? Can you feel your heart beating?" the creature asked. "Oh? What's this? You can't speak? That's because, you're dead! Again!"

King Sombra tried to use his magic. Nothing. He tried to push himself back to a sitting position. Nothing. He tried to breathe! Nothing. He tried to flick an ear. Nothing. He tried to blink. Nothing.

"You feel the warmth draining out of your body?" the chop suey monstrosity cheerfully asked. "Do you feel the breakdown of your tissues yet? That's because I'm not allowing you the mercy of oblivion to take you. You need to understand: I'm giving you life. You're to do one thing with that life, and one thing only. Fail me, and I'll make sure you'll wish you had never been born. Oh, my, I'm really am doing the plagiarizing bit today, aren't I?" it asked itself as it shifted its body around to lay on its back, using King Sombra's corpse as an impromptu pillow.

"But I don't care. I'll just let you lie there for a bit longer," it said. From King Sombra's peripheral vision, he could see the being use the fur on the back of its lion-like paw to idly polish the talons of its griffon-like claws. "I want you to fully understand just how important it is for you to do as instructed. After all, you've already blown your second chance at life when you tried to retake the Chrystal Empire. As far as I'm concerned, you're toast. However, I do have a need for somepony with your talents right now. And that's the only reason I'm even considering letting you live once more. Otherwise, you'd simply not worth the effort."

What's up with Shadow Wing? Corporal Rackorn signaled with his ears and eyes after the Night Guard departed the next morning.

No idea, Silver Thorn replied. The set of his mouth indicated his displeasure. At first, Rackorn wondered if it was for his inquiry. But then the sergeant signaled some more.

I'm definitely going to get to the bottom of this, his superior sent.

Everyone in the two day teams knew something was wrong.

Normally, there was not this level of coldness between the day and night shifts turning over their duties. Professionalism was one thing: don't be seen bantering. But this early in the morning, with nopony about, there was time and opportunity to do more than simply march up, salute, and take over the watch. Yet, that was exactly what was happening with Shadow Wing's teams for nearly two days in a row.

It made no sense to behave in such a manner….

Gilda slowly woke and found herself alongside the Cat-Lord.

Instantly, she shot out of the bed, immediately waking him.

"You okay, Gilda?" he sleepily asked, looking at her.

"Wh—wha—what—why am I—?" she stammered, still hovering in midair.

"Oh?" the Cat-Lord asked, arching his back and twisting his body to work out the pops from his spine before sitting up.

"Panthera left you with me so you wouldn't feel so alone as you slept," the Cat-Lord said, getting up to divest his toga. Gilda immediately averted her eyes as he did that. "She didn't want to disturb you when she left to go to work with Pardus last night," he finished as he walked out into the hallway on his way to the rest room.

When her breathing came back under control, she could hear the shower going in the bathroom. She settled back to the floor and walked out the bedroom to go downstairs.

She had intended to go to the kitchen to fix herself some breakfast, but she was halted by the sight of the entire floor, and half the walls and ceiling of the living room were covered by those strange metal panels that had completely overtaken the basement. Their purpose still eluded the griffons.

When she cautiously stepped out onto the metal-clad floor, she could see the structural surfaces of the kitchen, like the basement, had been completely relined with those panels. And the two shadowcats were busy at that moment recreating the wall that used to separate the kitchen from the living room. Part of the doorframe was a vertical I-beam supporting one end of a horizontal I-beam member that formed the upper part of the new wall.

"Good morning, Gilda," Panthera greeted as she and Pardus continued to work.

"G-good morn—what is all this?" she blurted out her question.

"Something Trevar is needing to have done if he's to function as an ambassador for Earth to Equestria," Panthera replied.

Gilda watched for several minutes, unable to take her eyes off their work. By the time the shadowcats were finished with the new wall, the Cat-Lord arrived from upstairs dressed in a fresh toga.

"Good morning again, Gild—oooh! That's cold!" he exclaimed as he stepped onto the metal-lined floor. He took a few moments to look about.

"Coming along pretty nicely," he happily said.

"We aim to please," Pardus said, stepping away to give their work a critical view. "Another few days, we should have the entire house reworked. And we should have all the components for the shields by then, too. The only thing I'm concerned about is whether we can find the crystals we need and get them properly charged up."

"What shall we do today?" Gilda asked.

"If you're game, we can do more of what we did yesterday," Panthera said.

"Yeah. At least you don't have to worry about them walking in on you like they did yesterday afternoon," the Cat-Lord said. "Razor said that they were needing to fly to places like Canterlot, Manehattan, Sand Valley, Las Pegasus, and Seaddle to get the rest of the components we need. So they probably won't be able to deliver anything until tomorrow morning at best."

"And we're stocked up on food, so Trevar doesn't need to leave, either," the female shadowcat said, draping a wing over Gilda. "I know you're not ready for him to mate with you, yet. But I'd like him to be with us today. I'd like you to see what he can do with his fingers."

"Wh-what!?" Gilda exclaimed, balking at the idea.

"You don't have to let him even touch you," the shadowcat consoled her. "Just watch what he can to me as we make love. Trust me, you'll grow to like it as much as I."

"Wh-wha-what will Lord Pardus be doing?" Gilda nervously asked.

"I've still more isolators and fasteners for these plates to get, so I'll be out of your hair," Pardus told her. "Oh, and out of your feathers, too," he amended with a grin.

"It says here that a Scottish Shetland pony was arrested for sapientcide," Twilight idly commented as she read the morning's Canterlot Gazette. "Apparently, he had been carrying on a family tradition dating all the way back to the days before Luna had been banished."

"Oh, my!" Rarity exclaimed. "How is such a horrid thing even possible?"

"Well, according to this article, this family had been selling meats to the Griffon Empire for centuries," Twilight said, summarizing the story that was taking up nearly three quarters of the front page and was continued on several pages inside. "This was all supposedly perfectly legal as they had the documentation to show the meats they sold were from non-sapient animals…"

"Eeep!" Fluttershy squeaked.

