Rainbow Dash just couldn't believe her eyes anymore. Not after today.

First, she had watched the human creature get stabbed straight through the torso by several crystal pylons shooting up from the ground. But after a couple blinding flashes of light, when she could see again, he had leapt up to a hovering black disk to do mono-a-mono battle with Sombra himself!

The actual fight itself was disappointingly hidden away by a black dome, evidently created by the shadowcats' magic somehow. But the dome and disk floor couldn't completely hold back dozens of flashes of light. Those lightning strikes must've been incredible to still shine through those inky black barriers.

Having to put out several fires that flared up in the Apple Family orchard only momentarily distracted her from the spectacle she could only guess at that was going on inside the hovering black object containing them.

But then, the dome suddenly shrunk, forming a lip with the disk around it on which Trevar emerged, quietly walking out whole and unharmed!

Well, unharmed as far as Rainbow could determine—other than a really, really bad case of the mange, seeing as the human had lost all his clothes and barely had any fur left on most of his body….

But as the shadowcats transferred the black dome into the molten rock they had created to place Sombra into, Trevar simply stepped off the disk and landed on his feet on the ground below! Instantly, the black disk was gone.

Even so, the fight must've taken a toll on him, as he staggered before falling from his upright posture to a more normal stance like everypony else. In addition, Trevar began coughing like he must've been in a room filled with smoke. Of course, considering how Sombra had existed as smoke, that probably wasn't much of a stretch.

Panthera walked over to help Trevar as Pardus took charge of the molten blob and began taking it on a trip to the sun. After hugging him with a wing, she helped him back to his feet as he continued to hack up whatever Sombra had done to him.

"Come on," she said. "Let's get you inside. We can all use the rest!"

"Whoa! You fought King Sombra all by yourself?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed rushing up to them. "Awesome! How was that?"

"Not very pleasant!" Trevar snapped.

"S—sorry." But her whispered apology was drowned out by Panthera noisily clearing her throat.

"S—sorry, Rainbow," Trevar quickly apologized to her after a glance at the shadowcat. But then he had to deal with a renewed coughing fit. "I'll be alright in a few hours or so. But it's—not something I would recommend if you want to keep your health."

"Y-yeah," Rainbow mournfully replied. "Sorry 'bout buggin' you over it."

"Like I said, I'll be alright in a bit," Trevar said. "I just need to rest up for a while. By the way, has anyone else noticed the changelings are gone?" he asked, gesturing with his nose toward the prisoners had been tied up.

"Wha—!?" Rainbow exclaimed, quickly looking over to where they were supposed to be. "HEY! THE CHANGELINGS'RE GONE!" she screamed.

When she did so, Applejack screamed, too.

"Mah rope!"

While all that was going on, Panthera and several of the griffons entered Trevar's house with him. Hovering there, Rainbow suspected she was the only one to pay attention to that.

After that, it was quite a while before order was restored, partly due to how pissed the Princess obviously was. Pony guards were nearly pooping themselves whenever her glare swept across their forms. Not that Rainbow could fault anypony that did. Even standing, well hovering, actually, on the sidelines, even she felt like she should be lightening her load somehow whenever the Princess's gaze swept over her. She had never seen Princess Celestia so livid.

"I'm—I'm sorry, your highness!" Sergeant Over exclaimed. "I’m at a loss to explain it. The corporal and the privates I put in charge of the prisoners are also missing!"

"More casualties, Princess Celestia?" Panthera softly asked as she rejoined them.

"It would seem so," the Princess angrily replied. "While we were all focused on what you and your brother were doing to Applejack's orchard, the changelings somehow cut their bonds and escaped! And somehow, without alerting anypony, managed to take the guards standing watch over them, as well!"

"Please note, Celestia," Panthera snapped back. Rainbow nervously gulped.

Whoa! This ain't good! she thought.

She could only guess at the power that Princess Celestia controlled. But Trevar and both Shadowcats had taken on Sombra, a crazed unicorn supremacist from over a thousand years ago who had personally challenged the power of both princesses. That had to put the shadowcats in the same league as all of them. And now, it looked like Panthera was getting as snappy as Princess Celestia!

"We were rather busy trying to contain that creature!" Panthera growled at her. "We truly regret any collateral damage that may have caused, but you will please also note all those crystal spears shooting up out of the ground all over the place out there? We had nothing to do with that, but instead, that could've been my brother and me! Or worse, given what Trevar communicated to us while he fought that thing—he might have taken control over both of us! Just imagine what we could do if our powers were suddenly turned against you!"

Whatever the shadowcat said certainly had a sobering effect on the Princess, as her shock face revealed. But Panthera wasn't finished yet.

"Now, whatever you just thought of, multiply it!" Panthera snarled, showing off her teeth. "Believe me, you have no idea what we're capable of! But if that power fell into Sombra's—paws, you would have quickly found out!"

"I—apologize," Celestia finally said, dipping her head.

Rainbow nervously gulped. Just how badass are these guys? She managed to make a seriously pissed-off princess back down!

"Apology accepted," Panthera replied, nodding in turn. "However, that danger still may yet come to pass," she said, glancing up. "Pardus is currently hauling that thing toward the sun. But the entire time he's out there with it, he's still in that creature's range of control and in danger of being taken over at any moment."

"I see," Celestia responded. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Pardus and I know your schedule to move the sun," Panthera said. "He's anticipating a three hour flight to deliver Sombra there, so he's headed for where you're supposed to put it for the three o'clock hour. But—"

"'But'?" Celestia inquired.

"But, there's still the risk," Panthera continued. "Should he be forced to do so, he's prepared to fling Sombra as hard as he can so as to avoid capture. We may need to ask you to adjust the sun's position to catch the rock."

"I see—" Celestia said, trailing off. Then she chuckled. "Once again, I'll have to endure the complaints about not being an accurate time keeper for weeks to come."

"Oh?" Panthera asked.

"Ever since my sister and I had assumed our duties over the sun and moon, we've been criticized for every deviation from the scheduled movements," Celestia explained. "Despite seeing firsthoof the devastation Discord made when he first escaped his imprisonment, you should have heard the hue and cry over the mess he made of the sun and moon's schedule—but it wasn't him the papers complained about. No. It was the fault of my sister and me."

Panthera thought about it for a bit. Then smiled a big toothy grin.

"In case you have to deviate, would you like me to provide them the reason as to why it was necessary?" she asked. And the offer definitely had an impact. Celestia was clearly considering it. But finally, the alicorn shook her head.

"As tempting as that might be, no, that won't be needed," Princess Celestia said, declining.

"Are you sure?" Panthera asked. She looked down at the ground and sent out a red eyebeam to score the road surface before looking back up at Celestia. And smiled. "I so rarely get an opportunity to make a public appearance. I wouldn't mind."

"So tempting!" Celestia muttered. "But, no. And thank you for the offer."

"Just say the word, I can be there."

"'Wor—'" Celestia instantly began, but stopped herself. Then burst out laughing, with Panthera joining in. "That's seriously tempting offer. But Luna and I will manage. Thank you, Panthera."

"Speaking of Discord," Panthera began, returning to a serious subject. "That's the strange mismatched creature we met when we arrived at Twilight Sparkle's castle, correct?"

"Indeed," Celestia replied.

"Interesting," Panthera said. "While Trevar was keeping Sombra busy, he learned that Discord was responsible for this encounter."

"What?" Celestia exclaimed. "How?"

"Mentally probed Sombra while they fought."

Whoa! Rainbow thought astonished.

"Trevar can do that?" Celestia asked, also clearly astonished.

"Trevar can do a lot of things," Panthera said with a smirk. "And yes. He can do that. We would all be very interested in finding out why."

"So would I," Celestia growled.

"I'm so sorry, Celestia," Twilight Sparkle said, stepping over to them. "I should have been keeping an eye on the changelings."

"Nonsense, Twilight!" Celestia scolded her. "You were busy with the shield protecting the orchard. Besides, there were three guards on them, and they disappeared, too!"

Rainbow didn't want to stay and hear a bunch of egghead stuff and Panthera spied the human mare and walked over to speak with her about something, so Rainbow moved back to join Applejack and Big Mack. Her best sparring partner was still in a state over the damaged rope that had held the changelings.

"Hey, Applejack," Rainbow said, trying to pull her out of her funk. "I know you get attached to your lassos and things. But don't you have other ropes that're just as good?"

"But this was mah favorite, Rainbow," Applejack said, glaring at her with reddened eyes. "This was th' rope Ah had with us when we first met Twilight an' helped rescue Princess Luna. It was with us on quite a lot of adventures. Ah had it with me during our trek up th' mountain ta talk tha' dragon ta move, then again at the rodeo, an'…" she listed out several of the adventures they had with it. Not all of them, but at least a dozen or so.

"Wow," Rainbow softly muttered, not sure just how to respond. She drifted away, unable to figure out how to help. It looked like just any of her other ropes she used about the farm. How the farm pony could keep track of it to know just which actions they were on where she used it was beyond the pegasus mare. It wasn't like it was her pet dog or like Tank or anything. But Applejack seemed to know them all—sort of like how Fluttershy could tell one lion from any other rodent. It made her head hurt.

Just then, Rainbow noticed the approach of two griffons coming from Twilight's castle. Mittens and Screaming Eagle landed by Princess Celestia and Twilight, where they spoke for a little bit before Panthera suddenly materialized between them and zorked them both with a touch.

The sight of that nearly caused the pegasus mare to fall out of the air laughing, but she managed to stay aloft.

Shortly after, Panthera approached and Rainbow stayed with her as they returned to speak with Applejack.

"Apologies for the damage to your orchard, Applejack," Panthera said to her. "Is there anything Trevar or I can do to help?"

Applejack dried her eyes and looked up at the damage.

"Thank ya kindly for th' offer. There's a lot o' damage, and many o' our apples throughout this section are a total loss. But wi' a bit o' tender lovin' care, th' trees will recover," she finally replied with a sigh.

"An', uh, look, Panth'ra," she spoke up. "Ah know ya didn't mean ta hurt 'em. Ah—we Apples—appreciate what ya had ta risk in fightin' tha' monster. Wha' Ah wanna say is, Ah apologize."

"The provocation was sufficiently justified," the shadowcat softly replied, gently reaching out with a wing to touch Applejack's shoulder. "The emergency of the situation just didn't allow for a better response. And just like any storm we have to endure, the thing to do now is focus on cleaning up."

"Right ya are," Applejack agreed smiling.

A couple hours into the work of pruning back the many burnt branches to where living wood remained, Rainbow heard the galloping of hooves approaching. Looking up, she spied a contingent of guard approaching the Princess and Twilight.

They were too far away even for her hearing to make out their report, but she was adept at reading lips. And Princess Celestia's reaction confirmed what Rainbow suspected was said.

"Hey, Applejack! Rarity! Flutters!" Rainbow shouted down at them. "The guards found the missing ponies that the changelings had been holding!"

"They did?" Applejack asked, confirming and Rainbow nodded. "Sorry, but Ah gotta go," she said to Big Mac and her granny.

They all rushed over to join the Princess, Twilight, and Panthera.

"I'm sorry, Princess, but Pardus has run into a little problem," Panthera spoke as Twilight listened in. "He's been forced to retreat from Sombra's vicinity and he needs you to adjust the sun's position."

"Where does he need me to move it?" Celestia asked, and Panthera looked up, evidently to confer with her brother.

"Princess Celestia," Twilight spoke up while the shadowcat was occupied. "Is it true? Have the missing ponies from the town been found?"

"It would appear so, Twilight," Celestia said. "Unfortunately, I have to stay and work with Panthera about positioning the sun to catch Sombra's prison. Please go with Sergeant Roger to see to their aid."

"Of course," Twilight replied. "Let's go, girls!" and they rushed off, following the Solar Guardpony. He led them toward the Everfree, and they spotted a cluster of bedraggled ponies just beyond the last rise before the edge of the forest.

When they got closer, Twilight was able to make out specific ponies from town. And the selections the changelings evidently had taken alarmed her.

"Lyra!?" she asked, astonished as she skidded to a halt before the mint-green unicorn. "Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh. Hello, Twilight," she happily responded, even if she seemed a little out of it. "How are you doing? Oh, are the humans still about? Have they left already? I hope I haven't missed the chance to meet them again."

The Bearers all sorted through and checked on the ponies and it was a little chaotic for a while before Twilight remembered to perform proper protocols for recovered abductees of changeling encounters.

"I'm sorry to have to put you all through this, seeing as how you all must still be in a state of shock," Twilight announced after getting everypony's attention. "But seeing as how the changelings were involved in your abductions, we have to do this. I'll have to scan the entire lot of you to make sure we really have our ponies back."

"Sure thing, sugarcube," Applejack said, stepping away to the side. "We all plum fergot. Don' worry none, y'all. This spell won't hurt a bit. It'll just take a jiffy."

"Sorry, girls," Twilight muttered to them as they came to line up beside her. "But since we mingled with them before properly checking them out, I've got to do you, too."

"No problems, Twlight," Rainbow Dash crowed. "Do yer thing so we can get these ponies back to their homes and families!"

"Right," Twilight acknowledged. "Alright. You thirty-four will be fir—wait—thirty-four?" she asked aloud, paying closer attention to who was there. There were twenty-four townsponies, six Night Guard, and four Solar Guard—all covered in varying amounts of the green goop that was indicative of having spent time in a changeling suspension pod. And one of those Solar Guard was Sergeant Over, the very pony who had led them all here on Princess Celestia's orders!

"S-Sergeant Over?" Twilight inquired.

"Um? Uh? Oh, yes, Princess Twilight Sparkle?" the guard being addressed blinked at her before focusing upon her. "Can I help you?"

"Uh, girls? Anypony noticed what happened to the Guard who led us all over here?" Twilight asked her friends.

"Yeah, Twilight," Rainbow Dash spoke up. "He said he was stepping into the forest to check for any changelings who might be lurking there. He-e-e-ey—waitasec! Ain't this guy him?"

Twilight groaned as she facehooved.

"Yes, Rainbow. He is! Only, he isn't."

"Gee, Twilight," Rainbow Dash scolded her. "Make up your mind. Is he or isn't he?"

"Uh—Princess—? Pr-Princess Twilight Sparkle?" the goop-covered sergeant inquired. "Be—before the changelings let us go, the Queen herself was here and told me to deliver a message to Princess Celestia. Do you think you could relay it, please?"

"What was the message," she grumbled, dreading what it was going to be.

"I was told we were being released, and I quote, 'because we are allies. For now,' unquote," he told her. "And the 'for now' was strongly emphasized."

Twilight blinked at him. She had no idea what that was supposed to mean.

Finally, she decided to go ahead follow through with the protocol and make her report to Celestia and hope her senior princess could make sense of the missive.

She cast the spell, confirming that none of the thirty-nine ponies present, aside from herself, was a changeling. And she asked Rarity to cast the spell upon herself to assure everypony that she was who she really was.

"Alright, everypony," Twilight instructed once that was done. "Please go with the rest of the girls back to town and get checked out at the hospital to see if anypony needs medical attention. I have to report back to Princess Celestia."

Once the others were on their way, Twilight teleported back to where Celestia was and arrived just in time to see Panthera rocket up into the sky, breaking the sound barrier.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight called getting Celestia's attention. "There's been a—complication!"

"What sort of complication?" Celestia asked, casting her detection spell on Twilight.

"The—uh—sergeant you sent to guide us to the ponies found—he's a changeling," she replied as she reciprocated the spell.

"I—see," Celestia then replied with a sigh. "That explains much. But good work in uncovering him."

"Except—he—uh—got away." Celestia's pupils and irises shrunk at the news.

"And it—uh—gets worse," Twilight said wincing.

"Oh? How much worse?" Celestia replied, evidently bracing herself for the news.

"He—uh—got away before we found out." Celestia's eyes shrunk even more. "The reason we found out was—uh—the real sergeant was one of those recovered."

"Really!?"

And—there's more," Twilight added, nervously gulping. "He—the real sergeant—he said that when they were all released, there was a message for you, from Queen Chrysalis, herself. He was told to tell you they were being release and he quoted, 'because we are allies. For now,' unquote. And he said she emphasized the 'for now'."

Twilight was alarmed when Celestia's posture slumped as though in defeat.

"Princess? What does it mean?" she inquired. The elder alicorn was a long time before responding.

"That message is the first thing that finally makes sense of all of what's been happening," Celestia told her. "It would seem that we are being forced to choose sides in a war developing between Discord and Mr. Trevar, whether we wish to take sides or not."

Twilight couldn't believe her ears.

"What do you mean?"

"It means that Discord has drafted us, Twilight," Celestia explained. "First Sombra, and now Queen Chrysalis have also evidently been drafted to help Discord fight the human."

"Discord!?" Twilight exclaimed astonished. "Wh-what—what does Discord have against the humans!?"

"THAT is the great mystery that we must solve before anypony gets dragged deeper into this mess and someone gets seriously hurt! As we've just seen," she said, looking pointedly at the shards of shattered crystals still poking out of the ground, "things really are becoming serious. This isn't one of Discord's usual series of pranks. He really means to kill Mr. Trevar and the shadowcats. What is surprising is that they've actually managed to survive. There's certainly more to this human than meets the eye. And they now know they're at war with the Lord of Chaos. Aside from the mystery of why Discord hates them so, are the questions of whether they know that Discord is trying to force us to take his side in this conflict, and what they will do when they learn of it."

Rainbow Dash elected to be the one of the ones to herd everypony from behind, along with Fluttershy and Applejack. Had Rainbow been leading, she knew she'd be at the hospital already … and everypony else would still be back where they were found. It certainly was frustrating that nopony could even come close to matching her speed, but the least they could do was put an effort into it.

"Oh, I'm such an idiot!" Rainbow overheard Bon Bon grumble.

"What's the matter, Bonny?" her friend, Lyra, inquired beside her.

"That those blasted bugs caught me," Bon Bon said, growling. "I should've seen that the one pretending to be you wasn't you."

"Well, they wouldn't be much of a challenge if those changelings weren't good at pretending to be us," Rainbow Dash spoke up. "They gave us a good run that time in Canterlot, and even had me fooled this morning when my wingmates turned out to be changelings when I went to assist the Solar Guard. They even had those shadowcats fooled."

Bon Bon suddenly stopped with a shocked look on her face.

"Shadowcats!?" she demanded, snapping her head to glare at her. "WHAT Shadocats!?"

"Gee! How long did the bugs have you guys cocooned, anyhow?" Rainbow asked, rolling her eyes. "The shadowcats that were at the welcoming party. I remember you and Lyra were there."

"Yeah," Lyra spoke up. "It was a good party, too! The humans were the best part of it. And that Mr. Trevar was especially nice." Bon Bon sighed.

"'Humans', again?" she grumbled, glaring at her unicorn friend before getting back underway with the rest of the crowd. But then she looked back up to Rainbow.

"I—I don't know," Bon Bon admitted. "What's today?" Fluttershy then spoke up to tell her.

"Eight days?" Bon Bon asked incredulously. "But—but we didn't go to a party," she protested. "Lyra and I were home all day—well, that thing that wasn't Lyra!"

"Wait—so that wasn't you when the changelings swarmed us after we left the party?" Lyra suddenly asked. "But—but you tried to fight them!"

"It wasn't me," Bon Bon insisted. "I wasn't there. We—I—was still at home when—that imposter let the rest of the bugs into the house!"

"Hey, guys!" Rainbow cut in before the two could start arguing. "They're changelings! Remember? It's, like, what they do! Like I said, they even had the shadowcats confused."

"You've seen shadowcats?" Bon Bon inquired once more. "No pony sees shadowcats!"

"We've all seen two!" Rainbow said, gesturing to herself, Applejack and Fluttershy, who both nodded. "They hang out with the human stallion, along with a pascal of griffons who've been guarding him. The other human, they leave alone."

"Another human?"

"The mare I told you about," Lyra said.

"Yeah," Applejack spoke up. "She got on th' Princesses' bad side when they first got here. Been on 'probation' ever since."

Rainbow spent the rest of the journey telling them all she saw from this morning, how she fought the changelings and the shadowcats joining in, and how they knocked her out in the middle of the fight.

Applejack cut in there, recounting how Pardus had come to her farm. When she arrived, they tied up the changelings. It wasn't long after that Celestia showed up and the ponies taken down in the fight began to wake up.

"But then, Sombra showed up!" Rainbow spoke up once more. "And everypony thought Trevar was dead when he got stabbed through the barrel by half-a-dozen chrystals shooting up from the ground! But that human had some sort of magic, and he healed himself and immediately took to fighting Sombra! Kicked that unicorn's tail something fierce, too!"

"Not only that, but th' shadowcats got involved, too. And Princess Celestia and Twilight," Applejack added. "Plum near set th' entire orchard on fire, but they packed ol' Sombra off to the sun, last I saw of 'em."

Bon Bon had just this stunned expression on her face at hearing all that.

But at long last, they arrived and the EMTs were quickly mobilized to assist.

"Hey guys," Rainbow spoke up when Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie joined the two pegasi. "I'm heading back to hook up with Twilight. See ya later," she called out before zooming off. And she reached the outskirts of town where Trevar's house was. Fortunately, Princess Celestia was still there, as was Twilight. On the other hoof, Rainbow spotted Gilda coming in, evidently coming in from Canterlot. And she sighted Rainbow at the same moment—suddenly a race was on.

They arrived on the ground at the same time, but Rainbow was sure she touched down a fraction of a second first.

"Princess Celestia!" Gilda blurted out first, however, showing the proper bow before Rainbow caught on and greeted the Princess.

"Princess Celestia," Rainbow quickly said, and then thought to add with a grin, "and Twilight!" The addition had apparently irked the griffon.

"Rainbow Dash and Gilda," Princess Celestia greeted in return.

Hah! She mentioned me, first! Rainbow silently crowed.

"Princess? What's happened here?" Gilda spoke up, ignoring Rainbow's victory. "I saw from Canterlot! There was some sort of—glowing object rising up from here. And—and I think I saw Pardus flying alongside!"

"I'm afraid it's a rather involved story, Gilda," Princess Celestia replied. "The short version, King Sombra attacked while you were away. Trevar and the shadowcats fought him off and contained him inside a blob of lava they made and dropped him into the sun. Trevar's recovering from the fight and Panthera is up there rescuing her brother from where he carried Sombra."

"L-Lor-Lord Trevar was hurt!?" Gilda exclaimed.

"More than hurt!" Rainbow happily blurted out. "He got killed! It was awesome! You should've seen how he fought Sombra after!"

"WHA-A-A-A-AT!? THE CAT-LORD'S DEAD!?" Gilda screamed in shock.

"Don't worry 'bout, it Gilda," Rainbow said dismissively waving a hoof. "He got better."

"HOW does one 'get better' after being killed!?"

"He's got some sorta magic that healed him, okay?" Rainbow yelled back. "Sheesh! You act as though it's the end of the world or somethin'"

"The End of US if the Cat-Lord dies!" Gilda shouted at her.