"…however," Twilight continued after the interruption, "it was during dinner at a diplomatic conference between Princesses Celestia and Luna and Ambassador Gustav that Luna said she recognized who it was she was eating—quite the accomplishment, considering the cow was ground up."

"Whoa, Nelly!" Applejack yelled.

"Wait!" Rainbow Dash cut in. "How would Luna know it was a cow?"

"It explains that deeper into the story," Twilight explained, flipping to the relevant page. "It says she recognized the cow from the taste. Furthermore, Princess Luna said it was the exact same cow she ate only a few days before she was banished as Nightmare Moon. Must've been one hay of a preservative spell," Twilight finished.

"And they say Karma's a bitch!" Spike spoke up.

"It sure is," Pardus agreed.

"No, she's really a bitch! Karma's a Diamond Dog," Spike said, correcting the shadowcat.

"Wait, what? Spike? What are you talking about?" Twilight asked.

"I thought I'd toss my two bits in since we seem to be talking a bunch of random filler stuff," the young dragonling replied.

"SPIKE!" Pinkie Pie screamed. "That's MY job! And why are you even in this conversation?"

"Well, excuse me!" the dragon said, throwing down his napkin and walked off in a huff.

"So who were these Shetland ponies?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It says the family's name was McDonald," Twilight read.

Pardus blinked at her before turning and walking away.

"I'm outta here!" he muttered. "Come along, Pinkie Pie. This conversation has just made such a sudden southerly turn, I'm not willing to stay with it!"

"Just think of using a spell like that to preserve some of your zap-apple jam, AJ!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"That'd sure ta be th' start of a fine investment," the farmer pony agreed.

"Anyhow, thank you all for joining me for breakfast," Twilight said, folding her paper closed and setting it down. "I've got to be running. I've got a bit of a battle at Quills and Sofa to fight."

"Oh?" Rainbow Dash asked, suddenly perking up. "What sort of battle? Who's it with? Hydras? Manticores? Changelings? Parasprites?"

"Obstinacy," Twlight replied.

"Th' proprietor?" Applejack asked astonished.

"Um-hmm," Twilight nodded.

"What'd he do?" the farmpony asked. "Aren't you one of their best customers?"

"I certainly thought so," the alicorn princess said. "But lately, I've been trying to get some supplies from them, but they hardly give me the time of day to speak with anypony. And every time I go in there, they're 'fresh out' of the parts I need! Somepony else just ahead of me always seems to get the last one!"

"Tha' don't sound right," Applejack muttered. "What're they outta?"

"A Svengali-Machiavelli spin schemer manipulator," Twilight replied. "I've ordered two. One's for a backup, but I'll settle for just one right now."

"… Uh … Is tha' a quill? Or a sofa?" Applejack hesitantly asked.

"Neither," the purple princess answered. "It's for an isolation shield chamber modulator. The last one I had burned out a few months back and I can't get a replacement."

"Well, donja think tha' might be parta yer problem, right there?" she asked with a chuckle.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Twilight," Applejack patiently said, draping a hoof over the alicorn's withers. "You're tryin' ta git those Zen-Folly…"

"A Svengali-Machiavelli spin schemer manipulator," Twilight grumbled, interrupting.

"Whaevah," Applejack cut back in. "Donja think tha' tryin' ta git—those things—from 'Quills and Sofas' ain't gonna work out all tha' good when they sell, well, quills and sofas?"

"That's not the point!" Twilight protested. "They sell Swen Gol—" But then Twilight stopped as her pupils and irises suddenly contracted and Applejack had to yank her arm off of her to keep from getting burned as the princess' mane began to smolder.

"They sell Svengali-Machiavelli spin schemer manipulators, too!" Twilight resumed through grinding teeth.

"So, Pardy! Where are we off to?" Pinkie quickly asked as she hopped alongside the shadowcat.

"The usual, Pinkie," Pardus replied, smirking at her. "I've still got more of those parts to buy and you've still got reports to send about what I'm buying."

Pinkie continued to hop alongside him for a few bounces, giggling at the idea he was almost about to say "Try to take over the world," before she suddenly halted in shock at what he had actually stated.

"Wait!" she exclaimed. "You knew about what I've been doing?"

"Are you kidding?" Pardus asked, not breaking stride. "Please, don't tell me you thought you had me fooled. I was aware of you following me for days."

"Bu—but how did you know?" Pinkie asked, trotting up alongside him. He apparently took no notice of how her mane had deflated.

"We anticipated that someone would be following us around," he replied, glancing at her. "It didn't take us anytime to spot that it was you. Oh, nice hairstyle," he added. Evidently, he did notice. But it didn't cheer her up any.

"Seriously?" he asked, glancing at her. He continued to look at her as they walked. After a couple of steps, his form rippled and he vanished. And after a couple more steps, his image reappeared with the same rippling effect.

"I'm a shadowcat," he stated. "That sort of 'game' you're trying to play is in our DNA. Although, I have to say, I'm impressed that you managed to elude my detection for a few hours yesterday while following me about. But during that time, you must've figured out we were using the griffons to do our real shopping."

"Oh!" Pinkie happily exclaimed, suddenly understanding as her mane and tail resumed their normal bouncy curls. Of course, I couldn't expect to out-spy a spying sneak born to such sneaking! "Yeah—s—something like that," she nervously responded.

The next morning, Gilda watched the beginning of another absolutely gorgeous day as the sun rose. Who cared if the weather pegasi were buzzing about setting up for a rainstorm for the early hours? Yesterday and the day before were equally gorgeous, both being bright and sunny. She had had Panthera for most of two days straight and all to herself!

Of course, the moment she had arrived the day before yesterday, she had been immediately pounced upon by the Cat-Lord and both shadowcats, making her swear seventeen ways to Tartarus to keep anything she saw or heard in the Cat-Lord's residence an ultra-important state secret. Seeing as how both Mittens and Screaming Eagle stood by indicated that they had already been briefed.

She had asked if any of the others had yet been likewise briefed, and they confirmed that so far, the three of them were the only ones. A part of her hoped she could be present when Razor was brought in for whatever this was about.

And she was so grateful to the Cat-Lord. Lady Panthera had been true to her word on their first day together. The Cat-Lord had not tried to force himself onto her, either by action or demand. However, on the next day, Lady Panthera did insist on him being present to show Gilda how to pleasure the shadowcat.

Later that afternoon, Pardus had returned from his shopping and joined in as well. If Panthera had any sort of objection to his attentions, she never disclosed it. Indeed, she genuinely seemed to welcome his touch as much as she had that of the Cat-Lord's.

And those—hands—of the Cat-Lord could instantly set both shadowcats loudly purring with just the slightest of caresses. It was an absolute eerie thing to witness.

After several times of imploring by Panthera to Gilda to allow the Cat-Lord to show the griffon what he was capable of delivering, Gilda finally relented as the evening approached, but still with reservations.

However, instead of jumping her as he had Panthera, the Cat-Lord was very circumspect in his approach. He kept his head bowed to her, and before making any effort to touch her, he presented his—hands—to her for inspection.

Despite not having a feline's form, the Cat-Lord certainly did know how to speak Cat in his body movements. And while he made plenty of mistakes with his inexpert and amateurish attempts to preen her feathers, his gentleness and calm approach actually made his efforts rather endearing. Moreover, his touch really was incredibly pleasurable! In a couple of hours, she had come to realize that she had wasted so much opportunity resisting his advances. There were only so many hours in a day, and she had recklessly thrown away over a day-and-a-half.

However, as wonderful as the days were, the nights were rather disappointing. The first night there, both shadowcats had departed in the middle of the night, having deposited her unconscious form alongside the Cat-Lord's for her to sleep off her exhaustion.

The second night, they insisted they had to depart for the entire night and refused to say where they were going or what they were going to do. Gilda stayed awake for the entire night, waiting for Panthera' return.

When they finally did return, it was only in the very early hours of this morning, as they made several trips to haul in dozens and dozens of those odd metal plates, ferrying them from where they entered the house through a window of one of the unoccupied upstairs bedrooms down to the basement for storage. That action was still going on even as the sun rose. They had left once more and Gilda waited. Wherever they were going, it was only a quarter hour trip out and back. As she watched the pegasi preparing the clouds, it was almost time for the shadowcats' next return.

But then….

"Shadow Wing," Silver Thorn began as he led his team to meet with the Night Guard ponies. "We need to talk."

"About what?" Shadow Wing asked, looking at him curiously.

"About our normal passdown procedures," Silver Thorn said. "Is there some problem going on that I'm not aware of? Is there something that I or my team did to offend you? If so, I'm sure that we can work it—"

However, the unexpected crack across the jaw from the butt of Shadow Wing's spear suddenly ended the conversation as well as dropped Silver Thorn in the dirt. When the unicorn could process what was happening again, the surprise and shock of the attack paled to the sight of not only his team being seriously on the defensive from the Night Guard, but that there were dozens of townsponies rushing in from around the houses to join in the attack on his team, too.

Silver Thorn was about to try standing upon his feet again when he sighted Rackorn, who had been parrying both Shadow Wing and his corporal, Midnight Flame, managed to get some lucky strikes in that should've been enough to disable anypony from continuing to attack. What happened, next was unexpected, but in hindsight, should've been anticipated: bursts of green flame erupted from both Night Guard and their bodies were replaced by black carapaced figures.

"They're changelings! Come on, girls! Let's get 'em" somepony yelled.

Of course it wasn't the real Shadow Wing, Silver Thorn belatedly realized. Had it been the real Night Guard attacking, his head would likely have been removed by that attack! But even if the sucker punch wasn't delivered at the strength that he knew Shadow Wing could deliver, it wasn't one that could be ignored.

Silver Thorn struggled to get to his hooves again to join in the defense. And it was at that moment that somepony—some changeling, rather—bit him on the neck and he felt much of his strength departing him.

At first, Rainbow thought the guards were pulling a training exercise on each other. That first strike sure looked almost real, however and the altercation pulled in her full attention, as well as several of her weather team wing mates. What was really odd was that over a dozen townsponies had also joined in the "attack" on the Day Guard. Something just wasn't right with this picture.

But then one of the day guardponies got a strike against two that he was fending off and both his opponents burst into green fire to reveal…

"They're changelings!" Rainbow screamed, incensed the bugponies had the audacity to renew their attack on Equestria in Ponyville of all places! "Come on, girls! Let's get 'em" she yelled, leading the charge. However, just before she could strike at one of the Night Guard ponies, who also must have been changelings in reality, something rammed into her, driving her into the ground instead.

The impact into the dirt wasn't as bad as those she had done to herself, and Rainbow still had the wherewithal to look at what had hit her. She saw Thunderlane standing over her, glaring at her. And with green fire, Thunderlane was suddenly replaced with a black glistening bug pony!

"No!" Rainbow whispered in horror. Not only had so many townsponies been replaced, but evidently the entire Night Guard assigned to protect the visiting humans as well as an unknown number of her fellow pegasi in the weather team!

Suddenly getting pissed, Rainbow jumped up to deliver a satisfying right fore-hoof to the Thunderlane impostor, dropping it to the dirt with blood coming from its broken jaw. That got the attention of several of the attacking bug ponies, many of them obviously still in disguise. That suited Rainbow just fine. She had lots of payback to deliver.