"Like I said, he got better!" Rainbow shouted back.

"Hey, Gilda! Welcome back!" Trevar called walking out of the house. "You missed quite a bit of fun while you were away."

"Lord Trevar!" Gilda exclaimed. But Rainbow saw Trevar make a face and the griffon quickly reduced her volume. "Sorry. I'm glad you're alright!"

"I'm well, for the most part," Trevar said, nodding to her. "And Rainbow, I do apologize for snapping at you earlier. As I mentioned, going up against Sombra isn't conducive to one's health. It was tons worse than dealing with a room filled with second-hand cigarette smoke. But I am feeling much better now." Even so, he had another coughing fit. "And like you said, winning that fight was rather awesome," he finished grinning, Rainbow grinned back.

"You'd better come along, Gilda," Trevar said to her. "We've got a few matters to discuss.

"Oh, and Princess Celestia?" Trevar said, turning back to address the diarch. "I've just been informed by Panthera and Pardus that Sombra did managed to break out of his tomb, but only at the last moment before the rock impacted into the sun. He was still caught by the splash back. I don't think he'll be bothering us anytime in the future."

"Yes, I did sense the boulder's impact," Celestia replied. "It is good that Sombra didn't escape. Although, I do regret the loss of life."

"Don't you remember? I know Pardus relayed to you that I found out the real Sombra died centuries ago, when his body was destroyed by that cloud," Trevar told her. "That cloud merely held an echo of his mind. He was nothing more than a ghost simply being laid to rest after all this time."

"Yes. Yes, that's true," Celestia agreed.

Princess Celestia looked up and powered up her horn, and Rainbow was in awe as she watched the sun settle next to the horizon in a matter of seconds.

"Umm—" the Princess started to speak, but apparently changed her mind.

"Something else?" Trevar asked.

"Nothing important. I'll speak of it to Panthera when I next see her," Princess Celestia said, shaking her head.

"Well, it's going to take her and Pardus a while to get back here," he told her. "I can relay your request and you can get the reply right away."

"I—am going to have questions to answer when I get back to Canterlot," Princess Celestia explained. "I was going to ask if her offer to accompany me when I spoke to the reporters was still valid." Trevar grinned.

"She wouldn't have made that offer if she wasn't sincere about it," Trevar replied with a smile. "Of course she'd be willing to speak to them. It's regarding the lousy timekeeping you're doing right now, isn't it?"

"Yes," the Princess said, grumbling.

"Don't worry. She'll be happy to accommodate you," Trevar replied.

"If you are sure?" Princess Celestia confirmed, to which Trevar nodded. "I'll hold the press off until tomorrow morning, then. Would nine o'clock be good?"

"No problem," Trevar assured her before leading Gilda back to the house.

Once they were out of sight, Princess Celestia and Twilight turned to glare at Rainbow Dash, and she blinked back in confusion.

"What!?" Rainbow demanded.

"Princess Celestia!?" Doctor Forceps exclaimed seeing her entering the lobby. "This is unexpected!"

"How are they, Doctor? The ponies brought in from the Everfree?" she asked, getting right to the matter.

"They—they're fine, physically," he stammered his reply. "A little drained, emotionally. Evidently a hoofful have been held several weeks, but so far as we can determine, they should all make a speedy recovery. We—we know very little about the effects of long-term confinement by changelings, however."

"I see. What of the guardsponies?"

"Uh—those in—in the Solar Guard were actually the ones who were held the longest," Doctor Forceps stammered. "Those in your sister's Lunar Guard were only taken a couple nights ago, it seems."

Celestia sighed. It would appear that Queen Chrysalis had learned a thing or two from her previous efforts, she thought. She's becoming quite careful with her infiltrations. If it weren't for Discord evidently disrupting whatever plans she has….

"I would like to see them, if I may," she told him.

"Of—of course, Your Majesty," he replied. "Right this way, please."

As he led her, she surreptitiously cast the changeling detection spell upon him.

"I've done as you instructed," Gustav said, wiping away the tear streaks on the feathers covering his face. "But why so many keys?"

His eyes bugged out when there was a ripple in the air beside the shadowcat and two small wooden cases appeared hovering in midair. They lowered gently to the floor before one case opened by itself with two lids. One panel revealed twenty metal disks packing its volume. The other half was packed with a number of cords with two-pronged plugs on either end.

"Your alphabet somewhat parallels the Equestrian's," Lady Panthera explained to him as she levitated four of the disks pulled from the case into the spindle cavity of the device. "Theirs consist of five hundred and sixty-nine total characters, if you count their upper and lower cases as separate elements, and add in their numbers, frequent punctuation marks and a number of common special symbols. You, however, have no difference in your letter cases, so you've only got a total of three hundred and nine. I chose to keep it simple and shaved off just a few of the very rarely used characters to just three hundred even with which you can use to encrypt your messages."

"There's a little history on my world about this device," the Cat-Lord told him. "Back several decades before I was born, there were a trio of fairly small nations that joined up and went to war with pretty much the rest of the entire planet. Believe it or not, they almost won. And they did so with the help of a device much like this. But the one they used only had twenty-six single-case letters and yet no numbers, punctuation marks, or special symbols. Indeed, one of those three nations, the device wasn't even made with their native language in mind. Yet all three nations managed to do a hell of a lot of damage before they were finally defeated."

Gustav's eyes went wide in shock even as he felt the strain to his irises.

"Understand," the Catl-Lord sternly told him. "This is no toy!"

"I—I see," Gustav replied, nervously gulping.

"So, before we proceed, please show us how you make a normal, typical telegram," Trevar said. "How would you put together a message saying that I asked you to declare war with Equestria and that you attack at dawn?"

"Eeep!" Gustav squeaked.

"Don't worry," the Cat-Lord said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "We're not really going to war. We just want to see the normal telegram format. There's a very good purpose for going through this. Trust me," he said with a smile.

"O—okay—?" Gustav nervously replied before pulling out a parchment to begin writing.

"Okay. Looks good, if I'm reading this correctly," Panthera said after looking at it. "Now, if you please, write another message saying that I have instructed you to declare peace with Equestria right below it."

"I—I don't understand," Gustav said.

"It's just to teach you about a little problem that tends to pop up with whatever encryption system are used," Trevar assured him. "Just humor her and make the telegram."

When the griffon ambassador was finished, he handed the parchment over to them.

"Hmm, just as I thought," Panthera muttered as she looked the messages over. Her eyes lit up and shot several beams out, changing several lines of the black ink text to different colors.

ተ ወ ፤ ‡ ኖ ኺ ኯ ዀ ገ ኀ አ ተ ቂ ኀ ‡ ‡
ኾ ኺ ገ ነ ፤ ‡ ሴ ነ ꬁ ፐ ኡ ሁ ‡ ሙ ፐ ኀ ተ ቓ ኈ ገ ተ ‡ ‡
ኺ በ ኖ ፔ ሃ ኯ ኅ ፤ ቴ ጙ ‡ ቴ ኯ ꬮ ‡ በ ሞ ቶ ሴ አ ተ ኺ ሆ ቒ ‡ ‡ ‡
ቒ ቱ ሴ ኀ ሏ ꬌ ኀ ፤ ‡ ሴ ነ ኸ ቓ ቘ ‡ ተ ፉ ኈ ‡ ኾ ስ ꬮ ቓ ‡ ‡ ‡
ኸ ቓ ‡ ኯ ኀ አ ተ ኺ ꬋ ሙ ሏ ꬌ ኀ ጳ ‡ ኾ ኺ ገ ነ ‡ ꬭ ቚ ‡ ሙ ፐ ተ ¡ ኈ ጐ ሃ ፣ ‡ ኋ ‡ ꬫ ፑ ꬃ ‡ ሃ በ ሙ ኈ ራ ሃ ‡ ቴ ጙ ‡ ቴ ኯ ꬮ ‡ በ ሞ ቶ ሴ አ ተ ኺ ሆ ቒ ። ‡ ቴ በ ‡ ፐ ቱ ፐ ሟ ‡ ፐ ተ ‡ ሃ ጎ ኀ ። ‡ ‡ ‡
ኖ ሐ አ ተ ፐ ꬃ ‡ ‡ ‡
֍ ֎ ֍ ֎

ተ ወ ፤ ‡ ኖ ኺ ኯ ዀ ገ ኀ አ ተ ቂ ኀ ‡ ‡
ኾ ኺ ገ ነ ፤ ‡ ሴ ነ ꬁ ፐ ኡ ሁ ‡ ሙ ፐ ኀ ተ ቓ ኈ ገ ተ ‡ ‡
ኺ በ ኖ ፔ ሃ ኯ ኅ ፤ ኸ ቡ ኦ ‡ ቴ ኯ ꬮ ‡ በ ሞ ቶ ሴ አ ተ ኺ ሆ ቒ ‡ ‡ ‡
ቒ ቱ ሴ ኀ ሏ ꬌ ኀ ፤ ‡ ሴ ነ ኸ ቓ ቘ ‡ ተ ፉ ኈ ‡ ኾ ስ ꬮ ቓ ‡ ‡ ‡
ኸ ቓ ‡ ኯ ኀ አ ተ ኺ ꬋ ሙ ሏ ꬌ ኀ ‡ ኾ ኺ ገ ነ ‡ ኸ ፐ ኀ ꬮ ቓ ቒ ፣ ‡ ኋ ‡ ꬫ ፑ ꬃ ‡ ሃ በ ሙ ኈ ሬ ሃ ‡ ኸ ቡ ኦ ‡ ቴ ኯ ꬮ ‡ በ ሞ ቶ ሴ አ ተ ኺ ሆ ቒ ። ‡ ቴ በ ‡ ኺ በ አ ዌ ነ ‡ ኀ ጐ ነ ቒ ኈ ‡ ኺ በ ኈ ፈ ሏ ꬌ ኀ ጳ ‡ ኯ ኑ በ ሃ ሆ ቒ ተ ኈ ሁ ። ‡ ‡ ‡
ኖ ሐ አ ተ ፐ ꬃ ‡ ‡ ‡
֍ ֎ ֍ ֎

"So, Gustav," Trevar began, "if this is your normal telegram format, then it doesn't matter what sort of encryption you use, these characters all in reddish-orange are characters the ponies can read with extremely high assurance. And these that are pink, while they might change at some point, just by knowing who's sending it, they can make a pretty damned good guess at what those are supposed to be, as well. Only the black text will give them any trouble, but with this much of the message always giving your adversaries an insight into the keys for your encryption, anyone with a decent calculator could break your codes in a few weeks or months." The Cat-Lord and shadowcat looked at each other with smirks on their faces before Lord Trevar continued.

"Actually, Trevar can't read any of this," Panthera told Gustav. "But I can. And for anyone, just knowing what these characters will be with high assurance, it gives them a tremendous leg up on whatever encryption method you end up using."

"These are the sorts of things that caused those three nations to finally lose the war," Trevar explained, "because their enemies were eventually able to break all their codes and the leaders of those three nations never knew it. Hell, there were days their enemies were reading the messages before the intended recipients could."

This is going to be a long night! Gustav thought with a sigh.

"So what can be done?" Gustav asked dejectedly. "I'm certain the Princesses are reading all the messages between here and Griffonstone right now. If what you say is true, this device will only delay their breaking the codes by a matter of days at best."

"Quite so," Panthera acknowledged. "Which is why we will teach you a couple things that will help you block them. One is called padding. The other is called nesting."

Gustav tiled his head at that.

In Griffonstone, far from the palace, was a drinking establishment with the dubious name of "The Drunken Alicorn". Inside, the usual clientele nursed their drinks, trying to drown out their various sorrows.

Sharp Beak was having an exceptionally bad time of things. He and his mate had been trying to have children for several years. Every clutch laid were barren, except for this last clutch. However, as the expected day of hatching arrived, Snow Claw felt something was off about the pair of eggs. Rushing them to the doctor, they were confronted by the news that both chicks had expired in the shell.

The couple was devastated, and too much in shock to say anything to each other as they walked back home. And what should have been a moment to mourn and comfort each other for their loss, instead became a shouting match of accusations and recriminations. Words that should never have been spoken were said, until a final yelled statement brought them both to a sudden stunned silence.

Their marriage was now coming to an end.

And so, Sharp Beak was in the Drunken Alicorn, hoping that some of the drinks they served could help ease the pain of losing both his mate and their young.

"Hey, Sharp Beak! What's a stuck-up pigeon like you doing drinking here amongst the soaring eagles?" the large regular patron roughly nudged him while loudly shouting to attract the attention of everygriff in the bar.

"Lay off, smartass!" Sharp Beak growled as he shifted back into his chair. "Not in the mood for your squit."

"Oooh, did I hurt the widdle birdie's fweewings?" Smaragos teased as two more of the Alicorn's regulars got up from their table to join the larger griffon. Friends of Smaragos and known to Sharp Beak: Phorcys and his mate, Eurynome.

"You look like you're doing more than your usual pony milk tonight," Smaragos continued. "What happened? Forget how many you were supposed to drink before flying back to the coop? Or did the missus kick you out of the nest because you're crowding her eggs?"

Smaragos belatedly jumped back from Sharp Beak's swing at his chest, even though the smaller griffon clearly had no real intention of connecting. But the speed and lack of telegraphing his strike took the three by surprise. The rowdies suddenly realized they might have a real fight on their claws tonight. In the past, Sharp Beak had numerous run-ins with them. While well smaller than Smaragos and not much smaller than Phorcys, Sharp Beak was fast, fast enough to match the three ganging up on him. Their encounters usually resulted in Sharp Beak giving nearly as much as he took.

And Sharp Beak was obviously pissed. It usually took at least an hour of harassment for him to retaliate like this. There was definitely going to be blood flowing tonight. That suited the three rowdies just fine. Sharp Beak was obviously drunk, too, which would work to their advantage.

"Definitely nesting problems, Smaragos," Phorcys chirped up. "Probably hatching right now and Snow Claw don't want a third chick in the nest."

"Maybe she doesn't want Sharp Beak to see they aren't his," Eurynome piped in.

"I'm betting they're hippogriffs," Smaragos crowed.

"Yeah! Some pony stallion came by and mounted Snow Claw while Sharp Beak was away!" Phorcys sang.

"Oooh! What would that even look like?" Eurynome asked laughing. "A pony front and a griffon rear? We'd have to come up with a whole new word for that! A griffohipp!"

"Do a mating flight with a porcupine, you squits!" Sharp Beak yelled as he struck out at Eurynome, catching her across a shoulder before whipping around to swipe at Phorcys, but missed as the other griffon dodged and swung his claws in response, giving Sharp Beak a shallow cut on his barrel. But Sharp Beak wasn't backing down.

"Our eggs died in the shell!" he yelled, striking at and connecting on Smaragos. But the drink was having an effect on Sharp Beak. Normally, he'd be able to dance away before Smaragos could retaliate. However, the larger griffon managed to catch Sharp Beak and grapple with him, wrestling him to the floor once the other two joined in.

"Well, well, well, well," Smaragos crooned. "So, your eggs failed to hatch? Well, I guess that throws out our theories. They were definitely Sharp Beak's after all! You know what they say, 'substandard griffons can only make substandard eggs'."

"Such a poor little penguin," Phorcys cooed. "And to think, just last week, our three eggs hatched fine healthy griffon chicks. Third time in a row, too." He leaned over to give his mate a kiss as they continued to hold Sharp Beak down. "Smaragos, we'll just have to buy him some drinks to help drown his sorrows."

"Yeah. But not that mare's milk he likes. Time for this ostrich to drink a real drink! Something that will either grow him some new primaries, or knock them all off!"

There was a sudden loud noise and Smaragos was no longer there holding Sharp Beak down. In addition, Phorcys fell heavily beside Sharp Beak as the chair that had taken out the larger griffon had clipped him, too. Eurynome leapt away to face the newest combatant and Sharp Beak had to look around to see who had interfered with their fight.

"You! Filthy! Vultures!" growled a hen he didn't recognize. "Let. Him. Go."

"Who the bronk are you, bitch?" Eurynome screeched.

"Who am I?" the stranger challenged, picking up another nearby chair as she advanced. "Just a griffon who knows what in Tartarus is really going on! Somegriff who knows that if only squits like you are the ones successfully breading while the rest of us are laying dead and deformed chicks, then our species deserves to go extinct!

"Nearly a third of all griffon eggs are stillborn, and over a third of the remainder come out deformed!" she yelled. "And here you mockingbirds make light of his pain!?"

"Why should I care, bitch?" Eurynome demanded, picking up her own chair to fight back with.

"Because I work in the census bureau where we've been tracking these problems for decades!" the stranger hissed, still advancing. "Because one of my chicks hatched last night with no eyes and only one wing! Because I killed her rather than see her grow up to be a total cripple in this society! And because these deformed eggs are being laid by more and more griffons, everywhere, every year! Because, sooner, rather than later, there won't be enough healthy griffons to even keep our species going! Why should you care? Because I'm going to brain you with this fucking chair, bitch, if you and your two chicken hawk friends don't leave right now and take your harpy-squit superiority attitudes with you!"

Smaragos and Phorcys, while having been knocked to the ground, hadn't been knocked out, but were merely stunned by the unexpected attack. They stared at the enraged hen with wide eyes. Going up against a pissed Sharp Beak was one thing, and given his drunken state, likely a calculated win. Going up against a drunken pissed Sharp Beak when he was backed up by an unknown hen who was furiously enraged and had a fairly good throwing arm and several more chairs in reach was quite another!

Wisely, the two males quickly got up, and grabbed Eurynome who finally dropped her chair before they all beat a hasty retreat out the door. Several other griffons also hurriedly left, too.

"Thank you," Sharp Beak said as he gingerly got back to his feet. "But I think you should be going. Telling everygriff you killed one of your chicks isn't going to win you any friends around here."

"I know," she sighed, warily looking around at the few griffons who remained and were watching the two as though they were part of a staged performance. So far, none were showing any hostility. Indeed, more than a few had expressions that might have been described as shamefully sympathetic. "Sorry about your loss," she said before turning to leave.

"Yours, too," Sharp Beak replied to the departing hen.

One those who left the Drunken Alicorn was at that moment winging it home as fast as he could. Podarge was a freelance investigative journalist. Ever since his own failed efforts at having healthy chicks with his first mate, then after their divorce, a second, he had started accumulating a large volume of info on egg and chick mortality as well as the frequent appearances of hatching deformities among the population. Up until now, he had a lot of pieces, but nothing substantial to fit them together.

Only, now, with the hen's announcement, the pieces suddenly and clearly fell into place to paint a horrible picture: the government knew! It's known all along! And as soon as he got home, he'd make sure the word got out. He knew that hen that stepped into that fight. Her name was Adreastea, and she had been a source of unrelated information in the past that had panned out for his reporting, so he trusted her word. She must've been there to drown her sorrows over the killing of her own chick, same as that griffon who was getting beat up by those bullies.

This time, however, the government wasn't going to be able to keep a lid on this story. One advantage of being freelance was he could sell the story to several outlets at once. Even if the government could keep a few from publishing the story, he'd make sure at least one of those not in the Emperor's nest would spread the word! And at the very least, by selling it to multiple newspapers, he'd be rich by tomorrow!

The nightlife in Canterlot had settled down into the quieter subdued activities in deference to the normally diurnal pony population as Celestia walked the streets alone. Now that she was alone, she let her posture slump a bit from today's stresses as she traveled after personally seeing to the return of the Solar and Lunar Guardsponies to their homes.

Sergeant Over was the last to be returned to his NCO quarters where he lived with his Lunar Guard spouse, Corporal Under. Not surprising was the fact the changeling who had impersonating him was gone, since he/it had vanished in Ponyville. What was unexpected was the short exchange between them to which she was privy indicated his spouse had suspected something was wrong for the past couple of months in that when the imposter returned from work, he had faithfully remembered to get the groceries she would ask for in the morning.

Her right front hoof unexpectedly stepped in a pile of slimy and very odorous mush, and she just caught herself before slipping on the offal. Wrinkling her nose in disgust, she removed her gold-shorn hoof to glare at the enormous pile.

How anypony would— her thoughts began, but suddenly stopped. No, this was not droppings from a pony, she realized. This was bovine. And a bovine with an enormous capacity, if this all came from one individual.

"Now that is a nice pile of marital bliss you just stepped in," a very chipper and familiar voice spoke out. Ah. That explains it, she thought sighing.

"Discord, you have to stop this before somepony gets hurt," she said turning her head to glare at the draconequus. "Whatever issues you have with Trevar, they're not sufficient to justify this sort of violent behavior you've shown."

"Not sufficient?" Discord shot back, holding his forelimbs to his chest as though he was imploring her about his heartfelt sincerity. "I'm trying to protect Equestria! But from the outcome, I'd have to say they weren't sufficient enough! Did you not see how he single-handedly handed Sombra his own posterior?"

"Yes, I did!" Celestia said, snarling. "And, Mother-be-thankful, he not only survived that little stunt, but he managed to drive King Sombra off before that monster could do any real damage!"

"You should be careful whom you're labeling the 'monster', Celestia," Discord responded. "You have no idea of just how monstrous Trevar and his two cohorts are! I've tried to warn you—"

"You've done no such thing, Discord!" she shot back. "All you've done is make some veiled claims against him. And when I asked you for specifics about what sort of threat the human was posed to us, you rush off in a huff. Considering Trevar's restrained response to King Sombra trying to killing him, your concerns are looking quite overblown. Furthermore, he knows you're behind that attack!"

"He does!?" Discord inquired, sounding genuinely astonished. "Well, that does put a wrinkle in how I need to approach this problem. He's far more intelligent and dangerous than I expected."

"Discord!" she shouted at him. "Stop this! Sit down and talk your problems out with him! Or at lease explain it to me!"

"I'm sorry, Celestia," Discord sighed. "This mess is way bigger than you can handle."

"Dis—" she began as she tried to take a step forward, only to feel something wrong with her left forelimb. Looking down, she saw to her astonishment that a humongous pile of manure had encased her entire leg up to her shoulder.

"Discord—" she growled. "What is this?"

"That, my dear, is Allec Trever," he told her, pointing to her left front leg. "And those two back there are his two shadowcat companions." It was that moment that she realized her rear legs were each in piles equal to the one in front.

"I'm really getting disappointed in you, Discord," she said with a sigh.

"Well, apologies for that, I'm afraid," he responded. "But I am rather limited with what I've got to work with. Not everypony has as much power as we do." Then he turned his head to glare pointedly to the west, he continued, "Speaking of a pony whose performance that has been rather less than stellar, I have a few words to deliver to a former associate. We'll talk later," he finished before vanishing in his usual flash and bang.

She sighed.

As usual, when he was being difficult, Discord had left his little presents behind. Putting a little more than the usual effort into it, she extricated herself from the mounds of muck before using her magic to make them vanish and then cleaned herself off.

Later that evening after his side trip to the sun, Discord appeared in Twilight's castle.

"Gyaahh!" Spike exclaimed, startled out of his late night pilfering of the refrigerator. "Discord! What are you doing here?"

"Hello, Spike," Discord said, grinning.

"You scared the bajeebers out of me!" the young dragon complained. "Uh—you're not going to tell Twilight about this, are you?"

"My dear Spike," Discord addressed him with a bit of a pout. "Now why would I do anything untoward like that? Especially as I have a desperate need of your help?"

"My help?" Spike asked, astonished. "Uh—aren't you Discord? Master of all things Chaos? The being that can swipe control of the sun and moon from both the princesses without even trying? Make it rain chocolate with a snap of his talon?"

"Lion's paw, actually," Discord absently muttered, snapping his mentioned digits and he and Spike were suddenly seated in lounge chairs floating above the kitchen floor, each with a chocolate sundae to sip from. "Yes, I am. But despite all that I can do, I'm really not all that powerful. Getting good help is one of them, unfortunately. That was brought to my attention today when Somb—uh—somepony I knew reminded me that there are creatures far more powerful and dangerous than even me."

"Like what?" Spike asked astonished, before taking a sip of his sundae through his straw.

Discord had to blink, then glancing about the room, he replied, "Well, Tirek for one."

"Oh, yeah," Spike had to admit.

"Spike, how long have you known Twilght?" Discord began.

"Pw-oh!" Spike exclaimed, startled out of the middle of a sip. "My whole life!"

"And you'd do anything to protect her, wouldn't you?" the draconequus continued. "You'd do anything to save her from a monster, right?"

"Eh?" Spike asked, puzzled where this was going. "Of course I would! Is Twilight in danger?"

"Unfortunately, I have to tell you, yes she is!" Discord seriously said to him. "All of Equestria is in danger, but Twilight and her friends are blind to the thing that threatens you all. And you, Spike, you are the only one that can defeat that monster."

"ME!?"

"Hey, try to keep it down," Discord grumbled. "I'm trying not to wake Celestia up at the moment! I haven't soundproofed this room!"

"What can I do?" Spike demanded at a substantially reduced volume.

"What, indeed?" Discord quietly muttered.

"Huh?"

"I mean, what, indeed, can anypony do when their loved ones are endangered?" Discord quickly spoke up. "What of Twilight? And what of Rarity? When they don't know the danger that looms so close to them? What can anypony do at a time like this?"

"So, what danger are we speaking of?" Spike demanded.

"Oh, somepony that nopony even suspects, right now," Discord quietly said as he suddenly looped about the still seated Spike. "Who, indeed, everypony thinks as a hero at this moment, but is hiding his real intentions by quietly stirring up forces nopony suspects."

"I still don't know who we're talking about," Spike grumbled. Discord vanished for a moment.

"Tell me, Spike," Discord demanded, reappearing ramrod straight and nose-to-nose with him, "right now, who is the most dangerous creature you know? Who is the most powerful?"

"Most powerful?" Spike asked, trying to puzzle it out. "To be honest, I would have to say you."

"As flattering as it may be for you to think so," the draconequus said, "I have to decline the compliment."

"Well, you had mentioned Tirek," Spike admitted. "But he was only able to take all of your power after he had taken the magic from nearly all the ponies of Equestria."

"And yet, I doubt even Tirek would be able to do anything against this threat," Discord warned. "Tell me, then. Who else do you know that could be nearly as powerful. More than any of the princesses?"

"Well, there's Queen Chrysalis," Spike said, recalling Cadance and Shining Armor's wedding. "And as I recall from reading the history of Equestria, it took both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to bring down King Sombra."

"Ahhh, yes," Discord sing-songed. "King Sombra. I'd almost forgot about him."

"Yeah," Spike agreed. "Speaking of which, I heard he came around today and …."

"And yet, somepony, or rather I should say, someone, or even better, something calmly walked up to King Sombra, completely naked, mind you, and just proceeded to stomp the ever living shit out of King Sombra's butt. All. By. Him. Self. Now, who could that have possibly have been, I wonder? You wouldn't have any idea, would you?"

"…" Spike expressed, staring at Discord as the implications sunk in. "Trevar?"

"WE HAVE A WINNER!" Ed McMahon's amplified voice shouted out.

The kitchen exploded in confetti and flashing multicolored lights lit up the chamber while a studio audience's applause sounded around Spike. It was a display as impressive as any Pinkie Pie had thrown, only for it being Discord, who could easily match anything she could do because he was the Embodiment of Chaos.

"Wait! Trevar is the danger you want me to protect everypony from?" Spike exclaimed.

"I knew you had it in you, my boy," Discord told him as the draconequus reclined in his newly returned lounge chair and finished off his sundae.

"But—but—Trevar saved everypony today!"

"As I told you," Discord began, but then suddenly stopped with a look of astonishment on his face before it slowly morphed into a sly expression before continuing, " Trevar's a very clever pony!"

"Really, Discord!" Spike admonished. "How can I justify attacking Trevar when he's done so much for ponykind?"

"Well, you can wait until he does something to bring harm to Equestria," Discord said, holding up an empty set of scales that was increasingly being weighed down on one side as he spoke. "But by then, it will be too late to save any of your friends: Twilight, Celestia, Rarity…" he said as the weighted scales titled to the point where it fell apart. "Or you can take action while there's still time."

"But for me to just attack the human like that?" Spike protested. "Out of the blue?"

"Yes," Discord sighed. "Well, I can see where that's a hard choice, isn't it? But then, we wouldn't want Twilight to hear about your midnight raiding of the fridge, now would we?"

"Now, that's hitting below the belt, Discord!" Spike grumbled.

"So, you'll do it?" Discord happily asked.

"Grrrr—I—I'll think about it," Spike growled.

"Excellent!" Discord shouted as he snapped his lion's paw and the kitchen returned to normal with his disappearance. Except that Spike was still in the lounge chair floating up near the ceiling.

At that moment, the door opened and Twilight poked her head in, lighting the room with her magic.

"Spike? I thought I heard something," she called out, looking about.

Spike wisely kept quiet as he hovered over the preparation table with the racked pots and pans while Twilight stepped in to look about.

Evidently not finding anything out of the ordinary, she shrugged her wings and left, never having looked up.

Spike sighed in relief. Then seeing where he was in relation to the chamber's arrangement, he braced himself and jumped down, quietly landing on a countertop before jumping on down to the floor and left the kitchen.

He had just reached the stairs to go up to his and Twilight's rooms when the booming sound of something crashing through hundreds of metal objects came from the kitchen.

Spike wisely ran up the stairs as though the entire population of Tartarus had broken free at that moment (because that was what it sounded like). Fortunately, when Twilight teleported back to the hallway at the base of the stairs and rushed for the kitchen, Spike was already behind her and she never saw him.

Applejack bitterly snapped off the last of the small branches before it was time for Big Mack to apply the ax.

She knew she had accepted Panthera's apology for the damage to the orchard, knew it was wrong to hold resentment about it against them, but the reality of the blight was hitting her hard. The whole family was out here working on cleaning up before the sun rose, and she could tell in their eyes, it was as painful for them as it was for her to see so many of their beautiful trees dead and dying, and this was the third tree to get chopped down. Dozens more would be need to be cleared….

"Hold up with that ax," a voice suddenly called out from the dark. The four of them looked toward the road to see Pardus approach.

"You feelin' better young'n?" Granny Smith greeted the shadowcat.

"There is still considerable pain," the winged panther replied with a shrug of his wings. "But at least the crystal growths have healed. There are other parts, however, that are still yet to mend, if they ever will."

"Why're you not wantin' us ta chop it down?" Applejack demanded.

"Chopping it so high will waste too much of the wood," he replied, setting his head close to the ground as his eyes suddenly began to glow. Mindful of what that indicated, she jumped back.

"Look out, Big Mack!" Applejack screamed, as green beams shot out from the panther's eyes to slice through the base of the trunk barely inches from the ground. In seconds, the beam had cut clean across the entire two feet wide tree trunk.

"No need to yell," Pardus quietly said when he finished before pouncing across the distance from where he had crouched to strike the upper third of the tree trunk, causing it to start toppling over. But before it could fall, the shadowcat dropped to grab the tree with his paws.

"He was not my target," the winged panther continued as he and the tree trunk lifted into the air. Applejack noted he barely used his wings to fly, however. The panther carried the trunk over to where they had laid the other two trees felled earlier this morning.

"Well, ya danged fool!" Applejack angrily yelled at him. "How're we supposed ta get the stump up? Ya cut him too short!"

"Not a problem," the winged panther calmly replied, hovering in the air as his eyes continued to hold its green glow. "And for any of those who might panic, I suggest you step away."

Green fire once more poured from his eyes as he circled the area about where the tree had stood, this time cutting a circle into the ground centered on the stump as he flew. Once finished with that, the beams cut off and the panther flew down to the stump and punched his paws into the ground on either side.

Then, to everypony's stunned amazement, he lifted the entire ground that he had cut, a huge conical chunk of earth. He got several yards up, where it looked like he hurt himself for a moment when he and the ground plug suddenly dropped, except for a mighty grunt from the shadowcat when he shot back up into the air, along with the stump he was holding. But most of the dirt got yanked off and fell neatly back into the hole he had cut into the ground. A couple more jerks, and more of the dirt fell away from the roots. Once he was done with that, he bought the mostly clean stump over to the felled trees and gently set it down.

"I'll get the other two stumps while you prep the next tree for take down," he calmly said landing among them.

"Ah reckon ya'll did enough damage already!" Applejack yelled.

"Applejack?" Granny Smith inquired.

The shadowcat merely tilted his head at her.

"Is there a problem?" he asked.

"Yes, there is!" Applejack grumbled. "Ya burn down our orchard then come in here with yer high falutin' magic an' think ya can take ovah th' work ta clean up!"

"I'm merely performing the work promised to you yesterday by Panthera," Pardus said. "As she's currently with Trevar in Canterlot and cannot be here, I'm taking her place. Beyond that, I'm usurping no one. But I am skilled at organizing, and am providing an improved efficiency to the recovery effort. Even if these trees can no longer produce fruit, even in death, they will still serve a productive purpose.

"Applewood furniture is highly prized," Pardus continued. "Cutting closer to the ground as I did preserves more of the wood. Even the branches can be used to preserve foods by smoking, although more of that use benefits carnivores rather than herbivores, a fair number of vegetarian recipes do call for smoking."

"Quite so, whippersnapper," Granny Smith agreed. "Ya got a good head on yer shoulders."

"We Apples know how to do things without yer destructive magic," Applejack countered, trying to salvage an argument already knew she was losing if her granny was agreeing with this monster.

"I see," the shadowcat responded, still giving her a deadpan expression. "Do me a favor, will you? Please extend your hoof."

Puzzled, Applejack did so. The moment her foreleg was out, the panther's claws swiped across her limb too fast for her to react.

"WHADYADOTHAFER!?" Applejack screamed, yanking her foreleg back and bracing for a fight. The others in her family tensed, as well.

"Did that hurt?" the shadowcat monster politely asked.

"Of course it did, ya idjit!"

"Interesting," Pardus said, still staring at her. After a few moments, he got up and walked over to Big Mack.

"I'm curious about something," the shadowcat told him. "May I do the same to you?"

"Why?" Big Mack asked.

"Something about this picture just isn't right," the winged panther said. "To find out the error, I request your cooperation. I promise it won't hurt."

"Get away from 'im, Big Mack!" Applejack shouted. However, her brother lifted his foreleg, and sure enough, the panther's claws sliced at his foreleg.

"Did that hurt?" the shadowcat inquired.

"Enyope."

"Now that makes sense," the creature said, walking over to Granny Smith.

"So, ya reckoned ta do th' same ta me?" Granny said to him with considerable steel in her voice.

"Do you trust me?" the black panther asked her.

"Granny! No!" Applejack shouted.

"Ah reckon Ah do," she said raiser her withered foreleg. Without hesitation, Pardus' claws sliced her, too.

"Did that hurt?"

"Heh! Such a big 'n powerful shadowcat yer supposed ta be? Ya call tha' a scratch?" Granny Smith challenged with contempt.

"No," he replied flatly. "I don't." And his statement actually seemed to impress Granny Smith for some reason. Then he began walking toward Applebloom.

That was too much!

"Is—is this some sorta initiation?" Applebloom nervously asked. "Will it help me git mah cutie mark?"

"Ya ain't touchin' her!" Applejack shouted, having rushed over and planted herself between the monster and her little sister.

"Tell me, Applejack," Pardus inquired without expression. "Do those scratches still hurt?"

"Of course they do!"

"Intriguing. You don't seem to be the thin-skinned type," the panther said, sitting down to stare at her. "The bleeding from the scratches I gave you has already stopped. The bleeding of the cuts I gave Big Mack and Granny Smith have already slowed to nothing. Indeed, the actual amount of blood drawn from the three of you wouldn't combine enough to even form a free falling drop of blood. Furthermore, you are not limping on that foreleg. And yet, you claim it still hurts. Is it because it was me that gave you that wound?"

"Whadya mean?" Applejack angrily demanded.

"I mean, you currently have a wound in your left thigh from a splinter that is still oozing blood, and the splinter is still there. But you don't seem to be bothered by it any more than similar wounds your other family members currently sport, including your little sister."

Applejack was shaken by the shadowcat's observations. She had seen Big Mack get a scratch on his back from moving that second tree they felled, as well as a few bumps from them both knocking off burnt branches. And she knew Granny Smith was doing more than she ought in knocking down the tree branches and twigs. Now that it was brought back to her attention, she did realize she had that sting in her thigh for nearly half-an-hour when they all started working.

"So, the only conclusion as to why the wounds I gave you hurt worse is the source," Pardus told her, still staring deadpan at her. "That would be me. Of course, there are far more grievous wounds I and my sister gave you and your family with the damage out there," he gestured with a wing toward the damaged orchard but never took his eyes off of her.

"That's what's truly hurting, isn't it?"

She nearly flinched. But then a new resolve took hold and she angrily yelled at him.

"What are ya?"

"That is a question only you can answer," Pardus softly said, getting up to put his nose up to hers. "'What am I?'"

Discord held the scroll before Celestia, and she focused on the lower half of the scroll, where Luna had begun her decryption efforts on the text contained in the upper half.

ኖ ዋ ኯ ሐ ኈ ጋ ጊ ሐ ኯ ጵ ኼ ጚ ዎ ሎ ሽ ፕ
ዓ ጵ ዐ ኣ ክ ፒ ꬫ ኊ ሽ ቤ ኍ ኬ ቢ ጊ ፈ ሿ ኞ ኁ ∪ ኳ ኯ ጜ ጉ
ቷ ቧ ሞ ጋ ዀ ጱ ቇ ራ ጌ ኸ ኺ ኯ ኀ ኢ ሴ ኡ ‡ ኢ ሴ ኈ ሴ አ ተ ሆ ቒ Ξ ኺ ኯ
ዀ ኽ ኛ ፀ ጿ ዞ ኃ ቐ ቘ ∀ ጿ ቲ ሊ ፣ ቼ ሻ ፋ ₴ ጸ ጶ ፖ ፒ ዞ ግ ዋ ኳ
ꬨ ꬁ ኹ ጏ ቹ ጐ ኜ ዏ ው ኀ ኰ ꬌ ቹ ፪ ጟ ጎ ኯ ቷ አ ∀ ቴ ꬎ λ ። ዂ ዓ ፎ ፓ ሽ ፬ ቊ ሐ ꬂ ፩ ꬮ ፒ ፈ ሱ ሸ Ξ ∩ ኋ ኮ ሌ ኟ ር ¡ ሟ ብ ኤ ዧ ኩ ጉ ገ ጻ ሲ አ ታ ቃ ኒ ሟ ጱ ዀ ጕ ⊥ ቇ ዅ Π ፎ ቕ ቋ ጹ ኯ ሊ ሁ ፒ ፤ ኀ ጴ ጷ ሏ ꬪ ኡ ኺ ኯ ጽ ዏ ቹ ፦ ፇ ቺ ኾ ጴ ሃ ኧ ሏ ኘ ፅ ዟ ኸ የ ሩ ሳ ኀ ሶ ሴ ꬆ እ ዯ ፫ ቹ ዟ ❧ ꬁ ? ⊥ ሊ ታ ታ ኈ ኍ ኖ ኣ ኈ ፨ ቖ ። ኌ ዯ ኪ ጲ ዊ ቄ ፔ ቖ ჻ ፰ ሙ ሱ ኾ ጏ ኢ ቹ ፩ ቴ ‡ ኈ ኸ ꬎ ኈ ሐ ኀ ቒ ‡ ኯ ጳ ‡ ꬁ ሴ አ ተ ‡ ኸ ኺ ኯ ኀ ኢ ሴ ኡ ዋ ꬬ የ ሆ ሪ ┊ ች ቡ ኄ ሚ ዉ ኂ ኗ ጔ ꬪ ዓ ኆ Σ ፐ ፫ ታ ኂ ም ኼ ሴ ኡ ዋ ꬬ የ ሆ ሪ ┊ ች ቡ ኄ ሚ ዉ ኂ ኗ ጔ ꬪ ዓ ኆ Σ ፐ ፫ ታ ኂ ም ኼ ዄ ብ ጐ ኖ ❦ ኈ ወ λ ፖ ች ኜ ግ ¡ ቘ ኜ ስ ጿ ኙ ቊ ጸ ☼ ው ሉ ፮ ሾ በ ፄ ☼ ጳ λ ፉ ꬅ ቌ ፈ ቄ ጛ ቈ ሾ ዖ ጰ ∧ ፙ ዕ ቑ ∧ ኀ ጿ ሀ ቒ ፁ ስ Π Π ሟ ሲ ዓ ჻ ❧ ች ꬁ ጺ ꬫ ֍ ጼ ኂ ኽ ኜ ኽ ሙ ቄ ሰ ሽ ❦ ቛ ኰ ቁ ኘ ከ ፒ ቴ ኌ ዟ ኀ ራ ዒ ጕ ч ∧ ፥ ቱ ϟ ሚ ዃ ሎ ኴ ∩ ዎ ሊ ꬫ ሐ ፃ ጌ ወ ፥ ን ሇ ϟ ጴ ቸ ꬬ ረ ሿ ፩ ሁ ሬ ዑ ረ ጏ ዑ ር ሼ ፠ ቲ ¡ ꬄ ፔ ֎ ቾ Σ ኑ ፊ ፑ ጶ ሎ ል ሜ ፰ ፚ ¿ ጻ ኲ ꬫ ቌ ሺ ኄ ዟ ሮ መ ¿ ጲ ታ ሃ ቕ ች ዎ ፭ ፨ ዏ ዒ ጛ ገ ሎ ኟ ጵ ሾ ቇ ዧ ፏ ዞ ላ ኟ በ ኩ ። ኾ በ ሇ ፅ ሌ ዟ ዋ ጊ ኒ ቄ ነ ኘ ❧ ፁ ሺ ፑ ቐ ¿ ኻ ኚ ሞ ኩ ፏ ኋ ꬎ ሰ ቸ ዑ እ ዓ ፓ ዐ ֍ Σ ጱ ꬩ ዔ ነ ፭ ዉ ፬ ወ ቖ ቱ ቱ ጱ ቻ ሎ ኜ ጙ ። ቕ ሸ ቚ ኍ ፓ ፩ ┊ ኀ ከ ጶ ኀ ꬨ ቂ ቷ ሻ ጷ ሞ ጔ ꬍ ና ჻ ሪ ꬅ ፆ ቔ ህ ፄ ሐ ꬭ ፒ ወ ፖ Π ቌ ም ፰ ቂ ህ ❧ ም ሐ ቔ ሎ ኃ የ ቶ ኦ ቝ ህ ሹ ∧ ቛ ኾ ኘ ኅ ቴ ኒ ኽ ሌ ኃ ኸ ኦ ሬ የ ኙ ሰ ፐ ዅ ቈ ል ኩ ሷ ዂ ኻ ዂ ꬫ መ ፯ ሚ ቶ ፀ ኼ ፀ ቍ ቐ ች ኘ ❧ ጞ ቕ ፅ ዄ ሉ ኞ ኚ ሽ ሙ ለ ኋ ጙ ጲ ዯ ት ኇ ቃ ጹ ፠ ጲ ጳ ጵ ጺ ፓ ጲ ሿ ኊ ሾ ጽ ሉ ሎ ፏ ሜ ኙ ፥ ጼ ꬄ ቡ ሳ ኖ ኩ ፊ ፃ ፓ ኒ ቈ መ ч ቻ ሙ ኻ ች ቊ ኝ ፆ ዄ ቴ ቢ ¿ ሪ ჻ ጓ ኽ ሄ ሞ ዅ ϟ ዐ ኇ ፈ ፄ ኟ ቐ ꬭ ፅ ቍ ፏ ሰ ኛ ኍ ፌ ሀ ዅ ኯ ለ ቀ ጼ ዑ ሁ ꬅ ጒ ꬄ ሶ ዉ Σ ዉ ሶ ቷ ኈ ፪ ም ጙ ꬍ ጐ ግ ፗ ሬ ዋ ኝ ቼ ሜ ዅ ጞ ኈ ጒ ኣ ሺ ቹ ቜ ል ፕ ቾ ኸ ጳ ቓ ኼ ሐ ꬉ ϟ ጉ ዅ ከ ቌ ቃ ኚ ኸ ኽ ኮ ቤ ኌ ቓ ፯ ጌ ሎ ֎ ፮ ኲ ፄ ሚ ፄ ቿ ∧ ራ ጽ ቜ ጎ ላ ꬬ ፇ ኅ ታ ቼ ኚ ፓ ∩ ለ ኩ ኸ ❧ ፃ ጱ ፨ ቸ እ ገ ቾ ቲ ኀ ዅ ч ጟ ሿ ፏ ፐ ዅ ኃ Ξ Σ ፎ ቧ ቲ ፄ ን ቓ ሉ λ ቌ ꬍ ኲ ታ ჻ ኁ ኖ ፑ ሿ ቻ ች ጹ ኡ ፋ ኃ ❦ ዓ ቢ ቇ ቐ ፦ ው ፙ ቂ ፧ ሮ Σ ፈ ጚ ሚ ቄ ፮ ቿ ኆ በ ‡ ቍ ቘ ዌ ዌ ኼ ቧ ሮ ፓ ጽ ኁ ቛ ኾ ፌ ፖ ┊ ፠ ⊥ ∀ ገ ኳ ከ ꬩ አ ኲ ራ ☼ ¡ ከ ❧ ግ ∀ ክ ꬮ ኙ ❦ ፌ ኰ ዌ ዅ ኞ ጐ ሁ ጉ ሪ ር ቲ ቻ ቺ ዀ የ ኳ ዖ ꬎ ጟ ዌ ቲ ቷ ኰ ∪ ወ ኛ ቇ ∠ ፬ ቁ ሇ ❦ ኞ ቡ ቤ ጞ ቧ ሊ የ ፇ ጝ ረ ቝ ፥ ለ ኢ ጎ ጒ ꬬ ꬨ ኘ ጼ ቀ ጟ ኴ ኩ ቡ ¿ ቒ ም ቴ ꬂ ጻ ኟ ኤ ፠ ꬂ ጛ ቢ ሁ ቧ ጳ ፩ ኁ ዐ Ξ ꬆ ጿ ፒ ֍ ፈ ፂ ዐ ꬂ ዓ ቖ ∩ ተ ቛ ꬮ λ ዊ እ ሏ ጾ λ ዉ ዉ λ ꬉ ሲ ኅ ዊ ኈ ኌ ꬅ ቁ ፤ ፦ ት ክ ግ ቚ ኸ ኢ ሰ ጕ ፥ ሞ ፭ ☼ ኌ ጓ ሼ ፄ ጟ ቝ ჻ ዀ ዓ ꬩ ꬁ ረ
ቘ ፕ ፨ ኖ ዉ ሏ ጷ ❦ ና
ፆ Σ ሸ ꬭ

The violet and underlined words immediately caught her eye.