But before she could begin, several pairs of orange beams of light suddenly started hitting the attacking changelings, instantly dropping them. In those cases where the beams hit disguised changelings, they were forced to revert to their true form before falling. However, the orange beams didn't just hit changelings. A couple of Day Guards also got hit which dropped them as well.

Rainbow didn't have any idea where those beams were coming from, and she looked about in confusion, as did the changelings. But it didn't take long for a clue to reveal itself. The human male and Gilda dropped down among the melee from one window and one of the shadowcats came out from the other, and Rainbow saw that Panthera was shooting orange eyebeams from her eyes as another set continued to strike at both friend and foe.

It must be Pardus! she suddenly realized. But why is he nailing the Day Guard, too?

A few of the changelings tried to attack the human, Gilda, and Panthera. Gilda sliced one open with her claws, the human male moved in a fluid motion to kick one changeling with a hind leg, deliver a punch with one of his forelegs to a second, and nearly took off the head of a third with a spinning kick from the other rear leg. But what really impressed Rainbow Dash was when four changelings simultaneously jumped Panthera, they all screamed and fell the instant they touched her while shooting a fifth, much distant changeling, with her blazing orange eyes. Watching all that, Rainbow absently back-hooved a changeling that had tried to sneak up on her while she was distracted by the show.

But just then, a pair of those orange beams hit her in the chest and, other than the fact it felt like she had just been kicked by a mule, her overwhelming thought as everything turned black was, Why!?

Gilda had just made her second kill when there suddenly no more changelings to fight; they were all unconscious. So were the ponies!

"Lord Trevar!?" Gilda exclaimed. "Why did you take down the ponies, too? That's Rainbow Dash over there!"

"We couldn't tell any difference between them and the dopplegangers," Pardus said as he returned to a visible state. "The only way to be sure was to take them all down. We've merely stunned them. No one's been harmed, but they'll be unconscious for a few hours."

"In the meantime, we'll need something to bind these creatures," Lord Trevar said, looking at the scene.

"GILDA!?" a voice from above called out to her, and she instinctively spun about, ready to fight. It was Blood Feather—or at least it appeared to be her. "What are all these changelings doing here?" Blood Feather demanded as she landed and took a look about.

"That's what we'd like to know," Gilda said, not relaxing her combat stance. "Panthera? Pardus? Would one of you do the honors of checking?"

It was Pardus who reached out a wing to lay on Blood Feather and the griffon was instantly screaming as her body jerked about from the lightning playing over her body. She immediately collapsed but remained a griffon.

"She's real," Pardus said withdrawing his wing.

"Wh-wha-what the s-s-sq-quit was that for!?" Blood Feather rasped as she tried to lift her head.

"Couldn't tell if you were one of them," Pardus said by way of apology. "I'll go get some help in restraining these creatures," the shadowcat told the Cat-Lord, who absently nodded after the shadowcat had already departed in the direction of the Apple family farm.

"Wait, Lord Trevar!" Gilda exclaimed. "He shouldn't go off alone! What if they replace him?"

"If they can take down Pardus, we've got bigger things to worry about. Like that they'd be able to take down Pardus," the Cat-lord replied amused.

"We should kill these monsters…" Gilda began as she raised a claw to dispatch another changeling when she suddenly felt her arm being held back even though nothing was near her to restrain her.

"No," the Cat-Lord said shaking his head and giving her a stern look. "If we kill them all, we can't get any answers!"

"Unless their biology is radically different from everyone we've encountered, the blasts Pardus and I gave them should keep them down for hours," Panthera calmly said as she began to telekinetically collect and sort the bodies of ponies and changelings. Evidently, all of the weather team had also been taken down. What was worrying was that more than half of them had been the creatures in disguise. "But don't worry. I'll be keeping an eye out for signs of early recovery."

"Would you and Blood Feather do us a favor and go get the purple alicorn and anyone she deems appropriate?" the Cat-Lord asked.

"Heh! Ar--are y-you kidding!?" Blood Feather squawked as she was still shakily trying to raise up to a sitting position only to fall flat on the ground again.

"Wh-what if the princess is one of them?" Gilda nervously asked. "What if they replace me when I bring them the news?"

"Then we deal with the creatures and hunt you all down wherever they stash you," the Cat-Lord grimly told her. "Or at least avenge you. I've still got two shadowcats and six of these pony guards plus Rainbow Dash and her pegasi friends to do that with."

"Y-yes, Cat-Lord," Gilda nervously whispered. But the Cat-Lord gripped her by either side of her face and looked deeply into her eyes.

"I know you're scared," he gently told her. "I've no idea of how peaceful your world has become or for how long. I don't want to lose you or see you hurt, but this is a potentially a killing situation and you are a warrior at heart. Trust in your instincts; they've guided your species this far. And watch that 'Cat-Lord' bullshit," he softly finished with a grin and a wink.

"Yes, Lord Trevar," Gilda meekly replied to which the Cat-Lord rolled his eyes and released her. Then she was off.

Blood Feather was still trying to get back up on her feet. Whatever the shadowcat did to her, it had sapped nearly all the strength and energy out of her. If ever there was something she desired from the Cat-Lord and his Sky-Lord mate who made them all, was this secret so she could repay her embassy duty drill instructor. He would appreciate this….

"Wh-what did he do to me?" she hissed as she finally managed to get all four legs to working without renewed weakness suddenly threatening to topple her back down.

"Lo—Lord Trevar," Blood Feather said as she stepped up to the Cat-Lord, "Blood F-Feather re-reporting for duty."

"Knock it off with the 'Lord Trevar' bullshit, already," the Cat-Lord said face palming. "It's just 'Trevar' or you can also call me 'Allec' as that's my first name. And it's just 'Panthera', too. Not 'Lady Pardus'. Although Pardus still insists on being call 'His Most Shining And Illustrious Majesty, The Great And Powerful Lord Pardus, First Of His Name'."

Lady Panthera snorted.