"What is this?" Celestia asked. "I'm ... the subject...? Huh? And ... 'Luna is best princess'...!?" she demanded after reading what Luna had managed to decipher so far.

"Yond's what I wast coming to see thee about," Luna told her. "The griffons has't hath changed their encryption methods once moo. They seemeth to beest nesting a card of their Vigenere Beauford cipher with there's few or none will entertain it else they art doing. Mine own guess is they has't begun using yond enigma machine they has't been talking about. While I has't did manage to breaketh through a bawbling portion of their outermost layer, this is something I has't nev'r ere encountered!"

"I'd say your problems have only just begun!" Discord grumbled before he vanished in a flash of light, leaving the scroll flutter to the ground.

"DISCORD! GET BACK HERE!" Celestia angrily yelled but to no avail.

"It's nay useth, Celie," Luna said. "He's pursuing his own agenda, which f'r better 'r worse, involves getting did rid of the humans."

"No, not the humans," Celestia corrected Luna. "Just Trevar, and his shadowcat friends.

"But t'would appeareth yond thither is cause to beest concern'd about those folk," she continued, hefting the scroll with her magic. "Alloweth's see this enigma thee wast able to buildeth from those instructions."

"To the laypony, t'would at first seemeth to beest a ingraft typewriter," Luna explained as she led her sister back to her quarters. "Mechanically, the keys did press mimic their function up to a point. But beyond yond point, all they doth is cause a plate to rise which lifts four hooks together in the vicinity of an exsufflicate spindle."

"And the wiring?" Celestia inquired.

"Thither forsooth art oddities about yond," Luna told her. "Whenev'r a key is did press, and only after the mechanism doth take yond action I did describe, t'causes a contact to connect one side of a battery to a setteth of connections locat'd within some sort of jack'd plug board. The other side of the battery is did connect to a magical lamp, which eke leads to a different setteth of connections in the same plug board. And from the plug board, all the wires congregate to one end of yond exsufflicate spindle container."

"So whatever it's doing with those signals, it's all happening in that spindle, which we don't have yet?" Celestia asked.

"T'would seem so," Luna agreed as they came to the entrance to Luna's quarters. The night guards opened the doors at their approach, then closed them after they had entered.

"And what is the plug board for?" Celestia asked when Luna unveiled the device she had built.

"I'm not entirely certain," Luna replied. "Aught did insert in the plug sockets breaks the electrical contacts between the spindle cubiculo and the key 'r light, whichev'r the case may beest. I'm not sure wherefore one would wish to, as t'would render yond key 'r light inoperative. F'r maintenance, peradventure? I'm afraid yond without there's few or none will entertain it they're putting into yond spindle cubiculo, we're not going to findeth out."

"And it's not like I can ask them when we meet this morning, either," Celestia said, sighing.

"Come again?" Luna inquired.

"A press meeting, to explain yesterday's movements of the sun as a result of King Sombra's attack," Celestia explained. "I'm surprised you haven't mentioned it as I'm sure the evening edition of Canterlot Times would have covered it."

"I would has't," Luna admitted, "but f'r the disturbing fact of the griffon's encryption so drastically hath changed and at a most precipitous time f'r such."

"Whadya mean?" Applejack demanded.

"I mean, what am I?" Pardus repeated. "To you, what am I? Your honest opinion, please."

"You? Yer a monster!" Applejack growled at him.

"No," Pardus flatly countered, still nose to nose with her. "That's who I am. Not what I am." His statement actually made her blink in surprise.

"Ya admit it?"

"Applejack, we are all monsters," Pardus replied, sitting back on his haunches. "You, me, Trevar, Celestia, Sombra, Discord. Even your granny over there. All of us. Monsters are who we all are. But that is not what we are."

"Th-that's not true at all!" she angrily shouted.

"Is it?" he challenged. "I've had occasion to learn of the history of this nation and this town when we looked at your library. Your Granny Smith, I understand that she was one of the early settlers here. Is that not correct?"

"Yes," Applejack said, fuming at how anypony—anything—would dare call Granny Smith a monster. "It's true."

"She came here, with her kin, and stood against all that the land had here to oppose her," Pardus pointed out. "Timberwolves, manticores, hydras, cragadiles, and who knows what else the Everfree holds? Just chock full of monsters. Is it not?"

"Yes. That's true," Applejack admitted.

"And yet, against all that, after all this time, she and her family—in addition—all you ponies, are still here. And those monsters of the Everfree are not," Pardus said, making his point. "Believe me, being a monster, myself, I know from experience of what I speak: only monsters can beat back monsters and keep them back."

"Ah don't like yer conclusion, but Ah can't rightly argue your point."

"So back to the original issue," he continued. "Monsters are who we are. Not what we are."

"So what is it I'm suppose ta label ya?"

"Just your honest opinion," Pardus calmly repeated. "What am I?"

"Is there a so-called 'right answer' yer lookin' fer?" she said with contempt.

"The only correct answer is the honest one," Pardus replied. He pointed to her foreleg.

"The wound I gave you there, is no more, but no less than those I gave your brother and your granny," Pardus told her. "With my skills, I can ensure a precise cut, to the fraction of a hand in depth and length. Other than who was scratched, the cuts are all identical. When I asked if the cuts I gave them hurt, they responded with 'no'. You, however, said it hurt. Does it still?"

"Well, no," she admitted. Her pain had vanished some time ago as she was baffled by what this was all about.

"Not surprising," Pardus said. "In a couple days, there won't even be a mark. And unless you try really hard to remember this conversation, you'd probably forget it ever happened." Still locking eyes with her, he extended his wing, gesturing toward the orchard. "That, however, is a wound my sister and I gave you that's going to leave quite a scar. That's the wound that truly hurts, isn't it? Even though you had accepted Panthera's apology yesterday, it hurts too much, doesn't it?"

Applejack's eyes fell in shame. It was true. In her heart, she had rejected the apology Panthera had expressed yesterday.

"Because that's no mere scratch," Pardus went on. "That was a cut that drew more than blood. It wounded your entire family, your history, your livelihood. It cut through all your hard work, all the sweat you put into this place, all the years. I can tell some of these trees are nearly as old as she is," Pardus said, shooting a glance at Granny Smith. "Any replacement trees planted here won't reach that level of maturity until Applebloom here is as old as Granny Smith. I know this. And that's why you hurt."

"Yeah, ya got that right!" Applejack shot back.

"So, can you answer? What am I?"

Applejack was still puzzled.

"Ah still don't rightly know what yer talkin' about." Pardus stared at her for several moments.

"If a friend intentionally cuts you, does it hurt worse than if an enemy does it?" he then asked. "If the actual wounds are exactly the same, which one hurts more? What am I? Friend? Or Enemy?"

Now, she finally understood. However, the answer still eluded her. A friend would not intentionally do this sort of thing. But an enemy would not care that he hurt them. Yet, it was clear that Pardus and Panthera did care. He was here to help with the cleanup, standing in for his sister, whom he said could not be here, even as she had promised. It finally made sense what he was asking.

"Yer not a friend," Applejack stated, glaring at him.

"Then you consider me an enemy?"

"No. No, Ah don't," Applejack admitted after thinking about it. "Ah—Ah reckon yer a pon—a panther, who might have been a friend. But the damage you did here was too much! Ya lost our trust in ya."

"Good!" Pardus said nodding, stepping up to move alongside her. "An honest answer at last," he said, draping a wing over her to give her a hug.

"Be aware, Applejack," he added. "The damage here was not our intention. We had no desire to destroy these trees. Circumstances, however, forced us to take the action we did. And if the situation were to repeat itself exactly as it happened yesterday, we would not hesitate to do the same thing again, even knowing the outcome. It would still not be our intention to cause this damage. Crops and orchards can be replaced. Lives, however, cannot. Despite the damage done here, the fix for this is relatively easy. This soil is still good. Anything you plant here will grow well and be productive. But had Sombra won yesterday, the results would not be so easily fixed. And you know this."

"Yeah, yer right," Applejack sadly admitted.

"Good. Now, let's get to work," he said, releasing her. "We don't have much time. I've got to be in Canterlot by nine this morning to again step in for Panthera."

As Granny Smith went back to the farmhouse, the rest of the Apples got busy with trimming back the next couple of trees for takedown while Pardus repeated his trick with ripping the stumps out of the ground. He had just finished the cycle of cutting down the trunk and yanking out the stump of the fifth tree in the field when Twilight and the rest of the girls showed up to lend a hoof for the cleanup. Once they joined in, the work went fast and efficiently.

Tail Feather entered the modest office tucked in a cubby space behind the main ostentatious throne room after his morning meal intending to work sorting the scrolls from the embassies the Empire had scattered about the planet. When he finally broke for breakfast, the couriers had delivered messages from all the nations save for the embassy in Canterlot. Indeed, his waiting for the couriers from Canterlot almost made him late for his meal. It was quite unlike Gustav to not….

His feathers all poofed out when he spied a single scroll sitting on his desk that he knew had been cleared before he had departed!

Cautiously, he approached it. Sniffing revealed a familiar scent: Gustav's. Looking about the room, he confirmed it was empty save for him.

One scroll? he wondered. And the couriers all knew better than to enter this room when he was not there, this locked room, and just leave scrolls lying about without properly delivering them directly to him. Even if he was at his meal, they knew to wait for his return in the throne room!

Curiosity finally won him over and he gingerly poked it with a claw, in case there was an explosive enchantment on it. But nothing untoward happened when he touched it. Finally, he picked it up and opened it.

The writing was in Gustav's talon, that much he could tell. And that was all he could tell from it.

How the squit am I supposed to decode this with just one scroll? he wondered.

"Problem number one!" a voice behind him suddenly spoke out and Tail Feather hissed as he leapt into the air, spinning about to attack, only to find himself hovering in midair without his wings providing lift.

What Tail Feather saw to further astonish him was an inky black winged-feline and some sort of bipedal simian-looing creature leaning in one corner of the room off to the side behind the cat. The tall bipedal creature held what looked to be a small wooden brief case in one of its hands.

"Your messages are easily compromised by the existence of headers which essentially remain the same in every message. The headers all follow the same pattern: first 48 characters, then after a randomly long subject title, the header resumes with another 29 characters. Then after the main body of the message, which may be of any length, but they all conclude with the same identical 16 characters, or 17 if one counts the final period that's actually part of the main body of the message. So, what is the most effective way of solving this problem?" the winged panther asked him.

"Who—who are you!? How dare you come into my chambers!?" he yelled.

"There are several convenient solutions to this issue," the female panther said as she began pacing before him, as though she were giving a lecture in a classroom. "We'll look at one option, the choice of which was determined after considering options to solving other common issues that I'll be listing shortly and deciding on a single solution which best fits all the problems.

Something in Tail Feather's mind tugged at his attention. Something regarding shadowcats, which he had instantly recognized this creature matched the legendary descriptions them. And … something else … something….

"The choice we will look at will be for us to set up a pre-arranged agreement to break up the headers with the introduction of semi-random characters. I stress the term 'semi-random', because they will only appear to be randomly chosen characters. In reality, they will be quite deliberately selected to serve specific purposes. These purposes are to create offset diversions and other obstacles to unintended recipients from decoding the messages, including the illusion of partially found keys. This technique is call 'padding'."

"What do you want!?" Tail Feather demanded.

"In every encryption method," the winged panther continued as though she hadn't been interrupted, "there are a number of keys that are actually used for transcribing a plaintext message into an encrypted transmitted format. Frequent changing of these keys are essential in maintaining communication security. Preferably, the minimum change should be once per day and the selection of these changes should be as random as possible to prevent eves droppers from predicting the pattern.

Something Gustav mentioned….

"This, of course, leads to problem number two: How to coordinate with distant posts as to what encryption settings will be used without giving away the method of such communication to those you're trying to conceal the messages from?"

"WHY ARE YOU HERE!?" Tail Feather screamed.

"As mentioned previously in the solution for problem number one," the cat continued, "we can incorporate this communication within the padded characters used to break up the telegram's header."

"WHERE ARE MY GUARD!!??" he roared.

"Which then leads us to problem number three," she went on with her impromptu lecture, "how to disguise such instructions for the next key when it is essentially plaintext padding material? Naturally, we can encrypt the padding in its own encryption. Another convenient and highly useful solution is to re-encrypt an already encoded and padded message using a different method and key. This second option is called 'nested encryption' and it gives several benefits just by itself.

…something about a couple of shadowcats….

"One of which is, the nesting process becomes an encryption method all its own. The messages can only be decrypted in the precise reverse order in which the nesting occurs. Another benefit is, that should one layer of the nested encryption be successfully decoded, the interceptors will still only get gibberish for their achievement. Still yet another benefit is that additional paddings can be added in one or more layers, throwing off efforts to break through a specific layer. Additionally, decoy plaintext can be introduced as part of such padding which will make the interceptors think they're close to breaking through to the final layer when in fact they're still several layers away.

…and a bipedal simian-like creature who was really the Cat-Lo—

"Not only that, but there's no reason why both cannot be employed, which is what we actually did here," the cat concluded.

"Where did you come from?" Tail Feather demanded growling.

"Haven't you been paying attention to anything I've been telling you?" the panther inquired, nosing up to his beak as she tilted her head at him.

"Who. The. CHALKY. SQUIT. ARE. YOU!?"

The bipedal creature, who had been silently watching grinned and approached Tail Feather. With its free hand, it had the audacity to pet him as it passed to set the small wooden case on his desk. Tail Feather couldn't tell what magic was being used to hold him, but it was sufficient to keep him from moving to bite at the creature's appendage.

"So," the bipe—and it suddenly dawned on Tail Feather just who THIS WAS! "Have you finished building the encryptor from the plans Gustav sent you?" THE CAT-LORD ASKED!

… and … I was just … trying to bite his arm off …. were Tail Feather's last thoughts as he suddenly felt faint.

With all eight of them trimming off the branches of the trees to come down, it looked like they were keeping Pardus busy with the pace of taking down and stacking the trunks, then removing the stumps from the ground. Granted, it seemed like it was the actual catching the trunks and shaking off the clumps of soil from the roots were the parts eating up most of his efforts. His eyebeams slicing through the base of the trunks and the ground seemed to take no time at all. But he obviously moved much slower as he caught the falling trees and moved to stack them with the others.

And it was a steady two-and-a-half hours later that Pardus informed them that it was time for him to head on up to Canterlot, and Twilight estimated they had cleared nearly ninety-five percent of the dead and damaged trees.

"Well, thank ya kindly fer all yer hard work, Pardus," Applejack told him as they all took a break and had some food Granny Smith brought out for everypony. "We'll be able to finish up from here."

"Ya sure ya won't stop ta eat anythin'?" Granny Smith inquired of the shadowcat.

"I'm—late enough as it is," he temporalized as he slowly walked away from the group with her following. "And with my speed compromised from the fight with Sombra, I estimate that if I leave now, I'll just have enough time to get there for the press conference Celestia requested Panthera to attend."

"Ya got a good head on yer shoulders, youngin," Granny Smith whispered to him when they were far enough away she was sure they wouldn't be overheard. "But if'n ya wanna keep it, don't ever do somethin' like that 'gin."

"I'll heed your advice," Pardus quietly responded. "But not because I'm afraid of you. Rather, because the lessons I was teaching Applejack have been learned."

"Just don't ya underestimate me, sonny," she warned.

"Believe me, I am not," he said, looking at her. "Even crippled as I am, you would still find me a most formidable opponent. Furthermore, I am not alone."

"Ye don't look crippled ta me, ya young whippersnapper."

"Are you aware of that blob of molten rock we stuffed Sombra's carcass into yesterday?" Pardus inquired. "That was over three hundred million cubic hands of dirt and soil that my sister ripped up from the road right over there, which I melted."

She looked at him with hard eyes.

"Shadowcats cain't do things like ya described!" she growled. "Ah've fought yer kind b'fore, so's Ah know whacha can do!"

"My sister and I can do that, and more," Pardus countered. "Or at least, I could. Right now, however, I can't even lift that leaf by your hoof. Trust me, there is pain, and my body is working to heal it. This sort of damage has never before been this severe, so I won't know if I'm ever to fully recover, or my overall abilities will be reduced, or if the damage will never heal.

"But I also know that pain is an illusion. Should it come to a fight between us, the pain I'm experiencing can be ignored. And as you've already seen, my eyes still work just fine. I've no doubt you can still handle anything from that forest, so I'm certainly not underestimating you. I, however, am something you've never dealt with before. So, yes, even crippled as I am, you would find me no pushover. Plus, if need be, my sister and Trevar can be here in minutes, and they won't underestimate you either.

"I respect your abilities, even if I've no idea of what you can do. Rest assured, I have no desire to find out by fighting," he added. "But if a fight is to happen, it will be by your aggression, not mine."

"S'long as we understand each other," she whispered, glaring at him.

"I believe we do," he quietly replied before spreading his wings and flying off.

Tail Feather barely managed to pull his mind back to an alert state as he desperately tried to formulate a sufficient apology to beg his forgiveness. But each time he opened his beak, his voice cut off in the middle of a syllable as his brain sought for a yet better word to start speaking. After several minutes of just stammering like a complete imbecile, Tail Feather collapsed where he was being held.

"I'm—I'm so sorry!" he finally gasped out. "Please forgive me, Cat-Lord! I'm so—so sorry! I had—I had no idea—it was you!"

"And that's another thing," the Cat-Lord said, sighing. "What is it about my speaking that sets you cat-birds off like this?"

"Well, you won that bet," the winged panther said, her voice shifting to a smoother feminine timbre that seemed more natural to her form. "He didn't react this entire time with me using your voice, but he only reacts to you. Weird."

"G-Gustav told me about you," Tail Feather finally worked up the nerve to say. "Please forgive me, but I did not believe. I'm so sorry! I should have believe him!"

"Hey! Enough," Trevar said, tapping his beak with a finger, making Tail Feather flinch. "I'm not here to punish you. I'm here to help. However, I'll let you know, I value my privacy very much. But I can't help you if every griffon ends up acting like you are. And if enough of you catbirds get wind of me, it'll get the attention of the Equestrian Princesses, which is more of what I don't need.

"So, for me to help you, I need you to do a few things," Trevar explained. "I've had him send you the plans for the encryptor he just got through building himself, and he's informed me that you have completed your copy here. Since he informed me of your'all's suspicion the Princesses have broken your current encryption—and I have to say, to do that would be quite an impressive accomplishment from what he showed me your encryption system is based upon—so we came to hand-deliver the rest of the device to you along with the first message created using it."

"Oh!" Tail Feather exclaimed. He picked up the scroll he had dropped when the Cat-Lord and the shadowcat surprised him.

ሽ ቧ ሐ ሟ ቖ ፬ ሬ ሶ ዑ ሌ ቢ ሂ ሚ ቔ ጒ ሴ ሸ ኻ ም ር ꬌ ዏ ቍ ꬉ ኜ ቸ ፠ ፚ ጙ ቷ ኖ ጼ ኛ ሂ ኑ ዀ ፭ ፖ ቃ ₴ ቼ ֎ ሻ ꬅ ጔ ∩ ተ ቇ ꬪ ፏ ꬍ Σ ኟ ጐ ቃ ላ ሱ ч ቹ ገ ፁ ቡ ጉ ኽ ዞ ፤ ፭ ꬬ ፫ ጿ ጽ ꬩ ሲ ቿ ኞ ❧ ጛ ⊥ ኰ ፨ ኲ ኯ ቼ ኲ ጲ ቑ ቔ ቆ ኜ ቸ ቲ ቧ ዔ ∠ ኽ ፦ ፐ ከ ቋ ፀ ጱ ጳ ኟ ꬊ ፈ ቚ ኇ ቜ ጱ ቃ ቧ ሂ ጛ ፕ ፤ ጎ ጜ ዞ ፎ ኬ ሲ ት ሹ ጟ ኝ ጌ ኚ ቒ ኑ ጳ ት ቅ ሿ ኋ ኤ ኇ ፋ ኜ ች ኈ ት ኾ ሂ ዖ ጛ ፒ ፕ ∧ ኺ ቚ ꬋ መ ꬋ ꬃ ꬉ ሃ ፕ ጝ ሃ ֎ ኽ ው ኡ ሶ ጝ ኘ ፈ ል ቃ ኆ ቃ ቃ ሼ ቁ ጏ ሆ ቤ ሬ ዏ ¿ ቚ ጎ ፋ ጉ ሸ ዎ ፆ ሀ ቁ ዕ ꬫ ኮ ꬩ ⊥ ኯ ኋ ፤ ጔ ∪ ኤ ∀ ∀ ኘ ፑ ჻ ኹ ፇ ሐ ሜ ዅ ꬋ ህ ꬉ ፎ እ Π ┊ ገ ሇ ቤ ፬ ፍ ረ ቲ λ λ ው ቧ ፀ ሟ ቸ ዄ ꬫ ቊ ቄ ኵ ገ ጋ ጸ ጿ ዔ ꬪ ꬉ ሟ ፩ ጴ ኙ ፩ ኸ ꬃ ፃ ቁ ኋ ֍ ሆ ዔ ꬅ ሐ ሃ ሬ እ ሄ ቧ ቱ ቓ ቹ ሐ ጷ ቢ ኙ ጘ ¡ ። ሄ ኦ ч ቒ ሸ ዄ ስ ዔ ጊ ኰ ቾ ዔ ጿ ኋ ጊ ጳ እ ሚ ┊ ቤ ጱ ካ ሞ ሬ ሽ ꬫ ቡ ኹ ዄ ⊥ ሆ ኋ ዑ ኼ ሱ ት ኝ ኌ ዄ ኂ ሟ ጘ ፋ ኻ ኆ ኹ ገ ሷ ꬂ ም ፍ ፭ ቇ ኤ ꬃ ረ ኟ ፖ ፤ ⊥ ቝ ካ ፒ ቺ ጙ ኋ ቱ ቶ ጻ ጿ ኳ ፑ ሷ ቄ ቱ ፇ ዀ ቅ ሃ ∠ ፫ ኣ ኒ ች ┊ ኲ ቢ ኙ ኵ ቹ ፏ ጟ ሆ ቚ ꬨ ዟ ꬩ ጵ ኞ ዏ ሙ ጸ ሾ ጞ ፁ ሌ ჻ ዂ ጉ ሲ ቶ ጐ ጴ ꬭ ሼ ∀ ጸ ጐ ዟ ካ ❧ ጰ ፂ ተ ጼ ስ ፙ ዐ ጸ ቺ ፩ ። ቤ ቴ ጰ ኰ ኈ ጎ ዑ ጘ ꬃ ስ ∧ የ ቁ የ ቼ ኢ ч ሽ ቴ ን ዓ ፯ ቍ ሀ ኙ ፈ ኮ ች ꬍ ሼ ኳ ህ ለ ኢ ጺ ፏ ሉ ገ ፤ ፩ ኞ ፕ ሶ ጎ ጚ ቇ ሜ ጷ ቺ ። ቚ ፅ ፅ ዋ ቤ ክ ዄ ፮ ና ቺ ቌ ቧ ቅ ኝ ꬪ ቾ ∠ ጓ ϟ ኙ ዕ ኙ ዒ ። ኾ ሏ ቘ መ ፌ ሷ ኡ ካ ስ ፠ ፪ ጷ ጶ ፆ ኴ ጔ ኈ ሹ ሾ የ ፖ ꬬ ቧ ኀ ∪ ቌ ቈ ሜ ሶ ቊ ቈ ፚ ን ጘ እ ቶ ሎ ኚ ጌ ዟ ጚ ቐ ፈ ϟ ሇ ፐ ክ ሼ ፅ ጶ ሶ ዞ ጒ ኧ ኅ ∩ ኙ ቻ ኂ ፌ ኢ ሱ ቤ ኁ ꬊ ኍ ቼ ላ ዧ ሎ ሴ ፥ ጹ አ ቔ ꬊ ꬍ ኮ λ ተ ው ቲ ጞ ኃ ራ ዕ ፊ ሞ ኗ ፧ ቺ ጕ ꬃ λ ቷ ፗ ቐ ዃ የ ና ሪ ሯ λ ? ꬆ ቕ ቓ ቍ ጿ ዋ ቍ ሇ ጴ ኖ ⊥ ሮ ኅ ኊ ህ ኳ ቐ ፥ ጵ ና ሱ ተ ቑ ቾ ፠ ቴ ጕ ኗ ቐ ሀ ሀ ዟ ¡ ቃ ጰ ፥ ሾ ዏ ቈ ዌ ጟ ፣ ֎ ኪ Ξ ቌ ቼ ሄ ч ቺ ፃ ዀ ጎ ሿ ዂ ኇ ጛ ቲ ꬭ ቃ ቴ ꬅ ሊ ላ ፔ ፔ ረ ሰ ኊ ጿ ፉ ֍ ሚ ቺ ዒ ኄ ጴ ዊ ኗ ሊ ꬂ ሽ ኑ ሸ ∧ ኮ ч ꬌ ኙ ፉ ና ኝ ሄ ꬎ ቼ ፎ ጌ ጝ ኪ ፩ ቴ ፋ ቕ ጸ ‡ ገ ቃ ሺ ዅ ። ፆ ፖ ኧ ኴ ፨ ሶ ኧ ኗ ኯ ጲ ቝ ኈ ህ ቧ ኚ ጋ ቑ ሀ ꬅ ፨ ቌ ቅ ቃ ሚ ኦ ቓ ሟ ፭ ꬃ ኹ አ ሩ ሪ ጽ ጞ ቃ ֎ ፮ ኇ ጘ ቇ ቒ ፀ ‡ ገ ፍ ኬ ኋ ሮ ፍ ꬮ ኝ ? ꬮ ፔ ሯ ፓ ፖ ተ ኤ ኧ ֎ ቚ ቔ ጸ ዃ ቐ ሙ ሪ ቃ ኋ ዃ ኃ ꬃ ꬬ ኂ ꬉ ኯ ካ ሄ ቂ ፉ ስ ፈ ል ꬭ ቑ ቈ ኣ ነ ሎ ፬ ኊ ጚ ኢ ጋ ቍ ꬪ ₴ ኽ ቌ ሷ ። ꬩ ዓ ኲ ዯ ቄ ፁ ዊ ፎ Ξ ሞ ቖ ኌ ኑ ꬊ ፐ ሸ ሎ ጝ ኩ ዧ ስ ¿ ኖ ብ ሐ አ ኾ ፠ ሐ λ ኛ ꬅ ቢ ዉ ꬨ ኒ ኁ ┊ ቖ ቢ ቷ ች ለ ኹ ጓ ኃ ሬ ዅ ኻ ኴ ሌ ጝ ኍ ሾ ¿ ¡ ∠ ┊ ዋ ቢ ኸ ጱ ፏ ኙ ፮ ጟ ቝ ታ ዖ ኸ ዋ ር ☼ ሩ ጲ ሮ ል ሺ ጔ ለ ብ ኪ ፒ ❦ ሹ ፧ ነ ꬃ ቑ ዀ ቢ ꬂ ሮ ኑ ፈ ፈ ሜ ካ ኖ ኊ ቶ ፃ ግ ኙ ጾ ꬁ ጌ ሲ ፗ ꬁ ꬄ ኤ ሳ ሲ ፚ ሱ ጰ ፫ ኡ ፙ ∀ ኣ ጔ ፌ ዂ ቝ ፇ ጶ ፐ ፥ ሞ ቊ ው ኄ ፅ ሉ ኄ ጼ ዌ ጟ ዂ ቾ ስ ዎ ጲ ኦ ቐ ሪ ሜ ፓ ኺ ☼ ም አ ሬ ኄ ል ч ፗ ፪ ጓ ኵ ❦ ቴ ሟ ዞ ። ኴ ኊ ꬂ ዅ ֎ ፣ ታ ፬ ሿ ጔ ኯ ጵ ፩ ቝ ቈ እ ፍ ֎ ዃ ፑ ꬩ ተ ገ ቲ ፌ ፬ ጐ ቁ ꬂ ሴ ፀ ሹ ሬ ቑ ዑ መ ፕ ፀ ጛ ቑ Ξ ቴ ቶ ጒ ኊ ዯ ኚ ቱ ቕ

"I—I have no idea where to start," Tail Feather admitted looking at it.

"And that's where I come in," Lady Panthera said. She was just as Gustav had described, and he mentally berated himself for not having put the pieces together while he was held in their magic and him furiously screaming at them. "Allow me to formally introduce us. I'm Panthera. This is Allec Trevar. Please note, I do not call him Cat-Lord, Lord, or any of that other bullshit. We request you don't either. And at some point, you'll probably encounter my twin brother, Pardus. You won't be able to miss him—unless he does this…" she said as her form rippled out of sight.

Tail Feather nervously gulped as he stared wide-eyed at where she wasn't anymore.

"They don't call themselves shadowcats for nothing," the Cat-Lord quipped as Panthera's form rippled back into view off to Tail Feather's side, startling him. He hadn't heard her move!

"I—I see," Tail Feather stammered.

"Gee! I sure hope you didn't!" Lady Panthera exclaimed. "I'm not feeling anything wrong with my cloak!" The Cat-Lord chuckled at her comment.

"Anyhow, Gustav informed us that you're familiar with something very similar to what my people have at home," Trevar spoke up. "Ironically, the griffon here who invented it, Vigenere Bufford, had the same names as two completely unrelated people who invented a functionally identical method back on my world."

"Ah, but we don't use it as the Princesses know of this method all too well," Tail Feather replied.

"Humor me," Trevar said. "Give it a try. The key to use is 'Griffons Rise To Fly', but with no spaces."

"Like this?" Tail Feather asked, when he wrote down the key on the message scroll.

ኖ ኺ ኯ ዀ ገ ኀ አ ኺ ኮ ጳ ተ ወ ኾ ኈ ኌ

"That's correct," Lady Panthera said, nodding.

Tail Feather immediately got to work, but had to stop only a few characters in when what he was getting as a result couldn't possibly be correct.

"Keep going," Lady Panthera told him.

"I—I'm sorry—but this must be wrong," Tail Feather said. "It can't possibly be what I'm supposed to be getting."

"You're doing it right," the shadowcat assured him, looking over his shoulder the whole time.

"If you insist," Tail Feather resignedly said. He continued for a couple more lines of text but he had to stop.

"It can't be correct!" he exclaimed. "This makes no sense!."

"Keep going," Lady Panthera told him. "You're still doing it right."

"'Gu eiu lau houix wrough ough scia yauer xoew sceighaih'?" he asked, nearly breaking his vocal cords trying to say the alien gibberish he read. "What sort of message is THAT supposed to be?"

"You're only just getting started," the Cat-Lord spoke up. "Trust us. There's method our madness. You'll see soon."

"Speaking of madness, it sounds much like something some of Discord's old friends might consider to be poetry, just to drive the listeners stark raving insane!"

"Don't worry," the Cat-Lord assured him. "It'll all make sense by time we're done."

"Good morning, Princess Celestia," Gustav greeted when he was escorted into the dining hall. "I understand you wish to see me?"

"Good morning, Ambassador Gustav," the day diarch said, returning the bow. "I trust everything is well with you and your staff?"

"It is," Gustav replied. "I've had a most productive time lately."

"I'm sure you have," Celestia said with a knowing smile. "New toys to keep your attention, perhaps?"

"Yes, uh—something like that," Gustav responded, obviously suddenly nervous. "But—did you wish to see me about something?"

Yes, Gustav, she thought as she watched the castle staff bring them both their usual favored tea and snacks. I might not know the content of your message yet, but enough little hints that I know you have such a device without spelling it out should make you drop enough crumbs to help me and Lulu figure out what you sent to Tail Feather.

"Of course," Celestia said when the staff departed. "You might be aware of the issue with the sun yesterday. By our mutual agreement, I have asked you here as I had requested Panthera to assist me with the press briefing this morning. I knew you would wish to attend, as well."

"Oh!" Gustav exclaimed in genuine surprise. Then he began to visibly look even more nervous.

"Pardon the interruption and my tardiness," a quiet voice spoke up, and Celestia's ears perked up. The guards in the room also stiffened, and they all reacted as a ripple in the air at one of the empty seats quickly darkened to reveal one of the shadowcats reclining upon the seat. Fortunately, she had previously informed the guards that the shadowcats would likely announce their presence in just such a manner, and the guards did nothing more than come further to an alert posture.

"My sister was unavoidably detained," Pardus said as his visage solidified. "I have, of course, been briefed as to your request, Princess Celestia, and I'm here to assist in whatever capacity I can for your press briefing."

Gustav's sudden relaxing at Pardus' unexpected arrival was intriguing in its own right, Celestia observed.

"You're looking well, Pardus," she greeted him. Well, this will be an interesting dynamic, she considered. Of course, that low level truth spell I have running doesn't work with either of the shadowcats, any more than it does on their human friend. But with Gustav, I might be able to glean some idea of what they've been up to.

"Yes. Looking better? Agreed. Feeling better?" Pardus asked grinning. "Well, I'm still working on that."

"Are you still in pain?" Celestia inquired. "You're not fully healed from your injuries with King Sombra?"

"There still is pain, but nothing that can't be pushed away from my attention," he admitted. "Have you ever had the need for a root canal? It feels much like that, only in other parts of my body. My ability to levitate is still on the fritz and my flying speed is still subpar. Only time will tell if I'll recover any of that. In the meantime, it's just something I'll need to endure."

"You are injured, Lord Pardus!?" Gustav asked, clearly astonished.

"Hmm? Well, I wasn't the only one," Pardus replied. "Trevar was killed outright, although he got better. And nearly a full acre of the Apple family farm got scorched and half of that had to be chopped down and ripped up out of the ground, which is why I'm so late arriving; for that, I apologize, Princess Celestia," he bowed his head to her before turning back to Gustav. "But, yeah, I seemed to have taken the worst of it. Sombra gave me probably the worst case of crystalitus anyone on this planet will likely ever see in their lifetime," upon which, he turned to Celestia to grin, "present company included, if rumors of your lifespan are to be believed."

The shadowcat's nonchalant delivery caught both Celestia and Gustav by surprise, and it was only by her having been there did Celestia not react to the news. For the winged panther to make light of the matter spoke of his humor, and at Gustav's expense, make his stunned reaction quite amusing to watch.

"Yes," Celestia agreed with a sigh. "In any event, the press briefing should be ready to begin. We just need to settle on what will be told to them…."

Tail Feather sighed as he got back to the decoding. His hope rose when he actually recognized the text for Princess Celestia, but it was short lived when the very next word was more of the gibberish he had been getting from his efforts. Sometime later, he deciphered the phrase "Luna is best princess" and he had to blink to confirm the text actually existed, considering the stuff he was getting prior. He had actually gone several characters past that point before he realized it was there. And yet, every pause he took got more imploring from the two visitors for him to continue.

Finally, after an hour, he finished deciphering it, or so the Cat-Lord and shadowcat insisted to tell him. It made absolutely no sense as he looked at it.

ኖ ዋ ኯ ሐ ኈ ጋ ጊ ሐ ኯ ጵ ኼ ጚ ዎ ሎ ሽ ፕ ዓ ጵ ዐ ኣ ክ ፒ ꬫ ኊ ሽ ቤ ኍ ኬ ቢ ጊ ፈ ሿ ኞ ኁ ∪ ኳ ኯ ጜ ጉ ቷ ቧ ሞ ጋ ዀ ጱ ቇ ራ ጌ ኸ ኺ ኯ ኀ ኢ ሴ ኡ ‡ ኢ ሴ ኈ ሴ አ ተ ሆ ቒ Ξ ኺ ኯ ዀ ኽ ኛ ፀ ጿ ዞ ኃ ቐ ቘ ∀ ጿ ቲ ሊ ፣ ቼ ሻ ፋ ₴ ጸ ጶ ፖ ፒ ዞ ግ ዋ ኳ ꬨ ꬁ ኹ ጏ ቹ ጐ ኜ ዏ ው ኀ ኰ ꬌ ቹ ፪ ጟ ጎ ኯ ቷ አ ∀ ቴ ꬎ λ ። ዂ ዓ ፎ ፓ ሽ ፬ ቊ ሐ ꬂ ፩ ꬮ ፒ ፈ ሱ ሸ Ξ ∩ ኋ ኮ ሌ ኟ ር ¡ ሟ ብ ኤ ዧ ኩ ጉ ገ ጻ ሲ አ ታ ቃ ኒ ሟ ጱ ዀ ጕ ⊥ ቇ ዅ Π ፎ ቕ ቋ ጹ ኯ ሊ ሁ ፒ ፤ ኀ ጴ ጷ ሏ ꬪ ኡ ኺ ኯ ጽ ዏ ቹ ፦ ፇ ቺ ኾ ጴ ሃ ኧ ሏ ኘ ፅ ዟ ኸ የ ሩ ሳ ኀ ሶ ሴ ꬆ እ ዯ ፫ ቹ ዟ ❧ ꬁ ? ⊥ ሊ ታ ታ ኈ ኍ ኖ ኣ ኈ ፨ ቖ ። ኌ ዯ ኪ ጲ ዊ ቄ ፔ ቖ ჻ ፰ ሙ ሱ ኾ ጏ ኢ ቹ ፩ ቴ ‡ ኈ ኸ ꬎ ኈ ሐ ኀ ቒ ‡ ኯ ጳ ‡ ꬁ ሴ አ ተ ‡ ኸ ኺ ኯ ኀ ኢ ሴ ኡ ዋ ꬬ የ ሆ ሪ ┊ ች ቡ ኄ ሚ ዉ ኂ ኗ ጔ ꬪ ዓ ኆ Σ ፐ ፫ ታ ኂ ም ኼ ዄ ብ ጐ ኖ ❦ ኈ ወ λ ፖ ች ኜ ግ ¡ ቘ ኜ ስ ጿ ኙ ቊ ጸ ☼ ው ሉ ፮ ሾ በ ፄ ☼ ጳ λ ፉ ꬅ ቌ ፈ ቄ ጛ ቈ ሾ ዖ ጰ ∧ ፙ ዕ ቑ ∧ ኀ ጿ ሀ ቒ ፁ ስ Π Π ሟ ሲ ዓ ჻ ❧ ች ꬁ ጺ ꬫ ֍ ጼ ኂ ኽ ኜ ኽ ሙ ቄ ሰ ሽ ❦ ቛ ኰ ቁ ኘ ከ ፒ ቴ ኌ ዟ ኀ ራ ዒ ጕ ч ∧ ፥ ቱ ϟ ሚ ዃ ሎ ኴ ∩ ዎ ሊ ꬫ ሐ ፃ ጌ ወ ፥ ን ሇ ϟ ጴ ቸ ꬬ ረ ሿ ፩ ሁ ሬ ዑ ረ ጏ ዑ ር ሼ ፠ ቲ ¡ ꬄ ፔ ֎ ቾ Σ ኑ ፊ ፑ ጶ ሎ ል ሜ ፰ ፚ ¿ ጻ ኲ ꬫ ቌ ሺ ኄ ዟ ሮ መ ¿ ጲ ታ ሃ ቕ ች ዎ ፭ ፨ ዏ ዒ ጛ ገ ሎ ኟ ጵ ሾ ቇ ዧ ፏ ዞ ላ ኟ በ ኩ ። ኾ በ ሇ ፅ ሌ ዟ ዋ ጊ ኒ ቄ ነ ኘ ❧ ፁ ሺ ፑ ቐ ¿ ኻ ኚ ሞ ኩ ፏ ኋ ꬎ ሰ ቸ ዑ እ ዓ ፓ ዐ ֍ Σ ጱ ꬩ ዔ ነ ፭ ዉ ፬ ወ ቖ ቱ ቱ ጱ ቻ ሎ ኜ ጙ ። ቕ ሸ ቚ ኍ ፓ ፩ ┊ ኀ ከ ጶ ኀ ꬨ ቂ ቷ ሻ ጷ ሞ ጔ ꬍ ና ჻ ሪ ꬅ ፆ ቔ ህ ፄ ሐ ꬭ ፒ ወ ፖ Π ቌ ም ፰ ቂ ህ ❧ ም ሐ ቔ ሎ ኃ የ ቶ ኦ ቝ ህ ሹ ∧ ቛ ኾ ኘ ኅ ቴ ኒ ኽ ሌ ኃ ኸ ኦ ሬ የ ኙ ሰ ፐ ዅ ቈ ል ኩ ሷ ዂ ኻ ዂ ꬫ መ ፯ ሚ ቶ ፀ ኼ ፀ ቍ ቐ ች ኘ ❧ ጞ ቕ ፅ ዄ ሉ ኞ ኚ ሽ ሙ ለ ኋ ጙ ጲ ዯ ት ኇ ቃ ጹ ፠ ጲ ጳ ጵ ጺ ፓ ጲ ሿ ኊ ሾ ጽ ሉ ሎ ፏ ሜ ኙ ፥ ጼ ꬄ ቡ ሳ ኖ ኩ ፊ ፃ ፓ ኒ ቈ መ ч ቻ ሙ ኻ ች ቊ ኝ ፆ ዄ ቴ ቢ ¿ ሪ ჻ ጓ ኽ ሄ ሞ ዅ ϟ ዐ ኇ ፈ ፄ ኟ ቐ ꬭ ፅ ቍ ፏ ሰ ኛ ኍ ፌ ሀ ዅ ኯ ለ ቀ ጼ ዑ ሁ ꬅ ጒ ꬄ ሶ ዉ Σ ዉ ሶ ቷ ኈ ፪ ም ጙ ꬍ ጐ ግ ፗ ሬ ዋ ኝ ቼ ሜ ዅ ጞ ኈ ጒ ኣ ሺ ቹ ቜ ል ፕ ቾ ኸ ጳ ቓ ኼ ሐ ꬉ ϟ ጉ ዅ ከ ቌ ቃ ኚ ኸ ኽ ኮ ቤ ኌ ቓ ፯ ጌ ሎ ֎ ፮ ኲ ፄ ሚ ፄ ቿ ∧ ራ ጽ ቜ ጎ ላ ꬬ ፇ ኅ ታ ቼ ኚ ፓ ∩ ለ ኩ ኸ ❧ ፃ ጱ ፨ ቸ እ ገ ቾ ቲ ኀ ዅ ч ጟ ሿ ፏ ፐ ዅ ኃ Ξ Σ ፎ ቧ ቲ ፄ ን ቓ ሉ λ ቌ ꬍ ኲ ታ ჻ ኁ ኖ ፑ ሿ ቻ ች ጹ ኡ ፋ ኃ ❦ ዓ ቢ ቇ ቐ ፦ ው ፙ ቂ ፧ ሮ Σ ፈ ጚ ሚ ቄ ፮ ቿ ኆ በ ‡ ቍ ቘ ዌ ዌ ኼ ቧ ሮ ፓ ጽ ኁ ቛ ኾ ፌ ፖ ┊ ፠ ⊥ ∀ ገ ኳ ከ ꬩ አ ኲ ራ ☼ ¡ ከ ❧ ግ ∀ ክ ꬮ ኙ ❦ ፌ ኰ ዌ ዅ ኞ ጐ ሁ ጉ ሪ ር ቲ ቻ ቺ ዀ የ ኳ ዖ ꬎ ጟ ዌ ቲ ቷ ኰ ∪ ወ ኛ ቇ ∠ ፬ ቁ ሇ ❦ ኞ ቡ ቤ ጞ ቧ ሊ የ ፇ ጝ ረ ቝ ፥ ለ ኢ ጎ ጒ ꬬ ꬨ ኘ ጼ ቀ ጟ ኴ ኩ ቡ ¿ ቒ ም ቴ ꬂ ጻ ኟ ኤ ፠ ꬂ ጛ ቢ ሁ ቧ ጳ ፩ ኁ ዐ Ξ ꬆ ጿ ፒ ֍ ፈ ፂ ዐ ꬂ ዓ ቖ ∩ ተ ቛ ꬮ λ ዊ እ ሏ ጾ λ ዉ ዉ λ ꬉ ሲ ኅ ዊ ኈ ኌ ꬅ ቁ ፤ ፦ ት ክ ግ ቚ ኸ ኢ ሰ ጕ ፥ ሞ ፭ ☼ ኌ ጓ ሼ ፄ ጟ ቝ ჻ ዀ ዓ ꬩ ꬁ ረ ቘ ፕ ፨ ኖ ዉ ሏ ጷ ❦ ና ፆ Σ ሸ ꬭ

"Now, that that's finally done," the Cat-Lord spoke up, as he opened the case that had been sitting on Tail Feather's desk. "Take the text of the first twenty-one characters, along with the portion between where it says 'Princess Celestia' and 'Luna is best princess'—take all of it out, as well as those phrases you can read, and write them off on another sheet and set it aside. We'll deal with them later. Right now, it's time to give you some lessons on the Enigma."