"If she uses that, he's so-o-o-o going to get back at you for that," the female shadowcat said snickering.

"And make sure you bow to him," Trevar added. "With especially deep bowing when he farts."

Blood Feather just blinked at him.

"Trevar's kidding, of course!" Panthera spoke up, rescuing her. Blood Feather flinched as the shadowcat draped a wing over her, but she relaxed when no more lightning came from the touch. Fortunately, Panthera didn't hold her long like that before resuming her guard duty over the unconscious changeling prisoners.

"Go on inside, get something to eat and freshen up," Trevar told her, to which Blood Feather expressed her gratitude.

Once inside the Embassy, Blood Feather's first goal was the pantry in which the passionfruits were stored. The count confirmed that there was no change from yesterday or the day before.

Applejack and Big Mac had just finished loading the cart that doubled as the market stall with the day's load of baked apple pastries along with the dozen bushels of apples for the daily order from Sugar Cube Corners when one of those creepy shadowcats suddenly appeared between them.

"You guys know anything about creatures called 'changelings'?" Pardus asked. His arrival caused Applejack to nearly jump out of her skin, and even the normally unflappable Big Mac's eyes contracted.

"Where'd the hay'dju come from!?" Applejack screamed. The black cat blinked and looked at her.

"… Well, when a daddy shadowcat and a momma shadowcat really like each other very, very much … uh … but … um … that's not important right now," Pardus said with a smirk.

"Enyope!" Big Mac agreed.

"Anyhow," Pardus began again. "Do you guys know what it takes to restrain changelings? I've got a passle of them back at Trevar's that need to be tied up."

"We've got rope in th' barn," Applejack said, her ears perking up. "How many's in yer passle?"

"Thirty," Pardus replied. "You sure that rope will hold them? They're shape changers, after all."

"It should," Applejack said, rubbing her chin with a hoof. "Iffen we run th' lines through them holes in their legs. Th' Guardsponies put their hoofcuffs through them when they find a…."

"Oh. Before I forget," Pardus added, spreading his wings.

Applejack screamed and fell to the dirt. Her brother hadn't been dropped but she could tell from his expression he'd felt that! For his part, he delivered a buck on the winged panther. They each looked surprised by the other. His buck had shoved the shadowcat a full inch across the ground.

"Damn! I'm impressed," Pardus said, looking down at the divot made.

"Eyyup! Me, too," Big Mac replied.

"Why'dju go and do that fer?" Applejack yelled at him, picking herself up from the ground.

"Just checking," Pardus said. "We couldn't tell the changelings from the real ponies until we forced them to drop their disguises. So it's either zorking you guys like that or hitting you with my eyebeams. And I guarantee you'll be out for a few hours if I used them." Big Mac stared at the shadowcat for a few moments then nodded.

"Git th' rope, Applejack," her brother said.

Gilda was never so scared in her life. She was supposed to be protecting the Cat-Lord, not rushing off to possibly fetch more danger for him! If her father ever found out, she'd be lucky to get off with a tar-and-feathering!

Fortunately, the Cat-Lord had the shadowcats on talon to deal with those monsters. Strong, sure. Turn invisible? Well, they're called 'shadowcats' for a damned good reason! Lightning? That shouldn't be unexpected. Being flyers, they possibly could access weather magic that griffons couldn't. But she had no idea that they had the ability to shoot magic beams from their eyes!

She had a hard time figuring out what had just happened. One moment, the day looked to hold such promise. Then next, everything was going to squit! And it all happened so fast that she hadn't been able to process everything.

She had been looking out the window at the pegasi preparing the day for the rain, watching her former friend, Rainbow Dash, work with her wing mates setting the clouds in their places. Then the Cat-Lord bolted up out of bed and leapt out the window. What did he think he was doing? She instantly followed. She only had enough time to see there was fighting already going on and Panthera had leapt from the window of the next room over to join in on the fray.

Instincts had taken over, seeing as one side of the fight, the much larger numbered side, were changelings! And it was clear which side the Cat-Lord and shadowcat had chosen. Gilda only had an instant to strike out against a couple of foes before the fight was already over. Evidently, the changelings had no idea there were two shadowcats they were fighting. But then the shadowcats took out the ponies, too! As well as Rainbow Dash and her weather teams. But what they said when they explained the situation made perfect sense: if there was no way to tell friend from foe, you couldn't trust anyone!

But it was most impressive that the Cat-Lord and shadowcats had the solution to that problem: incapacitate everyone without harming them, then sort them out later!

Her thoughts ate up all the time it took to fly to the crystal castle and she hoped that the Cat-Lord was correct in putting his trust in Twilight Sparkle. What the alicorn will make of them knocking out Rainbow Dash was anygriffon's guess. Assuming it is the alicorn she'll be bringing back…. And that's assuming she'll be then one bringing the alicorn princess back….

Blood Feather stepped outside in time to see the other human also exit her house across the street.

"What in God's name is going on out here?" she asked, looking about in horror at the scene of so many bodies about.

"'Morning, Lieutenant," Lord Trevar greeted her. "You're just in time to help with the cleanup. We had a little encounter with creatures that apparently can assume the identity of anyone about them. They seem to be called 'changelings'."

"These things?" she asked, pointing to the black bug ponies. "But what happened to these others?"

"We couldn't tell them apart until we knocked them all out," Panthera said, materializing alongside her. "Speaking of which," she said holding out a wing.

The high pitch of the human female's screams actually hurt Blood Feather's hearing while it lasted.

The crumpled figure twitched uncontrollably for several moments before rolling on her side.

"Don't worry, Lieutenant," Lord Trevar told her. "It's just like getting tasered. You'll be alright in a few moments. We just had to make sure it was you."

"D-d-did y-y-you have to use so much juice?" she asked.

"Sorry, but it was that or knock your ass out for a few hours," the Cat-Lord told her. "And here comes Applejack and Big Mac."