"The device Gustav had me build? Yes, I have it here," Tail Feather said. He stepped over to one of the tables with a chess game set up on each of the square room's four walls. Reaching beneath the tabled, he pulled out a cardboard box that he opened and revealed it to be holding the object in question. Tail Feather took the device out and set it on top of his desk in the center of the room next to the case that the Cat-Lord had opened. "But what is it we're to do with the stuff I took out if it doesn't belong in the message?"

"Apologies that you didn't get the lessons we provided Gustav on how to best construct secure messages," the Cat-Lord said as he fished out five disks from the case. One by one on four of the disks, he began flicking out a number of nibs on the sides of them. As he completed that for each disk, he set it into an empty spindle slot, lining up each to one of the ratchet hooks that would all shift whenever a key was pressed on the mystery machine. The fifth disk, he left untouched to lie on the desk.

"What we did was run the original message through the Enigma several times while adding a few padding characters in between a couple of runs, and tossed in a VB run here and there," the Cat-Lord explained as he worked. When the spindle chamber was filled, he spun each disk in its own slot until he was satisfied. When Tail Feather looked at them, he saw they spelled out ኈኌ፣‡.

"In addition, we utilized the padding as part of a separate code you guys can use for providing each other on how future messages will be sent," he continued. "It's just as vital in keeping your security will be to frequently change how you create your telegrams, and the padding can help you coordinate those changes. If you can keep anyone from picking up any patterns to exploit, such as typical headers in your telegrams, you can prevent them from easily breaking your encryptions."

"Furthermore, we know anyone trying to break your system will look very closely at the padding material," Lady Panthera added. "If they ever do manage to get through all the layers of a message, it might be possible to figure out the codes being used to communicate between your stations. By encrypting before adding it to the messages, we still make the padding appear like just some totally random garbage tossed in there."

While Tail Feather was puzzling that out, the Cat-Lord busied himself with filling a number of plug slots with cables. When he completed that task, eighteen sets of the jacks were haphazardly connected by the cables.

"So, what you just got through decrypting with the VB system is the output of the third run through the Enigma," the Cat-Lord said when he finished. "It should come as no surprise that all you got was just gibberish. That's the entire point of doing this. Nothing decoded will make any sense until you've completed the entire process of decoding each nested layer and reach the final plain text message."

"Oh, now I understand," Tail Feather said in relief.

"Each time you press a key," Lady Panthera spoke up then and at the same moment, a magically projected illusion appeared before her face. The image that appeared looked like one of the simplified detail drawings from the diagram Gustav had sent him. This one showed the function of pressing a typical key and how the interconnected levers from each key would lift a single plate, which in turn, shifted all four spindle ratchets.

"It shifts the ratchet hooks," she told him. "When that happens, the right-most disk will advance one letter. If there should be a notch set when the disk is turned, it will cause the next disk in line to shift as well, and this gets repeated for as many of the notches that happen to coincide with and connect back to the right-most disk. However, setting any notches on the left-most reflector disk won't do anything, so don't bother with such, even if the instructions might say so. Part of the reason for this is it will give unauthorized decoders problems understanding any additional characters in the padding."

As she spoke, the illusion projected in front of her changed, first to add the disks in the spindle to illustrate the action she described. An additional disk appeared alongside the main part of the illusion to show him what she meant by the notches—they were the nibs that the Cat-lord had been flipping on the side of the disks earlier.

"Each notch can be set independently on each disk so that the order and pattern of the rotors' advancement can be changed," Lady Panthera added. "If you should get one of the notches wrong, the message will cease to decode properly from that point when the rotors get there. And if that happens while you're at one of the deep layers like we are at this moment, you won't have any idea that anything's wrong."

"There are 300 letters and a notch that can be set for each letter on every disk," the Cat-Lord cut in. "In your octal number system, that equates to four-five-four letters per disk, four-five-four notches, and two raised to that power on each disk minus one of getting the settings wrong. With three disks, that becomes two raised to one-six-oh-four in your numbing system minus one chances of setting the notches incorrectly. You only get one chance of getting them all correct!"

"Did you notice the position of the disks that Trevar set them?" Lady Panthera inquired, and Tail Feather nodded.

"Yes. An 'L', a 'Y', a comma, and a space?" he confirmed.

"Good," Panthera said, nodding. "Because now, it is time to leave your octal numbering system behind. Indeed, it is time for Trevar to leave his decimal system behind, too. With this machine, each letter, each symbol, no matter how your language may use them, they are all numbers and nothing but numbers. We all need to now think in a base-300 system, even though the easiest way to verbally describe it is in binary. The irony of this, by the way, is not lost on me or Trevar."

"In fact, I communicate with my friends back home using something much like this," Trevar said, shrugging his shoulders. "Except mine only has a hundred characters per disk. I won't say my system is unbreakable, but I can say that if they ever do try to break it, they're going to have their work cut out for them. This device, however, exceeds the one I'm using by half again as much, and my system uses ten rotors!

"When I get back, I'm actually considering switching to this or even the Equestrian equivalent of this with their nearly 600 characters," he added, grinning. "With the addition of the unfamiliarity with your planet's writings, I'm confident no one on my world will have a snowball's chance in hell of breaking it."

"And the cables in the plugs?" Tail Feather inquired.

"They further complicate matters for anyone trying to break the system," Panther explained as the projected illusion changed to another simplified diagram. "After you press a key, the rotors advance. Only after that happens is the electrical connection made. The signal from the key goes through the plug board. If there's no plug in the jack, it continues as normal to the rotors. It goes through each rotor from right-most to left-most where it gets reflected, and travels a different path back to the right-most disk. From there it goes to through the plug board again, and you'll notice it's a completely different jack, until it finally goes to the output lamp." Her illusion had an animated pulse that traveled the sets of lines in the diagram as she spoke.

"However, if there's a cable plugged into the jacks," she explained as the illusion changed, "the cable redirects the signal from the original path over to what would have been another key's completely different signal path before going to yet another jack set and output lamp."

"Each different setting you make on the Enigma has its own unique affect," the Cat-Lord spoke up. "But they can each be grouped based on their similarities. And those different settings can all be calculated. Once those calculations are done, it's easy to see just how powerful a device such as this is where it comes to encryption.

"As I mentioned before, the notches for each disk can give you two raised to four-five-four in your octal number system. Each rotor position can be set to four-five-four settings. Each disk can be wired in two-point-three-times eight raised to one-two-five-zero combinations! There are three rotors, so that value is cubed. The fourth slot is the reflector, and there are about two-point-five times eight raised to five-two-three possible wiring arrangements for the reflectors. For the plugs, there are two-point-oh-six times eight raised to five-three-three. There are a few other factors, but all told, these all multiply to give this device a potential of one-point-one-three-three times eight raised to five-seven-three-seven! And that's just for one pass through.

"With two nested Enigma runs, that number gets squared," the Cat-Lord continued. "And for three Enigma runs, that number gets cubed! And this is not counting the additional combinations that would arise from doing silly shit like putting a reflector in any of the other three slots during one of the encryption layers just to liven things up for anyone trying to break your codes. Not to mention those other things we're doing like padding and using the Vigenere Bufford cyphers for additional encryption layers."

Tail Feather's mind boggled at those numbers. It was inconceivable that anything could have that many potential combinations. It exceeded the theorized number of atoms in the universe by several orders of magnitude he still was having trouble imagining it.

"But before we have you actually start playing with the Enigma, there is still the little matter of the padding elements we had you pull out," Lady Panthera spoke up. "You'll need to decode them once more with the VB method using the key you did before."

"You mean re-encode them?" Tail Feather asked, totally baffled by what they were asking him to do.

"No," the Cat-Lord corrected him. "De-code, in the same direction as you de-coded the scroll from Gustav. On my world, as I mentioned, there were two people: one was named Vigenere, the other was named Bufford. They each came up with the same encryption method, but the directions of their encryption were opposite of each other. The irony of it is, that to encode using Vigenere is exactly the same as decoding using Bufford, and to encode using Bufford is identical to decoding using Vigenere. What you did before was to decode the scroll using Vigenere. Now you need to decode using Vigenere once more on the padding material. But toss out the parts you can read about Princess Celestia and Luna being best princess. Start the key fresh with each section to decode them for some important information you'll need shortly."

"Okay," Tail Feather said uncertainly, but complied.

ፈ ፒ ፈ ∩ ¡ ꬁ ? ꬂ ፉ ፊ ֎ ¿ λ ꬃ ፨ Π ꬄ ∩ ч ꬅ ? was what he got for the first segment, and ፪ ፈ ፈ ፈ ꬁ ራ ꬆ ኝ ሀ ሳ ጶ ጺ ጼ ኌ ካ መ ነ ኛ ጊ ጞ ታ ፃ ፆ ት ቔ ቝ ፮ ፰ ❧ ∧ Ξ ₴ ሲ ፎ ረ ሬ ፒ ፔ ፖ ꬄ ኟ ሁ ህ ቧ ሺ ሽ ጱ ጹ ጻ ኋ ኰ ዧ ኊ ዯ ኆ ኙ ሎ ግ ጓ ጚ ጝ ጟ ኺ ኼ ቱ ወ የ ዓ ጿ ፆ ꬊ ዟ ዄ ቹ ቼ ቃ ቋ ቔ ቘ ‡ λ ∩ ፨ ፧ ፥ ∧ ₴ ፓ ፌ ፕ ኝ ሲ ሷ ጽ ኴ መ ኃ ሏ ጛ ተ ዕ ꬍ ዀ ቷ ቾ ቔ ቖ ∪ ፧ ₴ ፪ ፉ ፈ ፉ ሩ ራ ሁ ጱ ኮ ሌ ዋ ፄ ቆ ቜ ₴ ሩ ኟ ሇ ጳ ኑ ኜ ኤ ፂ ቋ ፰ ₴ ሩ ꬃ ህ ꬫ ኮ ን ጞ ታ ቼ ቜ ₴ ፫ ፈ ፉ ፈ ፏ ሯ ሸ ኈ ጜ ዀ ቝ ϟ ₴ ፏ ሷ ሚ ገ ዔ ቁ ቄ ቚ ₴ ፏ ሱ ሴ ኯ ለ ሐ ቀ ჻ ₴ for the other section.

"I'm assuming these are still encrypted?" Tail Feather asked when he finished.

"Hmmm, kind of," the Cat-Lord quipped. "This is actually the plain text for that portion of the message. But these parts are made up of a specific code that we made with Gustav. Remember what Panthera said about thinking in base-300 numbers? Each symbol here represents a number."

"The shorter segment you decoded starts with ፈ," Lady Panthera explained. "And in this case, it represents the value of one since it's the first letter in your alphabet. The next character, ፒ, represents the value of twenty-one. All told, this segment translates to a set of instructions, which tells us this padding starts with the first character, is twenty-one characters long, that we are to first encrypt the plain text message with the Enigma to create 'Layer1'. Then we add some text that was encoded with the VB method and the key to use for it. Once that is done, encrypt the padded 'Layer 1' with the VB method. After that, we run this new package of encrypted text through the Enigma to create 'Layer 2'. Straight from there, we encrypt through the Enigma again to create 'Layer 3'. At this moment, we are at this stage on working our way back to the plain text message.

"These instruction go on to tell us that we're supposed to add padding that has been coded with the VB with the key you just used," she said, nodding to Tail Feather's previous work. "Then we are to enclose a portion of the encrypted padding with the plain text padding, which you just saw was 'Princess Celestia' and 'Luna is best princess'. After all that, then we run it through one last VB encryption to get the scroll we delivered to you."

"And you say we're just after the creation of Layer 3, but before adding the second set of padding?" Tail Feather confirmed.

"Correct," the Cat-Lord replied. "You just got through stripping out that padding. So, based on what the instructions are telling us, working our way backwards, we're to decrypt this through the Enigma, then once more with a different group of key settings, then we go hunting for padding again."

"Ah!" Tail Feather exclaimed, nodding in understanding. "I'm starting to get the hang of this! And each time it goes through the machine, it has to have a different set of keys applied to it?"

"Indeed," Panthera acknowledged. "This is a symmetrical encryption system. Typing your message through once gets you a layer of encryption. If you restart with the same original key settings, then typing your newly encrypted layer through it will get you right back to the original plain text. However, sending the first layer through with a different key further encrypts the message into a nested second layer. As we explained earlier, if you do that repeatedly, the only way to get the original text back is to reverse the process in exactly the correct order. If you encrypt Layer 1 through Layer 2 and then on to Layer 3, but then mistakenly try to decode using the key settings for Layer 2 first and then Layer 3, you won't get the original text when you use the settings for Layer 1 again. What you'll have done instead is mistakenly nested the encryption even further! You'll now have six layers to work back from!"

"Yes, yes," Tail Feather said, nodding in comprehension. "I can see where that could actually be useful."

"True," the Cat-Lord agreed. "But if you forget to communicate that to the ones you're sending it to, they won't have any way of getting the message at all!"

"Yes, I understand," Tail Feather replied. He then got busy copying the last decoded layer of the message to a new sheet so that he would have a clean copy to work for when he began using the Enigma machine.

ፒ ꬫ ኊ ሽ ቤ ኍ ኬ ቢ ጊ ፈ ሿ ኞ ኁ ∪ ኳ ኯ ጜ ጉ ቷ ቧ ሞ ጋ ዀ ጱ ቇ ራ ጌ ዋ ꬬ የ ሆ ሪ ┊ ች ቡ ኄ ሚ ዉ ኂ ኗ ጔ ꬪ ዓ ኆ Σ ፐ ፫ ታ ኂ ም ኼ ዄ ብ ጐ ኖ ❦ ኈ ወ λ ፖ ች ኜ ግ ¡ ቘ ኜ ስ ጿ ኙ ቊ ጸ ☼ ው ሉ ፮ ሾ በ ፄ ☼ ጳ λ ፉ ꬅ ቌ ፈ ቄ ጛ ቈ ሾ ዖ ጰ ∧ ፙ ዕ ቑ ∧ ኀ ጿ ሀ ቒ ፁ ስ Π Π ሟ ሲ ዓ ჻ ❧ ች ꬁ ጺ ꬫ ֍ ጼ ኂ ኽ ኜ ኽ ሙ ቄ ሰ ሽ ❦ ቛ ኰ ቁ ኘ ከ ፒ ቴ ኌ ዟ ኀ ራ ዒ ጕ ч ∧ ፥ ቱ ϟ ሚ ዃ ሎ ኴ ∩ ዎ ሊ ꬫ ሐ ፃ ጌ ወ ፥ ን ሇ ϟ ጴ ቸ ꬬ ረ ሿ ፩ ሁ ሬ ዑ ረ ጏ ዑ ር ሼ ፠ ቲ ¡ ꬄ ፔ ֎ ቾ Σ ኑ ፊ ፑ ጶ ሎ ል ሜ ፰ ፚ ¿ ጻ ኲ ꬫ ቌ ሺ ኄ ዟ ሮ መ ¿ ጲ ታ ሃ ቕ ች ዎ ፭ ፨ ዏ ዒ ጛ ገ ሎ ኟ ጵ ሾ ቇ ዧ ፏ ዞ ላ ኟ በ ኩ ። ኾ በ ሇ ፅ ሌ ዟ ዋ ጊ ኒ ቄ ነ ኘ ❧ ፁ ሺ ፑ ቐ ¿ ኻ ኚ ሞ ኩ ፏ ኋ ꬎ ሰ ቸ ዑ እ ዓ ፓ ዐ ֍ Σ ጱ ꬩ ዔ ነ ፭ ዉ ፬ ወ ቖ ቱ ቱ ጱ ቻ ሎ ኜ ጙ ። ቕ ሸ ቚ ኍ ፓ ፩ ┊ ኀ ከ ጶ ኀ ꬨ ቂ ቷ ሻ ጷ ሞ ጔ ꬍ ና ჻ ሪ ꬅ ፆ ቔ ህ ፄ ሐ ꬭ ፒ ወ ፖ Π ቌ ም ፰ ቂ ህ ❧ ም ሐ ቔ ሎ ኃ የ ቶ ኦ ቝ ህ ሹ ∧ ቛ ኾ ኘ ኅ ቴ ኒ ኽ ሌ ኃ ኸ ኦ ሬ የ ኙ ሰ ፐ ዅ ቈ ል ኩ ሷ ዂ ኻ ዂ ꬫ መ ፯ ሚ ቶ ፀ ኼ ፀ ቍ ቐ ች ኘ ❧ ጞ ቕ ፅ ዄ ሉ ኞ ኚ ሽ ሙ ለ ኋ ጙ ጲ ዯ ት ኇ ቃ ጹ ፠ ጲ ጳ ጵ ጺ ፓ ጲ ሿ ኊ ሾ ጽ ሉ ሎ ፏ ሜ ኙ ፥ ጼ ꬄ ቡ ሳ ኖ ኩ ፊ ፃ ፓ ኒ ቈ መ ч ቻ ሙ ኻ ች ቊ ኝ ፆ ዄ ቴ ቢ ¿ ሪ ჻ ጓ ኽ ሄ ሞ ዅ ϟ ዐ ኇ ፈ ፄ ኟ ቐ ꬭ ፅ ቍ ፏ ሰ ኛ ኍ ፌ ሀ ዅ ኯ ለ ቀ ጼ ዑ ሁ ꬅ ጒ ꬄ ሶ ዉ Σ ዉ ሶ ቷ ኈ ፪ ም ጙ ꬍ ጐ ግ ፗ ሬ ዋ ኝ ቼ ሜ ዅ ጞ ኈ ጒ ኣ ሺ ቹ ቜ ል ፕ ቾ ኸ ጳ ቓ ኼ ሐ ꬉ ϟ ጉ ዅ ከ ቌ ቃ ኚ ኸ ኽ ኮ ቤ ኌ ቓ ፯ ጌ ሎ ֎ ፮ ኲ ፄ ሚ ፄ ቿ ∧ ራ ጽ ቜ ጎ ላ ꬬ ፇ ኅ ታ ቼ ኚ ፓ ∩ ለ ኩ ኸ ❧ ፃ ጱ ፨ ቸ እ ገ ቾ ቲ ኀ ዅ ч ጟ ሿ ፏ ፐ ዅ ኃ Ξ Σ ፎ ቧ ቲ ፄ ን ቓ ሉ λ ቌ ꬍ ኲ ታ ჻ ኁ ኖ ፑ ሿ ቻ ች ጹ ኡ ፋ ኃ ❦ ዓ ቢ ቇ ቐ ፦ ው ፙ ቂ ፧ ሮ Σ ፈ ጚ ሚ ቄ ፮ ቿ ኆ በ ‡ ቍ ቘ ዌ ዌ ኼ ቧ ሮ ፓ ጽ ኁ ቛ ኾ ፌ ፖ ┊ ፠ ⊥ ∀ ገ ኳ ከ ꬩ አ ኲ ራ ☼ ¡ ከ ❧ ግ ∀ ክ ꬮ ኙ ❦ ፌ ኰ ዌ ዅ ኞ ጐ ሁ ጉ ሪ ር ቲ ቻ ቺ ዀ የ ኳ ዖ ꬎ ጟ ዌ ቲ ቷ ኰ ∪ ወ ኛ ቇ ∠ ፬ ቁ ሇ ❦ ኞ ቡ ቤ ጞ ቧ ሊ የ ፇ ጝ ረ ቝ ፥ ለ ኢ ጎ ጒ ꬬ ꬨ ኘ ጼ ቀ ጟ ኴ ኩ ቡ ¿ ቒ ም ቴ ꬂ ጻ ኟ ኤ ፠ ꬂ ጛ ቢ ሁ ቧ ጳ ፩ ኁ ዐ Ξ ꬆ ጿ ፒ ֍ ፈ ፂ ዐ ꬂ ዓ ቖ ∩ ተ ቛ ꬮ λ ዊ እ ሏ ጾ λ ዉ ዉ λ ꬉ ሲ ኅ ዊ ኈ ኌ ꬅ ቁ ፤ ፦ ት ክ ግ ቚ ኸ ኢ ሰ ጕ ፥ ሞ ፭ ☼ ኌ ጓ ሼ ፄ ጟ ቝ ჻ ዀ ዓ ꬩ ꬁ ረ ቘ ፕ ፨ ኖ ዉ ሏ ጷ ❦ ና ፆ Σ ሸ ꬭ

While he was busy transcribing the message, the shadowcat used magic fired from her eyes to write down the detailed instructions she had told him earlier and an explanation of how the code was read. It covered how to interpret the initial characters as the start and length of the padding, and how the following characters used vowels to refer to when to use the Enigma, consonants meant to use the VB table, numbers represented plain padding, certain symbols for encoded padding, and other symbols to be used as brackets.

"Thank you for writing that down, Lady Panthera," Tail Feather told her after reading it. "That was a lot to try and remember."

"True," the Cat-Lord agreed with the emperor. "Oh, And I know you don't like repeating yourself, Panthera. But I would suggest you also give him a set of notes covering the lecture you gave him before introductions were made. Tail Feather did seem a tad bit distracted and excitable at the time. I'm sure he must've missed a word or two."

"Oh! Oka-ay!" Lady Panthera huffed in exasperation. "If you insist," she said, sighing as she took the sheet back to fire more beams onto the page. Tail Feather stood there mortified. Suddenly both of his visitors burst out laughing.

"We're just teasing you, Tail Feather!" the Cat-Lord said, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "We know we took by surprise and you had no idea of who we were."

"Except, I should have at least recognized you both from the descriptions Gustav sent me," Tail Feather contritely admitted.

"… and we are all fortunate to have had the able assistance of Pardus and his sister as well as the visitors from off-world," Celestia said as conclusion to her statement, "without which, the outcome of King Sombra's attack yesterday would have been far more dire. Fortunately, nopony was killed in this encounter and those who were hurt are well on their way to health once more. Any questions?"

The reporters at first were a little reluctant to ask anything of the shadowcat. But one intrepid journalist did finally venture to ask him.

"Why hasn't anypony seen shadowcats before?"

"I have no idea," Pardus replied as his form rippled and vanished. "My sister and I are still trying to puzzle that one out," the disembodied voice spoke out as the members of the press pool looked around and swiveled their ears seeking the source. A ripple in the air formed near the reporter and Pardus emerged from it. "When we figure that out, we'll be sure to let you know," he said as if he evidently was merely walking by on his way to return to Celestia's side as Celestia serenely watched. "Although, from what I gather from a discussion with one of the ponies in Ponyville, there have been those who've encountered my kind before."

The demonstration did serve to help break the ice, however, and many more questions quickly followed.

"Where is the shadowcat nation?"

"To be honest, I have no idea," Pardus admitted. "Aside from my sister, Panthera and I are the only shadowcats I know of."

"Where were you born?"

"Hmm … that's rather a difficult question to answer," he said, pawing at his chin in thought. "We've been wandering for quite some time, and we never thought to draw a map."

The press pool suddenly found they had a completely new and fascinating subject to interrogate and they weren't willing to let him go before they could dig up everything they could. Celestia, Gustav, and Pardus shared knowing looks as the briefing broke the first hour, and then the second.

Typing the message into the machine and recording the results coming out was much faster, although every time there was a double-step or triple rotor shift, it gave him pause just for the unusual extra motion. There was even one time where all four rotors shifted that caught him by surprise and he accidentally released the key before he could note down which lamp lit up.

When that happened, the Cat-Lord and Lady Panthera both chuckled and Lord Trevar kindly helped him reset all the rotors back one step so that he could try again.

"That's the beauty of this system," the Cat-Lord explained after Tail Feather recorded the output from the four-step rotor shift. "Although you might be dealing with hundreds of characters and a mistake at any one should cause you to start all over from the beginning, if you do catch yourself making a mistake and you know that you've not messed up anywhere else, all you have to do is set the rotors that moved back one and do it again."

"That's good to know!" Tail Feather exclaimed, feeling greatly relieved.

"Still, it never hurts to double check your encryption," the Cat-Lord told him. "Since the keys for that layer would already be installed, once you're done, you should go ahead and reset the rotors back to the beginning and run the encrypted message back through and confirm it matches what you had put in." Tail Feather nodded in agreement.

Thereafter, it was a simple matter of just focusing on the decoding and choosing to ignore the mechanical fascination the device created. There would be plenty of time to play with it and learn all it could do later. Right now, it was important to decipher the message.

አ ቋ ክ ኵ ኌ ቸ ፬ ሞ ꬨ ሻ ፫ ኼ ቈ ሞ ሳ ፕ ፉ ቷ ኘ ፮ ꬄ ቍ ፇ ኣ ኄ ቻ ϟ ዃ ꬌ ዋ ጟ ቓ ሯ ቘ ፒ ዧ ሾ ኽ ፥ ጊ ጒ ህ ጺ ‡ ፰ ∠ ታ ቜ ፀ ኩ ꬭ ֎ ቈ ꬍ ¿ ጵ ጴ ፰ ኩ ፐ ¡ ጹ ቔ ꬎ ቍ ፇ ዯ ጟ ም ፕ ቚ ዌ ቔ ሚ ┊ ቆ ዋ ኜ ፂ ¿ ኳ ሩ ፫ ኜ ሯ ዀ ኯ ኦ ጷ ጸ ጱ ዐ ¡ ኳ ቓ ፗ ჻ ሇ ፣ ጹ ኦ ጔ ኡ ቁ ቧ ክ ኋ ኆ ፙ ኒ ዖ ፠ ፮ ሜ ኬ ⊥ ፆ ኼ ⊥ ሺ ሪ ሱ ₴ ህ ኂ ፑ ዉ ሇ ቧ ፀ ጾ ጱ ግ ሼ ꬉ ጞ ፰ ኁ ꬩ ¡ ‡ ኒ ሽ ቢ ꬃ ሃ ሪ ኽ ኜ ጳ ፙ መ ኯ ቍ ꬮ ፀ ሜ ጺ ፌ ጓ ኩ ፌ ϟ ሃ ጋ ቜ ኃ ጘ ꬪ ሬ ፦ ጜ ꬊ ኂ ለ ሶ ሮ ሚ ስ ኒ ጸ ‡ ሩ እ ጶ ኦ ፑ ቷ ሱ ꬆ ጵ ፏ ፬ ፪ ኢ ፉ ‡ ፩ ֍ ጸ ? ꬭ ኩ ꬊ ኃ ቘ ₴ ₴ ꬮ ሉ በ ጝ ቛ ሻ ሄ ሟ ቓ ጜ ꬄ ጾ ጛ ፓ ኾ ኙ ጽ ፪ ፙ ቓ ቧ ገ ቷ ꬃ ሜ ሼ ሊ ኲ ካ ሳ ዏ ዓ ጟ ሎ ኄ ቄ ኅ ዯ ላ ሴ λ ኒ ዧ ¡ ዖ ጉ ኗ ታ Π ꬨ ጾ ፏ ∀ ኩ ፐ ስ ጒ ረ ሄ ፒ ጓ ꬃ ፚ ሊ ቝ ሞ ቺ ፣ ሲ ተ ኀ ኊ ቑ ጽ በ ቍ ኡ ጛ ጽ ኇ ዓ ꬬ ተ ሄ ኂ ኩ ሿ ጼ ። ጟ ጺ ክ ሺ ꬆ ዎ ዔ ጜ ኆ ኗ ቢ ኆ ጼ ዓ ፉ ረ ፣ ቲ ፮ ጾ ሌ ꬨ ጝ ኲ ዔ λ Π ግ ሊ ቍ ኋ ቕ ዐ ሆ ቊ ጽ ❦ ጓ ኑ ጱ ሞ ቲ ዅ ꬆ ሟ ቤ ኸ ሺ ꬬ ሊ ቺ ኋ ፯ ዌ ቖ ሙ ኬ ꬪ ች ኲ ቍ ኀ ቖ ኰ ህ ጞ ጱ ሚ ዖ ሐ ꬨ ꬄ ቾ ꬁ ኒ ፠ ፁ ፄ ጰ ꬬ ኻ ጷ ፖ ኢ ፓ Π ኩ ኸ ቺ ꬫ አ ኺ ꬍ ኍ ሏ ፎ ኴ ኤ ቂ ꬃ ጓ ቿ ፚ ው ₴ ፃ ዟ ቒ ጶ ፧ ሸ ኔ ም ኁ ከ ኳ ጶ ሮ ፙ ቀ ₴ ዂ ሇ ፁ ꬆ ꬆ ❧ ፍ ዎ ፖ ሽ ፦ ☼ ፄ ቑ ሄ ሽ ኦ ኰ ፪ ኮ ፮ ኀ ዃ ኤ ꬍ ር ፈ ጚ ዂ ቷ ꬊ ሟ ቂ ጓ ፙ ፅ ኂ ሻ ∪ ኁ ፯ ሶ ት ሊ ጏ ፯ ቄ ∧ ፭ ꬄ ኺ ꬉ ቶ ዉ ኟ ዖ ∀ ች ዌ ሪ ጔ ∩ ч ኵ ቂ ፃ ቤ ¿ ϟ ሴ ቤ ቚ ዃ ꬆ ፃ ጕ ሷ ∧ ⊥ ¡ ኪ ፈ ꬉ ቢ ፉ ጞ ሙ ቼ ꬭ ϟ ጙ ኚ ሰ ኑ ፃ ‡ ኦ λ ህ ቿ ቛ ዧ ኙ ኞ ፫ ሼ አ ፄ ኛ ሰ ዎ ሃ ዃ ሞ ꬅ ፰ ∩ ካ ቁ ሙ ሊ ꬊ ቑ ። ꬭ ዒ ማ ሁ ኩ ጷ ┊ ኺ ሐ ጛ ፥ ꬅ ꬪ ϟ ኝ ጘ ꬃ ሄ ጒ ተ ቝ ∧ ሷ ጌ ቓ ቕ ራ ሽ ፠ ቁ ኞ ኇ ꬋ ቹ ሴ ሽ ꬨ ቇ ፈ ቘ ቚ ፦ ኣ ቤ ጚ ች ኛ ፅ ₴ ዧ ቖ ላ ኋ ፭ ቾ ዉ ጻ ፨ ሌ ч ፕ ፅ ፒ ብ ዕ ጰ ዋ ሻ ዟ ኘ መ ዔ ቻ ሁ ቛ ለ ዄ ቕ ሞ ኸ መ ፠ ኳ ዀ ቱ ቾ ቁ ቛ ወ ሶ ኪ ኂ ዀ ꬍ ჻ ቖ ዧ ቄ ፪ ከ Ξ ኬ ጰ ሸ ኻ ሰ ꬃ ꬂ የ ቅ ዟ ቱ ቁ መ ቃ ኌ ቔ ሉ ቿ ጿ ሷ ꬎ ኬ ቊ ኽ ለ ∪ ራ ꬎ ቷ ቧ ዒ ꬎ ቕ ꬍ ፏ ል ዟ ረ ቓ ሱ Ξ ጉ ჻ እ አ ሚ ኀ ፖ ኋ ሟ ፔ ꬆ ቛ እ ꬁ ኹ ቱ ቆ ኼ ቸ ጎ ϟ ¿ ፧ ፥ ቤ ኑ ኵ ጸ እ λ ❦ ብ ∠ ፯ ቸ ዓ ዓ ዏ ሴ ጼ ∧ ኮ ወ ብ ኬ ч ፎ ኔ ጝ ሷ ጒ ꬩ ህ እ ሇ ወ ዐ ቄ ꬊ ቛ ተ ሹ አ ቤ ፔ ቕ ፤ ቌ ጞ ሏ ፏ ¡ ኝ ኜ ኄ ኽ ሹ ቓ ኛ ꬃ ꬉ ላ ኘ ት ኢ ቲ ሉ ቴ ቄ ፚ ኇ ¡ ቑ

It was still gibberish, from what he could see when he was finished, but it did feel as though he was accomplishing something from this exercise.

"Okay, now we'll let you figure out the next step," Lady Panthera cruelly told him. Tail Feather looked at her in a panic and then at the bipedal Cat-Lord, who was smirking at him.

Oh, that's right! The instructions! Tail Feather remembered. He looked at the sheet to the next operation he needed to do. According to what the side notes explained, the next step was once more through the Enigma to undo "Layer 2".

Once he picked up the first of the disks, he saw his visitors nodded in approval. That gave him confidence to proceed setting the notches on it. But as he was taking them out to make the settings on them, he noticed the disks each had their own identifying numbers on them. The left-most disk was labeled ፪. But the second in line and, it turned out, the last were both labeled ፈ, and the one between them was labeled ፉ.

And according to the notes Lady Panthera had made, the middle two rotors were supposed to be swapped at this stage.

But which one labeled ፈ is supposed to be swapped with ፉ? he wondered.

"Which one of these goes in slot three and in slot four?" he asked them, holding both rotors up.

"Whichever one's got the proper notch settings for those slots," the Cat-Lord replied. "All three of those," he said, gesturing to the two Tail Feather held as his hand motion also included the one on the table that hadn't yet been used, "have the same wiring. That's another advantage this Enigma has on the original used in that war on my home world. There, they could not have copies of the same disks because they were too bulky, heavy, and the Germans thought using the disks with the same wiring in multiple slots would compromise their encryption. Quite the contrary, the self-imposed limitations gave their enemies even more of an advantage to breaking their codes as the Polish and British didn't have to contend with all the combinations that could come from having five disks. Here, however, with the better manufacturing techniques available, we've given you three copies of each of the five wirings for the rotors to go along with the five reflectors."

"Just remember, put the wrong disk in the wrong slot, and you'll just be further re-encrypting the message at this point rather than decoding it," the shadowcat warned. He quickly heeded her advice and double-checked the notch settings before putting the rotors in their proper locations. Then he advanced each slot until it read ተወ‡ኾ. That made him blink in surprise.

Looking again at the notes that describe the rotor settings, he focused on each of the layers and put them together in his mind: ኺኮጳ‡ተወ‡ኾኈኌ፣‡. "Rise to fly" but with a comma and a space added at the end. And he recalled the key for the VB table they were using: ኖኺኯዀገኀአኺኮጳተወኾኈኌ. "Griffons rise to fly" was a well-known battle cry. He had to smile fondly at that.

ጳ ዞ ሸ ጺ ዄ የ ጿ ሶ ቷ ቸ ኲ ዌ ኀ ፋ ቾ ꬆ ቕ ቓ ቾ ኾ ፅ ቊ ቚ ፤ ፍ ች ዔ ጎ ጒ ዅ ꬩ ጾ ቼ ቍ ዄ ኻ ቕ ኺ ጘ ꬄ ኺ ቼ ኲ ቚ ጙ ꬂ ኛ ና ∧ ቃ ፍ ‡ ኢ ጉ ። ፏ ጙ ጲ ኀ ፇ ቍ ኟ ረ Π ሞ ዟ ∪ ֍ ኤ ሳ ሩ ሁ ቖ ጞ ∀ ካ ┊ ቒ ጏ ዏ ፙ ብ ኝ ራ ስ ኒ ፅ ϟ ϟ ፍ ጌ ቓ ቧ ꬬ ¡ ኩ ወ ዉ ኙ ꬨ ሞ ጻ ፣ ሩ ኃ ኇ ኄ ∩ ኽ ሳ ፖ ራ ጚ ኟ ማ ኾ ፩ ϟ ቃ ቘ ሻ ₴ ጊ ኯ ፔ ኬ ፭ እ ϟ ፈ ኡ ❧ ፓ ፁ ፃ ህ ቧ ፮ ቼ ዌ ዀ ጱ ኘ ቅ ፣ ወ ቊ ጚ λ ነ ፕ ፐ ኌ ግ ሼ ቃ ኢ ፍ ኰ ቃ ሪ ከ ፈ ኀ ፙ ኴ ሽ ጼ ꬉ አ ꬌ ኾ ኣ ቾ እ ዌ ኤ ኑ ቢ ዐ ጊ Π ሬ ꬁ ¡ ጉ ጛ ሃ ቆ ስ ሊ λ ፑ ሻ ኬ ራ ∧ ክ ዎ ለ ኹ ቱ ቷ ፰ ዋ ዉ ꬆ ዓ Ξ ጛ ፧ ሄ ሞ ኙ ካ ፎ ፍ ግ ና ዏ ገ ቖ ኚ ኑ ꬁ ፓ ቼ ሽ ፆ ሯ ነ Ξ ꬨ ꬄ ጳ ኗ ፯ ቸ ኪ ጹ እ ማ ዔ ኇ ፀ ሀ ቘ ኰ ꬂ ዔ ና በ ዯ ጹ ኣ ፭ ሾ ኪ ጘ ∠ ቛ ኁ ወ ቖ ኹ ፇ ጹ ስ ጛ ኻ ። ዟ ቊ ወ ጵ λ ጚ ፑ ሾ ዂ ካ በ ቲ ፄ ኞ ፈ ꬭ ☼ ች ꬉ ጌ ዎ ∀ ኚ ዏ ዀ ¿ ቾ ዃ ሰ ꬃ ሴ ማ ቋ ሜ ሃ ዂ ዓ ገ ጐ ዯ ኌ ፋ ፕ ዯ ꬎ ኍ ቛ ፀ ፃ ሿ ꬂ ዓ ፆ ∀ ፕ Π ል ፅ λ ‡ ፌ ፁ ቌ ኌ ለ ጏ ቒ ⊥ ꬅ ሄ ቸ ꬍ ┊ ሇ ቸ ꬪ ꬍ ቝ ዀ ¡ ቔ ጔ ሐ ꬁ ፏ ዐ ጷ ጻ ኙ ኄ ፒ ጱ ኈ ቖ ዄ ኲ ዅ ጹ ቕ ሆ ሎ ኸ ቧ ፰ ሺ ጴ ሃ ብ ጻ ኗ ፖ ኯ ል ፖ ጴ ሷ ሇ ሇ ጻ ሲ ኂ ጐ ላ ጼ መ λ ኯ ፂ ቅ ፉ ሻ ሮ ቒ ፖ ጴ ቛ ∠ ኗ ኣ ጔ ዓ ዓ ኜ ኦ ፰ ጙ ዓ ጼ ꬭ ꬬ ሇ ፥ ቘ ጴ ሻ ֎ ኖ ኢ ኟ ኈ ቚ ሐ ሱ ስ ቝ ዋ ፯ ⊥ ኁ ፖ ቑ ጙ ሼ ፓ ጓ ኡ ሂ ጊ ጛ ሉ ሯ ሁ ሮ ኹ ሸ ꬫ ዟ ዎ ፫ ኲ ቄ ‡ ሼ ꬊ ር ኁ ዋ ꬫ ዒ ኃ ꬪ ኗ ጲ ኌ ሄ ቾ ጓ ጱ ሄ ሎ ꬎ ኗ ቒ ዖ ታ ፐ ኳ ብ በ ፗ ሷ ጚ ጲ አ ቘ ሎ ኔ ፈ ጏ ቲ ₴ መ ጳ ጊ ኜ ቕ ꬅ ቶ ን ₴ ጉ ቓ ጜ ፊ ጔ ኯ ጿ ና ֎ ኄ ጾ ሻ ሙ ፔ ም ኔ ቺ ዌ ጋ ዟ ቾ ቱ ፬ ቴ ፐ ꬫ ሰ ። ጎ ፧ ጶ ፬ ሊ ል ች ፣ ኼ ሹ ፤ ቈ ላ ꬁ ኽ ሃ ሌ ኃ Ξ ህ ጙ ካ ፕ ጴ ? ❦ ፧ ኣ ፃ ϟ ፬ ፙ Σ ጻ ፐ ሼ ግ ቺ ኩ መ ኦ ቡ ጰ ኂ ቱ ኒ ራ ፕ ቐ ኺ ጜ ፈ ፖ ነ ፇ ኘ ቃ ብ ፌ ጶ ፌ ጔ ፊ ኽ ፁ ፙ ሳ ች ፌ ፨ ሺ ቺ ዅ ኽ ኒ ቕ ፃ ፚ ቲ ቂ ቌ ኝ ሚ ꬫ ጾ ኜ ዧ ጿ ፧ ֍ ዃ ረ ጳ ቔ ጱ ሴ ህ ች ኩ ₴ ጒ ሯ ጞ ሻ ቡ ፥ ꬄ ጚ ኬ ሟ ∧ ዂ ሚ ብ ሏ ጹ ዉ ሞ ∠ ኼ ቒ ጺ ኸ ቇ ኊ ኘ ክ ∠ ቜ ወ ሀ ፃ ቲ ሸ ዄ ኤ ሲ ኹ ፨ ፋ ኹ ¡ ቔ ኧ ፮ ኮ ቔ ም ꬍ ፣ ፀ ዄ ፈ ኌ ሇ ኝ ዀ ቋ ኋ ቛ ዋ ኌ ፨ ጐ ጝ ቅ ቛ ꬁ ጙ ጸ ም ሪ ዐ ኯ ኙ ነ ኼ ፰ ቚ ሲ ኖ ለ ኁ ∧ ሪ ፃ ቈ ጿ ፂ ኙ ፭ ሟ ጰ ጺ ጎ ህ ሪ ጛ ቸ ∧ ጜ ጹ ፯ ቂ ፫ ∪ ሼ ꬫ ∪ ቒ ኣ ኙ ኑ ቻ ☼ ሁ ጾ ቈ ሯ ቀ ኂ ሟ ፈ ል ቴ ጘ ፦ ጷ ዧ ቂ ꬬ ሸ ኈ ሻ ቶ ጉ ፏ ዞ

Now, according to the instructions, he was supposed to run this through the VB table:

ኟ λ ፫ ጙ ꬨ ሽ ꬅ ሐ ዞ ጘ ዄ ፍ ፂ ዑ ጌ ₴ ኍ ጘ ሮ ጻ ኋ ጻ ኪ ዏ ቂ ሴ ር ቷ ሄ ሊ ብ ꬌ ኛ ꬄ ꬨ ሆ ꬭ ፈ ሹ ፩ Σ ቤ ወ ጊ ጴ ⊥ ፮ ዄ ጺ ኯ ዌ ኪ ፎ ብ ሾ ኚ ? ጐ ፏ ኁ ꬍ ኢ ꬋ ጹ ፯ ኮ ሙ ዯ ጾ ❦ ኜ ጟ ሃ ሇ ፆ ሹ ኒ ጕ ቷ ሆ ∧ ቲ አ ኾ Σ ቄ ፖ ꬨ ዊ ዀ ነ ኋ ቖ ኺ ኘ λ ራ ና ኝ ሪ ች ዓ ሻ ዖ ኞ ኮ ቜ ቱ ቒ ꬋ ፅ ጉ ∧ ቆ ሂ በ ꬩ ꬨ ኆ ኽ ꬅ ሉ ብ ቱ ታ ∩ ኯ ሩ ፁ ች ∀ ማ ሙ ከ ኒ ሬ ዋ ኡ ሩ ቢ ኳ ዖ ፫ ጋ ሿ ፌ ሼ ቅ ጜ ꬂ Π ጔ Π ት ዄ ኀ ፊ ሎ ፊ ኡ ሉ ꬉ ꬬ ፏ ፖ ጳ ጿ ፧ ֎ ꬂ ክ ብ ፏ ሌ ማ ሩ ∧ ጷ ች መ ኈ ኆ ኾ ም ኘ ፖ ֍ ኣ ጌ Σ ቜ ኩ ዧ ቒ ፎ ፧ ኇ ☼ ¡ Π ህ ሩ ጱ ኤ ኔ ፍ ጐ ፨ ዉ ጶ ቐ እ ሬ ሿ ቒ ው ዞ ჻ ዅ ኂ ፭ ጹ ꬌ ፋ ቄ ֍ ሻ ፰ Σ እ ⊥ ኅ ዟ ቿ ፈ ጙ ኋ ፎ ፣ ❦ ገ ቆ ኳ ꬊ ሷ ዅ ኋ ች ች ኇ ሎ ጜ ፇ ፩ ꬮ ቾ ህ ⊥ ቂ ጘ ሌ ቓ ሯ ጜ ኯ ꬅ ሐ ል ቤ ꬨ ቌ ሇ ጎ ፫ ቴ ጓ Σ ጕ ኑ ጒ ꬍ ጜ ፪ ካ ቐ ፰ ዂ ፂ ር ጱ ꬂ ፑ ኘ ኞ ኂ ሀ ኮ ሯ ም ፬ ϟ ዐ ፚ ꬂ ፭ ዀ ቧ ꬄ ሆ ꬫ ቍ ፆ ኋ ሿ ሃ ዊ ቸ ጞ ჻ ሺ ካ ጛ ꬄ ፙ ቺ ጌ ሟ ዅ ኬ ዊ ቴ ል ሚ ꬃ ቋ ር ፧ ꬮ ፀ ፪ ጟ ቡ ☼ አ ፪ ዑ ꬎ ኀ ሀ ጼ ጒ ꬬ Σ ኰ ቜ ኚ ሩ ┊ ፫ ቡ ኪ ጘ ¡ ዓ ኈ ዧ ት ሶ ። ዋ ኡ ቝ ቌ ቃ ወ ꬄ ፄ ቆ ኚ ቾ ዟ ጘ ቷ ቢ ቚ ሐ ተ ኜ ቂ Σ ፓ ቚ ሳ ዂ ቿ ፤ ዧ ቷ ሜ ኣ ዯ ወ ኲ ሌ ቂ ሃ ካ ፁ ኑ ꬅ ኝ ፗ ꬄ ሃ ሜ ኪ ? ፨ ፬ ∠ ሰ ዊ ዏ ሃ ቼ ቈ ኂ ኼ ጼ ፰ ቀ ጻ ? ቅ ፠ ቼ ፒ ኢ ጽ ። ፅ ꬩ Π ፰ ቕ ? ֍ ኂ ኖ ጶ ዧ ጒ ቍ ኰ ፔ ቅ ꬌ ሇ ኬ ዔ ዄ ሷ ሁ ቓ ኃ ჻ ቘ ከ ኹ ሰ ፋ ꬋ ኽ ч ፑ ጟ ሱ ቀ ቖ ቔ ም ሰ ቂ ኖ ሴ ሺ ጏ ቿ ቕ ч ጎ ተ ቅ ቘ ꬫ ቸ ? ፓ ꬫ ፏ ሹ ኚ ቃ ∪ ጼ ቘ ጸ ኊ ን ꬆ ፯ ። ጘ ቆ ጝ ኝ ቼ ኝ ዅ ዅ ቌ ዖ ጋ ∧ ቀ ጼ ቔ ኙ ፰ ፋ ኮ ሽ ሬ አ ጝ ሏ ፁ ሉ ኻ ሺ ቐ ፆ ኽ ኾ ∠ ኊ ሟ ፊ ፭ ꬎ ጱ ቚ ሞ ስ ቒ ማ ቛ ጷ ኇ ር ∪ ጕ ፄ ታ ዀ መ Π ❦ ዊ ተ ꬨ ኄ ፣ ኴ ዄ ꬃ ስ ቺ ረ ሜ ኺ ዊ ፄ ጱ ꬄ ፧ ጛ ጓ ቍ ና ወ ጘ ቑ ኈ ሹ ሺ ኼ ኌ ቝ ኾ ኂ ላ ጸ ፦ ፠ ቀ ሼ ል ዉ ∀ ብ ሀ ቓ ፌ ኻ ኢ ጋ ꬬ ፑ ሙ ꬍ ቁ ኾ ፦ ሽ ቺ ፐ ሼ ተ ለ ¿ ፃ ጙ ጎ ꬌ ቻ ሼ ቺ ፄ ꬬ ል ፧ ጋ ቶ ጷ ∠ ∧ ∠ ሐ ጐ ኴ ቁ የ ቤ ፍ ፍ ቴ ꬩ ሴ ኸ ቡ ☼ ጌ ዔ ❦ ? ኘ ኬ ኋ ∪ ꬁ ☼ ገ ሞ ኋ ፓ ₴ ወ ꬮ ፔ ጒ ꬬ ሪ ኢ ꬂ ጻ ቼ ☼ ኼ ኊ ዏ ሊ Π ኛ ሐ ኳ ጼ ዄ ጟ ኔ ሾ ኯ ቾ ብ ጔ ቺ ጞ ሹ ጕ ፮ ሐ ፓ ቷ ኝ ቤ ֎ ኌ ሄ ቆ ቋ ኵ ቘ ዕ ኬ ሺ ዯ ꬅ ሃ ኝ ዖ ቾ ዊ ጚ ኟ ቜ ፣ ∀ ኇ ጺ ና ቖ ኲ ጸ ኽ ፅ ዌ ፁ ስ ሌ ꬮ ኰ ቒ ኚ ꬩ ፁ ቝ ጺ ጒ ሎ ሲ ቾ ኀ ዅ ኒ ጳ ቓ ኗ ፎ ፑ ቆ ቅ ቈ ዖ ሊ ጻ ኚ ቘ

It only took him about fifteen or twenty minutes this time to complete that. Now, it was time to identify more of the padding that had been added.