"Yep, ya'll sure gotta passle of changelings," the farmpony said as they arrived. "Wait! Is that Rainbow!?" she demanded, rushing over to check on the cyan pegasus with the multicolored mane.

"It's okay," Panthera said as she stood nearby. "She and the others are just sleeping off the effects of our eye beams. You brought the rope, I see. Are you sure that running them through the holes in their legs will hold them?"

"Wait! I told that ta Pardus!" Applejack exclaimed. "How'dju know wha Ah said 'bout tyin' up changelings?"

"What Pardus sees and hears, I see and hear. And vice versa," Panthera said smirking.

"So there's no way that a changeling can impersonate one of them," the Cat-Lord explained.

"Unless, the changelings impersonate both of them," the human female countered, speaking up as she managed to get to her feet.

Blood Feather was incensed. The human bitch didn't need nearly as much time to recover as she had.

"Well, they can try," the Cat-Lord replied smiling. "But I'll know the difference."

Celestia tried to peer through the distortion that Trevar and the shadowcats evidently created whenever she tried to use her scrying spell. There was some sort of activity going on about the houses where the humans resided but she couldn't get beyond the blurred and indistinct figures. And when she saw the distortion suddenly affect the area about the Apple family homestead as well, she puzzled on what could be going on. As she watched and waited, she also noticed some activity going on at the crystal castle as Twilight Sparkle rushed out with Gilda hot on her hooves toward the main part of the town.

At that moment, a scroll materialized in front of her. A message from Spike the dragon.

Quickly opening it, she read and her eyes showed her horror.

"Changelings!?" she exclaimed in shock.

"GUARDS!" she screamed. "GET MY CHARIOT AND A FULL COMPANY TOGETHER, NOW! WE FLY TO PONYVILLE!"

Gilda didn't relish the idea of leading the pink menace or the butter-colored pegasus back to Lord Trevar, but the purple princess insisted they accompany her to the scene along with the white unicorn.

At least they hadn't tried to replace her with a changeling. Not yet.

They arrived in sight of the Cat-Lord's home and things still looked to be under control. The farm pony friend of Rainbow Dash and her brother were aiding Lord Trevar, the shadowcats, and Blood Feather. The human female also was there. And the changelings all looked to be tied up with a few judicious ropes strung through their legs linking groups of them together.

"Lor—uh—Trevar!" Gilda called out. "I've brought the Princess and her friends! A dispatch has been sent to Princess Celestia informing her of the changeling attack."

"Good," he said nodding to her. "Unfortunately, you know what this means."

"D-do you have to?" Gilda nervously asked, dreading getting zapped.

"Afraid so, given the nature of the enemy we're facing," Lord Trevar told her. "The shadowcats aren't able to tell the difference by their senses, so…."

"What's going—EYAAaargh!" Twilight screamed along with Gilda when Pardus suddenly appeared between them and draped a wing over each. At the same time, Pinkie Pie and Rarity screamed as Panthera did the same with them.

"What was that for!?" Twilight Sparkle angrily demanded as she stood there, fuming. Gilda, on the other talon, felt as though her feathers were still smoldering as she laid in the dirt. It hurt just as bad as that hoof-buzzer prank Rainbow Dash had pulled on her at the party a few years back.

"Had to make sure you weren't one of these changelings," Pardus told her as he turned to look at Fluttershy.

"Eeep!" the timid pegasus squeaked, backing away from the approaching shadowcat. "Uhmm … For your information, I hope you understand that I'mnotachangeling!"

"A wise individual once said, 'trust but verify'," Panthera said as she materialized from nothing behind the pegasus as she brought her paw down upon her rump. "Nothing personal. We're just verifying."

"EEEEK!" Fluttershy screamed as the voltage played over her body. When it was over, she looked up surprised.

"Oh! That wasn't even as much as a normal lightning strike!" she exclaimed, giggling.

"I hate you," Gilda softly muttered as she finally struggled back to her feet, glaring at the yellow pegasus.

"Gilda, I have a message for you from your father at the Embassy," Blood Feather said, walking up to her and pulling a scroll from under her wing.

Puzzled, Gilda took the scroll and opened it, reading the contents:

Dear Gilda,

I've asked one of your fellow guards to relay this message to you.

As soon as you read this, please make your way to the Embassy post haste. There is a vitally urgent matter we need to discuss.

Ambassador Gustav"

"Lo—uh—Trevar," Gilda said to the Cat-Lord, "I have to go see my father in Canterlot."

"It shouldn't be a problem. We've got everything in hand here," the Cat-Lord told her. "Do you want me to send one of the shadowcats with you? Just in case?"

"No," Gilda responded, touched by the offer. "No, you might need them more here," she finished.

"Okay," he said. "Just you take care, now. There are players starting to take things a little too serious in their game."

"I'll be careful," Gilda told him before taking off for the capitol.

"Is there anything we can do for them?" Twilight Sparkle asked as she looked over the ponies still out.

"We've made them as comfortable as we can," Trevar told her. "They should pull out of this in a few hours."

"So far, we've not had anyone die from the heavy stun setting," Pardus spoke up.

"We've seen what your eye blasts can do to timberwolves," Twilight scolded him. "What made you think it was a good idea to use those on Rainbow Dash and her fellow pegasi?"

"With those—timberwolves—Panthera was using lethal force," Pardus acknowledged with a nod. "Although, they resisted the normally lethal yellow force blast. It took the heat and higher settings to destroy them. We knew there was the possibility they were innocent ponies, so we used the strongest non-lethal force to apply. Although, in hindsight, it may have been wiser to have used the light stun setting. But we didn't want to have to repeat ourselves if we finally ran out of attackers only for the first ones we took down to jump up and start the fight all over again."

About halfway to Canterlot, Gilda saw the approaching forces from there with Celestia in the lead chariot. The Day Diarch called a halt to her troops.

"Ho! Gilda!" Celestia called when the griffon came into range.

"Princess Celestia!" Gilda happily greeted. Until Celestia hit her with a spell.

"What was that for?" Gilda exclaimed, feeling over her chest with her talons.

"Apologies, Gilda," Celestia said. "That was a spell to see if you were a changeling."

"Heh! More pleasant than the methods employed by the shadowcats," the griffon acknowledged.

"Have you encountered any changelings?" Celestia asked, horrified.

"Yeah! The shadowcats make quick work of them," Gilda told her. "They captured thirty of them over by—Trevar's—house," she said, remembering to not let drop any information about him being the Cat-Lord. But she was still having difficulty in not at least referring to him as 'Lord Trevar'. "I'm sorry to report, but all of Princess Luna's Night Guard had been replaced by them! We had no idea until they tried to do the same with your Day Guard."

"How are my ponies?" Celestia inquired.

"They're unconscious, but safe," Gilda told her. "The shadowcats couldn't tell the disguised changelings apart from real ponies, and so just knocked them all out. But the changelings all reverted when they got taken down.

"Sorry, but I can't stay," Gilda said, moving to go around. "I got a message from my father to report to him right away. Bye!" she said, flying off.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed, seeing her old mentor arrive via chariot.

"Twilight, my dear," Celestia greeted as she stepped off the chariot to nuzzle her in return. "How goes it?"

"It looks like you're just in time," the shadowcat Panthera said. "They're coming around."

"Wh-what happened?" Sergeant Silver Thorn moaned as he woke. "What the hay hit m—Princess Celestia!?" he exclaimed as his vision evidently cleared enough to take in who was standing over him.

"At ease, my little pony," Celestia kindly told him. "You've been through a harrowing ordeal."

"Ow! My head!" another figure called out causing Celestia to turn to look. "Hey! Panthera! Wh-why did ya zap me?"

"I'm sorry I had to do that, Rainbow Dash," Panthera said to her. "We couldn't be sure who was pony and who was an imposter."

"Really? You couldn't tell an awesome pony like me from a bunch of fakes?" the spectrum maned pegasus complained, making Celestia smile.

"They took you down the same as Sergeant Silver Thorn," Pardus muttered. "Sort of hard to see any awesomeness when she's face first in the dirt."

"Speaking of which," Silver Thorn grumbled, getting to his hooves, "where's the bug that sucker punched me?"

"That would be this one," Pardus said, pointing to one of the changelings that was beginning to stir in its restraints.

"Hey! HEY, YOU!" Silver Thorn yelled, grabbing the changeling by the shoulder with his hoof and giving it a shake.

"Where are the ponies you replaced? What'd you do with Shadow Wing?" Silver Thorn demanded.

"Now, Now. Th—that's really not important," the changeling replied with a grin.

"Who the HAY do you think you are!?" the sergeant roared.

"Who decides that the workday is from 9 to 5, instead of 11 to 4?" the changeling asked in response. "Who decides that the taillengths will be below the hocks this year and short again next year? Who draws up the borders, controls the currency, handles all of the decisions that happen transparently around us?"

"I don't know."

"Ah! I'm with them. Same group, different department," the changeling answered, grinning.

"What are you talking about?" Silver Thorn demanded.

"I mean, I'm from the government," the changeling replied. "And I'm here to help."

But before anyone could react to that cryptic response, the sound of something's roar interrupted the interrogation as everyone turned to see a large dark cloud approaching.

"What the hay is that!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, pointing, getting Celestia's attention.

"A cloud of nanites," Pardus said.

"Another smoke monster?" the human male asked, glancing at the shadowcat. At the cat's nod, Trevar's face turned grim. He took a few steps toward the approaching mass.

Celestia puzzled over their conversation, but not for long.

Suddenly, five long crystal spears shot up from the ground to pierce the human through the chest from multiple directions. The human female screamed in horror, and the ponies all gasped in shock.

As Trevar's frame shuddered and reacted to getting stabbed, a face began to form from the midst of the dark cloud.

"Celestia!" a voice boomed across the land. "How I wish I could repay you for what you did in forcing me from my throne all those centuries ago. But I can at least do you a favor. Now that this monkey is dealt with, I'll take my time with the two shadowcats. Then we'll call it 'even'."

Sombra!? Celestia thought, recoiling in shock. And Chrysalis? This is what Discord defines as 'help'!?

"You bastard! You killed Kenny!" Pardus screamed as he and Panthera both fired violet beams from their eyes.

The face roared in response to the beams converging on it, but didn't seem fazed.

But then suddenly, a brilliant flare of light burst forth, causing even Celestia to shield her eyes. And she heard Sombra roar as if in pain.

As her vision fought to recover, she heard a voice in her head. A voice that sounded like Trevar. But that should be impossible.

"Interesting. This one's also psychotic. I'm beginning to wonder. Was it due to the process of imprinting their engrams on the nanites, or were they psychotic to begin with? Either way, this one has to be taken down, too."

Her recovering vision could almost make out a figure, but then a second flare burst from the location, blinding her once more and once more, she heard Sombra roar.

How is this possible? Celestia wondered. I can look directly at my sun for hours without suffering any injury to my eyes, but this burst?

"Shields!" she heard a voice yell out. Again, it sounded like Trevar's. Only this came to her through her ears.

As her vision recovered quicker this time, she had but a moment to see that some sort of dark opaque disk had appeared beneath the dark cloud of Sombra just above the tree line, and a bipedal figure had leapt up to stand on the disk. Once he was up there, a dark dome suddenly grew from the edges of the disk to contain both the human and the dark cloud.

A ripping, tearing sound grabbed her attention, and when she turned her head to look, trots of dirt, rock, and gravel was being pulled up from the road leading to the Apple family farm to hover in the air alongside the dark dome that now had flashes of lightning going on from inside it.

Panthera then began firing a steady blast of green eyebeams at the dirt, and she could see the dirt begin to glow red and melt, coalescing into a large glowing sphere that quickly turned orange. She and the ponies watching the spectacle could feel the heat coming from the mass.

As she watched in amazement at the two separate events, she wondered.

Could Discord have been right?

Arriving at the Griffon Embassy, the griffon guards allowed Gilda to pass. She made her way to her father's office with little more than the usual greetings and looks from the embassy staff.

Her father's aid, Stehlen was at her desk as Gilda entered.

"Good morning, Gilda," Stehlen greeted. "Your father's waiting. Go on in."

"Thanks, Stehlen," Gilda replied. She pushed open the door to see her father at his desk with a goblet of wine.

"Good morning, Gilda," he softly said.

Uh-oh! she instantly thought, instinctively cringing. She knew from experience whenever he started speaking out this softly, the storm is just about to strike.

"Please lock the door behind you," he added before taking a sip.

She did so, then turned to face him.

"You wished to see me, Father?" she asked, determined to get the weather over with.

"Why did you not mate with the Cat-Lord?" Gustav suddenly roared at her.

She was quite startled, naturally.

So, this is what it's about, she thought. But she had made her determination long ago, and she was one subject on which she wasn't going to back down. This was merely a continuation of a 'family discussion' that had been going on for years.

"I don't see how it is any of your business who I sleep with, Father!" she roared back. "We finished this matter the last time we talked!"

"Like hay we did!" he growled.

"You want to hate me for being a hen-plucker? Then fine! I'M A BRONKING HEN-PLUCKER, FATHER! AND NOTHING YOU SAY IS GOING TO CHANGE THAT!" she screamed at him. "THERE! I HOPE THE TRUTH MAKES YOU HAPPY!"

"Is that what you think this is about?" he sadly asked her.

"What else can it be?" she demanded.

"Have you heard about how many eggs failed to hatch this season?" he softly asked. "How many chicks were deformed?"

"Something," Gilda replied, puzzled what that had to do with any of the issues between them. "About five percent or so, if I recall."

"It's far worse than what the rumors you've heard," he told her, taking a deep gulp of his wine. "A full thirty percent. Nearly a third of all viable eggs didn't hatch."

She couldn't believe what her father was telling her.

"And of those eggs that did hatch, nearly a quarter of the chicks had deformities so bad that—that—their parents—" he couldn't finish. He had to take another draw of his wine before he could look at her again.

"Thir—?" she gasped. "The others! Do they know!?"

"Of course," he morosely replied, taking another sip. "That's what you get for missing staff meetings. And just so you know, if word of this ever gets out—there will be war! One … final … glorious … last one. For us, anyway. And it's only a matter of time before somegriffon finally puts the pieces together and sees the big picture. Then it will be the end. They won't want to go quietly. Knowing they're the last, they'll all want to go out fighting. And they will. The ponies, the dragons, the minotaurs, all the other races—they'll put us down for the insanity that will overtake us."

Gilda could only stand there in shock.

"Do-do the princesses know?" she was able to finally ask.

"I pray to the Cat-Lord and his mate that made us that they don't!" he responded. "As much as they're our friends—I'd never be able to stomach their pity. I don't know of any griffon that can."

"I … I see," she said, finally understanding as the tears began to flow from her eyes. It's true. She'd never be able to look at Celestia or Luna in the face again if she knew they knew.

"I don't hate you for being a hen-plucker, Gilda," Gustav sighed, looking deep into his glass of wine. "You can chase hens, or pony mares, or dragonesses even, all hours of the day and night for all I care. I won't hate you for it. Quite the opposite. I'll still love you, my darling Gilda. You're my daughter and I will always love you."

"But—so what is it that you find in me to be such a disappointment to you?" she yelled.

"You're not doing your duty to your species!" he growled before taking another sip. He savored the flavor before finally swallowing.

"Our race is dying, Gilda," he softy told her. "There will come a day there will be no more griffons. Then, it won't matter what hen you wanted to pluck. Or mare you filly-hoofed, or dragoness, or—" He took another gulp, finishing the glass. When he turned to look at her, there were tears flowing down his cheek.

"I'm not asking you to love any male you don't want to live with," he said, glaring at her. He suddenly threw his empty glass into the fireplace where it shattered into hundreds of shards. "I'm not asking you to marry one and to be faithful to the bloody worthless bird," he calmly said, at odds to the violence he just displayed.

"I'm asking you to save our species!" he pleaded "The eggs you will lay can be barren, or they can save us as a race. The choice is yours. I'm not going to judge you. After I'm gone—after every other griffon is gone—there won't be anyone left to judge you! Except, perhaps, yourself."

She couldn't form a response to that.

"And if you are the last of us, Gilda," he finally said to her, "please remember this conversation. Remember it and curse the day you chose to not mate with the Cat-Lord when you had the opportunity to save us. And because of it, there will be no more future Gildas to chase after hens or mares or mollies or … anything else."

He turned and left, going into the code room. She had never seen her father looking so wretched, not since mother had died…. But she didn't know which shocked her more: the devastated look her father had as he left, or the news he had delivered.

Thirty percent!? She was still trying to process the information. The horror that so many were lost! It was beyond belief.

She turned and unlatched the doors leading out and closed them when she had stepped out.

"How was it, this time?" Stehlen kindly asked.

"I think we both got the worst of it, this time," Gilda replied before walking on out.

Then, as she stepped out of the building, she looked out toward Ponyville. Her eyes were good enough to make out the ponies there, but she could not see much of the grounds around the Cat-Lord's home as terrain, foliage and the angle was bad.

But something at the location caught her eye. A glowing orb was hovering there above the trees. Suddenly, it shot up into the sky, and a few moments later, she heard the sonic boom of its travel.

Her heart caught in her throat at the sight.

What the hay just happened!?