Here, however, he ran into a roadblock. How could he identify the portions that made up the padding? He knew the padding was supposed to be encrypted, but he had no idea of where to begin. It took him some time to think about the problem, and meanwhile both the Cat-Lord and shadowcat seemed content to let him puzzle it out. Finally, he decided to just apply the same decrypting technique he had used before, but to the entire message.

ፌ ማ ኼ ቃ ቂ ቋ ጞ ꬂ ሀ ኌ ቢ ዯ ፥ ꬨ ሸ ፯ ቸ ሸ ኰ ቾ ፯ ፆ ቻ ክ አ ቱ ለ ር ቼ ብ ሯ ብ ኞ ፙ ቂ ቴ ꬍ ሊ ፭ ዒ ፙ ኺ ፬ ኖ ჻ ፫ ኵ ኅ ጙ ቖ ጲ ዅ ሏ ቕ ገ ቕ ክ ቾ ዔ ኗ የ ፎ ኒ ጘ ኅ ¿ ቀ ቝ ፦ ዀ ቘ ┊ ኁ ቂ ኀ ꬃ ቓ ሷ ሬ ፅ ኤ ፚ ፌ ኃ ዃ ሻ ጉ ጟ ጸ ኛ ꬫ ዄ ጛ ቍ ❦ ጓ ጉ ጓ ቄ ቈ ሴ ሬ ጋ ꬮ ቐ ሼ ኬ ꬫ ኖ ጵ ኋ ∩ ኇ ጌ ¡ ኸ ጿ ጟ ር ꬪ ☼ ፠ ቔ ‡ ሂ ጘ ቼ ጊ ማ ኹ

"Okay," the shadowcat spoke up when he had nearly finished the second line. "So what have you got so far?"

"I—I'm trying to spot where the padding begins that is supposed to be stripped out at this point," Tail Feather explained. "I know the padding itself will be encrypted, but I don't know where it starts, so I'm running the entire message through the VB table in hopes of spotting it."

"Mmm," she hummed. "Commendable," she muttered. "But recall, this portion has already been ran through at least one layer of the Enigma. Plus, you're still new to the coding created for even the plain text of the padding. As a result, you don't yet know what you're looking for in regards to what's in the padding. So, you're going to be looking for random characters among random characters hoping to spot a pattern?" she inquired. Tail Feather looked again at his work and sighed.

"Well, then. I'm not sure how to proceed from here," he admitted. "How can I spot it if I don't know what I'm looking for? Obviously, I'm doing something wrong, or you wouldn't have stepped in."

"True," the shadowcat stated. "Indeed, were this a real situation, I wouldn't have been here to step in. You would've continued until you reached end of the document and be pretty much stuck at this point trying to figure it out."

"Brutal, as always," the Cat-Lord muttered. Tail Feather shot him a glance, and the human was smirking.

"But—?" Tail Feather asked.

"Use what you know, Tail Feather," the Cat-Lord kindly told him. "What do you know about the padding? What's its purpose? Where was it used before? How was it used before?"

Tail Feather thought hard about it.

"I've always thought briefings were supposed to be brief," Gustav conspiratorially whispered to them during a momentary lull in the flood of inquiries, getting a chuckle from Celestia and a smirk from the shadowcat.

And not all the questions were directed at Pardus.

"Princess Celestia, what about these humans you spoke of? Do we know their intentions? Are they planning to invade us?"

"We have encountered humans before, as you are well aware," Celestia replied. "While Mr. Trevar and Lieutenant Scott are not directly associated with those who have previously visited Equus, their actions thus far have not shown any intentional hostilities. Although some mistakes have been made, the errors were done in ignorance. They had no idea of the nature of the portal that brought them here and had no understanding of how to deal with the encounter. I've been assured by Mr. Trevar that the ship coming to rescue him will take no hostile action against us when it arrives."

"Wait—I'm sorry, Your Highness—you just said the ship is coming to pick him up? What of Lieutenant Scott?"

"Unfortunately, the portal that brought them here caused them both severe injury," Celestia sadly admitted. "Lieutenant Scott is dying from radiation poisoning and we have not the medical skills to save her. In the time it will take their ship to arrive, she will be dead. At first, I had detected Mr. Trevar was also dying, but he evidently possesses a magic I've never seen before. His fight with King Sombra demonstrated it to me, and when I again checked, I was astonished to find he was completely cured of the radiation poisoning that is killing Lieutenant Scott."

"It's purpose: to communicate between the end parties sending the telegrams and to divert those trying to break the code by leading them into false trails to follow," Tail Feather replied. "It was used at what you call Enigma Layer 3 before the final VB table was applied. And it came in two parts. The first part was used at the beginning of the text, the other part was stuck between two plain-text phrases. The two plain-text phrases were made to divert anyone trying to break the codes."

"Mostly correct," the shadowcat muttered.

"There was one other purpose for the padding," the bipedal creature added. "Do you remember?"

Tail Feather began to sweat, nervously worried that he was failing a very important lesson. Realizing he had failed to recall what it was, he snatched up the sheet of notes and quickly scanned over them. There was the mentions of communicating between the parties sending and receiving the telegram, the diversion of enemies trying to break the encry—and he felt like the fool he was—there, in plain view, was the need to break up the pattern of the telegram header to make it harder for unauthorized decryption.

"I—I'm—I'm sorry," he gasped out. "I failed you!"

"How so?" the Cat-Lord inquired. "From what you just said, you figured it out. That is the third purpose for the padding material."

"But I had to look it up!" Tail Feather hissed, furious with himself.

"What of it?" the Cat-Lord asked, causing Tail Feather's gaze to snap over to see the human tilting his head at him. "You knew you had forgotten the purpose, yet you knew where to find it again. How is that a failure?"

"But the notes—?"

"The notes are yours for just such a reason," the shadowcat said, cutting in. "No one can remember everything they hear and read—present company excepted—so the notes are there to aid your memory. Again, as Trevar asked, how is that a failure?"

"The only failure comes from not knowing what to do with the information," the Cat-lord told him. "So, now that you know what its purpose is, what does that tell you on how it is most likely to be applied?"

Tail Feather, bolstered by the encouragement, thought again about the previous encounter with the padding. The last time, there were two separate groups: the one bracketed by the plain-text phrases; the other—

"The other was at the beginning of the message!" he suddenly exclaimed, giving voice to the train of thoughts running in his mind.

"Indeed," the other two spoke simultaneously, and Tail Feather understood they approved of his realization. The last one had two important characters. The first told where the padding began, the second told of how long the padding ran for. He looked again at the result of his attempt to find it.

ፌማ

The first was the fifth letter in the Griffon alphabet. The second was the one-five-third character, as the Griffons count them. He puzzled over that for a few minutes before a bout of inspiration suddenly hit him.

Starting with the character after the fifth, and counting out the number of characters called for, he wrote them out on a new sheet of parchment.

ሽ ꬅ ሐ ዞ ጘ ዄ ፍ ፂ ዑ ጌ ₴ ኍ ጘ ሮ ጻ ኋ ጻ ኪ ዏ ቂ ሴ ር ቷ ሄ ሊ ብ ꬌ ኛ ꬄ ꬨ ሆ ꬭ ፈ ሹ ፩ Σ ቤ ወ ጊ ጴ ⊥ ፮ ዄ ጺ ኯ ዌ ኪ ፎ ብ ሾ ኚ ? ጐ ፏ ኁ ꬍ ኢ ꬋ ጹ ፯ ኮ ሙ ዯ ጾ ❦ ኜ ጟ ሃ ሇ ፆ ሹ ኒ ጕ ቷ ሆ ∧ ቲ አ ኾ Σ ቄ ፖ ꬨ ዊ ዀ ነ ኋ ቖ ኺ ኘ λ ራ ና ኝ ሪ ች ዓ ሻ ዖ ኞ ኮ ቜ ቱ ቒ ꬋ ፅ ጉ

Applying the VB table to this, he got:

ኖ ኺ ኯ ዀ ሬ ዧ ዞ ሃ ኯ ጾ ኃ ፇ ቃ ፃ Σ ሳ ሾ ⊥ λ ኮ ቁ ጋ ጱ ቊ ጲ ኢ ኖ ዟ ኾ ∧ ሮ ዂ ፄ ገ ኀ አ ተ ሯ ሇ ፉ ን ꬮ ፌ ፪ ሩ ጕ ቻ ሾ ኚ ጳ ሪ ማ ፥ ꬋ ሱ ሂ ֎ ⊥ ፩ ታ ሼ ቄ ꬃ ጝ ጊ ሬ ∀ ኣ ቖ ሌ የ ቀ ቂ ኀ ‡ ‡ ር ጹ ኚ ቚ ጺ ቴ ጞ ቡ ኳ ቋ ዄ ጜ ኰ ቓ ኩ ኮ ፅ ቍ ፣ ጲ ኲ ጊ ሴ ꬎ ቻ ኬ ꬬ ዉ ኅ ኤ ።

The first four characters spelled out "griff", so he felt he was on the correct path again. However, the rest of the padding was more gibberish, but that was likely due to the special codes they had created for these messages. He quickly consulted the notes he had been given, and it did look promising.

Immediately after the portion that spelled "griff" was the one-sixth character in the alphabet. As he understood it, he should count out one-six characters. But something about this reminded him of one section of the previous padding, the portion that was between the plain-text phrases.

The padding there was a collection of both the rotor dial setting as well as the plug-board wiring list. In that one, the first four characters spelled out the rotor display to start the machine at, the following character was a number of the wiring pairs, followed by each of the pairs the cords were plugged into. Following that hunch, he counted off the next one-six pairs of characters, and found the four characters following all of that spelled out "onst", which in turn, was followed by the two-first character. Counting out the next seventeen pairs got him what he expected to find: the four characters after that chase spelled out "one" with two spaces in that part. In all, it spelled out "Griffonstone"!

"This is the rotor settings and Steckerboard wiring for three Enigma layers!" Tail Feather exclaimed. "The rotors all spell out 'Griffonstone' with two following spaces!"

"Well done!" Lady Panthera praised him with a nod of her head. "Those are the settings Gustav is expecting you to use in your reply to him."

"Oh," Tail Feather replied. "I see. And I guess I should find which rotors and notch settings to use in the next layer?"

"Actually, you've already got them," the Cat-Lord told him. "We've cheated—a little, putting this message together. Normally, you both would already have the settings to use for the next messages you plan to send to each other. But this time only, we reused the same rotor choices and notch settings at the 'Layer 3' level. In any future telegrams, be sure to change those. Also, be sure to vary where in the portion of the headers you apply the padding. The entire point of all this is to hide any patterns that might exist in your headers. Just be sure not to simply give them new patterns to work with!"

Once that was out of the way, it was time to start prepping for the next Enigma layer—the last layer!

And from referring to his notes, he saw that all three rotors were the same type, the only differences to them being the notch settings in each slot. That's when Tail Feather finally paid attention to the untouched fifth disk that the Cat-Lord had initially removed from the case that he brought. It was labeled ፈ, the same as the two already being used!

Grinning at how he saw what they had done, he got to work setting the notches on each rotor after having removed the ፉ rotor and setting it down on the table—its work finally finished.

Then, after ensuring the rotors with their individual notch arrangements were in the correct slots, the rotors turned to the correct starting positions, and the wires connecting the Steckboard plugs in the correct arrangement, he eagerly began what he hoped would be the final transcribing of the text to be decoded onto a fresh sheet.

፫ ጙ ꬨ ∧ ቆ ሂ በ ꬩ ꬨ ኆ ኽ ꬅ ሉ ብ ቱ ታ ∩ ኯ ሩ ፁ ች ∀ ማ ሙ ከ ኒ ሬ ዋ ኡ ሩ ቢ ኳ ዖ ፫ ጋ ሿ ፌ ሼ ቅ ጜ ꬂ Π ጔ Π ት ዄ ኀ ፊ ሎ ፊ ኡ ሉ ꬉ ꬬ ፏ ፖ ጳ ጿ ፧ ֎ ꬂ ክ ብ ፏ ሌ ማ ሩ ∧ ጷ ች መ ኈ ኆ ኾ ም ኘ ፖ ֍ ኣ ጌ Σ ቜ ኩ ዧ ቒ ፎ ፧ ኇ ☼ ¡ Π ህ ሩ ጱ ኤ ኔ ፍ ጐ ፨ ዉ ጶ ቐ እ ሬ ሿ ቒ ው ዞ ჻ ዅ ኂ ፭ ጹ ꬌ ፋ ቄ ֍ ሻ ፰ Σ እ ⊥ ኅ ዟ ቿ ፈ ጙ ኋ ፎ ፣ ❦ ገ ቆ ኳ ꬊ ሷ ዅ ኋ ች ች ኇ ሎ ጜ ፇ ፩ ꬮ ቾ ህ ⊥ ቂ ጘ ሌ ቓ ሯ ጜ ኯ ꬅ ሐ ል ቤ ꬨ ቌ ሇ ጎ ፫ ቴ ጓ Σ ጕ ኑ ጒ ꬍ ጜ ፪ ካ ቐ ፰ ዂ ፂ ር ጱ ꬂ ፑ ኘ ኞ ኂ ሀ ኮ ሯ ም ፬ ϟ ዐ ፚ ꬂ ፭ ዀ ቧ ꬄ ሆ ꬫ ቍ ፆ ኋ ሿ ሃ ዊ ቸ ጞ ჻ ሺ ካ ጛ ꬄ ፙ ቺ ጌ ሟ ዅ ኬ ዊ ቴ ል ሚ ꬃ ቋ ር ፧ ꬮ ፀ ፪ ጟ ቡ ☼ አ ፪ ዑ ꬎ ኀ ሀ ጼ ጒ ꬬ Σ ኰ ቜ ኚ ሩ ┊ ፫ ቡ ኪ ጘ ¡ ዓ ኈ ዧ ት ሶ ። ዋ ኡ ቝ ቌ ቃ ወ ꬄ ፄ ቆ ኚ ቾ ዟ ጘ ቷ ቢ ቚ ሐ ተ ኜ ቂ Σ ፓ ቚ ሳ ዂ ቿ ፤ ዧ ቷ ሜ ኣ ዯ ወ ኲ ሌ ቂ ሃ ካ ፁ ኑ ꬅ ኝ ፗ ꬄ ሃ ሜ ኪ ? ፨ ፬ ∠ ሰ ዊ ዏ ሃ ቼ ቈ ኂ ኼ ጼ ፰ ቀ ጻ ? ቅ ፠ ቼ ፒ ኢ ጽ ። ፅ ꬩ Π ፰ ቕ ? ֍ ኂ ኖ ጶ ዧ ጒ ቍ ኰ ፔ ቅ ꬌ ሇ ኬ ዔ ዄ ሷ ሁ ቓ ኃ ჻ ቘ ከ ኹ ሰ ፋ ꬋ ኽ ч ፑ ጟ ሱ ቀ ቖ ቔ ም ሰ ቂ ኖ ሴ ሺ ጏ ቿ ቕ ч ጎ ተ ቅ ቘ ꬫ ቸ ? ፓ ꬫ ፏ ሹ ኚ ቃ ∪ ጼ ቘ ጸ ኊ ን ꬆ ፯ ። ጘ ቆ ጝ ኝ ቼ ኝ ዅ ዅ ቌ ዖ ጋ ∧ ቀ ጼ ቔ ኙ ፰ ፋ ኮ ሽ ሬ አ ጝ ሏ ፁ ሉ ኻ ሺ ቐ ፆ ኽ ኾ ∠ ኊ ሟ ፊ ፭ ꬎ ጱ ቚ ሞ ስ ቒ ማ ቛ ጷ ኇ ር ∪ ጕ ፄ ታ ዀ መ Π ❦ ዊ ተ ꬨ ኄ ፣ ኴ ዄ ꬃ ስ ቺ ረ ሜ ኺ ዊ ፄ ጱ ꬄ ፧ ጛ ጓ ቍ ና ወ ጘ ቑ ኈ ሹ ሺ ኼ ኌ ቝ ኾ ኂ ላ ጸ ፦ ፠ ቀ ሼ ል ዉ ∀ ብ ሀ ቓ ፌ ኻ ኢ ጋ ꬬ ፑ ሙ ꬍ ቁ ኾ ፦ ሽ ቺ ፐ ሼ ተ ለ ¿ ፃ ጙ ጎ ꬌ ቻ ሼ ቺ ፄ ꬬ ል ፧ ጋ ቶ ጷ ∠ ∧ ∠ ሐ ጐ ኴ ቁ የ ቤ ፍ ፍ ቴ ꬩ ሴ ኸ ቡ ☼ ጌ ዔ ❦ ? ኘ ኬ ኋ ∪ ꬁ ☼ ገ ሞ ኋ ፓ ₴ ወ ꬮ ፔ ጒ ꬬ ሪ ኢ ꬂ ጻ ቼ ☼ ኼ ኊ ዏ ሊ Π ኛ ሐ ኳ ጼ ዄ ጟ ኔ ሾ ኯ ቾ ብ ጔ ቺ ጞ ሹ ጕ ፮ ሐ ፓ ቷ ኝ ቤ ֎ ኌ ሄ ቆ ቋ ኵ ቘ ዕ ኬ ሺ ዯ ꬅ ሃ ኝ ዖ ቾ ዊ ጚ ኟ ቜ ፣ ∀ ኇ ጺ ና ቖ ኲ ጸ ኽ ፅ ዌ ፁ ስ ሌ ꬮ ኰ ቒ ኚ ꬩ ፁ ቝ ጺ ጒ ሎ ሲ ቾ ኀ ዅ ኒ ጳ ቓ ኗ ፎ ፑ ቆ ቅ ቈ ዖ ሊ ጻ ኚ ቘ

Tail Feather glanced at the time piece in the room. It showed they had been at this for nearly five hours, and he was eager to get this finished. This time, he paid no attention to the times multiple rotors advanced together; the mechanics no longer held his attention long enough to be fascinated by it. He just wanted to get through this as fast as he could. As he typed, he could instantly see that intelligent character combinations were finally emerging, but he cared not for that, either. Getting finished was all that mattered now.

And finally, all too soon, he was finished! Heavily breathing as though he had been in a race around the aerie, he shakily lifted the sheet to read it.

ተ ወ ፥ ‡ ኖ ኺ ኯ ዀ ገ ኀ አ ተ ቂ ኀ ‡ ‡ ኾ ኺ ገ ነ ፥ ‡ ሴ ነ ꬁ ፐ ኡ ሁ ‡ ሙ ፐ ኀ ተ ቓ ኈ ገ ተ ‡ ‡ ኺ በ ኖ ፔ ሃ ኯ ኅ ፥ ‡ ሙ ፐ ተ λ ኈ ጐ ሃ ‡ ‡ ‡ ቒ ቱ ሴ ኀ ሏ ꬌ ኀ ፥ ‡ ሴ ነ ኸ ቓ ቘ ‡ ተ ፉ ኈ ‡ ኾ ስ ꬮ ቓ ‡ ‡ ‡ ኸ ፐ ኀ ꬮ ቓ ቒ ፧ ‡ ቷ ዟ ዯ ‡ ꬌ ኾ ‡ ꬭ ቚ ‡ ለ ፐ ሃ ቄ ሙ ፐ ተ ‡ ኾ ኺ ሷ ኀ ሃ ጳ ‡ ꬌ ኾ ‡ ፐ ኊ ሴ ሙ ‡ ተ ኺ ሴ ꬃ ጙ ፧ ‡ ꬫ ፐ ጳ ‡ ቒ ኻ ኮ ꬃ ሃ ‡ ተ ወ ‡ ኯ ኀ አ ተ ኺ ꬋ ሙ ተ ‡ ነ በ ‡ ገ ኀ ‡ ꬫ ቍ ‡ ተ ወ ‡ ገ ኸ ቓ ሩ ተ ‡ ꬭ ኯ አ ‡ ኰ ኀ ኯ ኖ ነ ቒ ‡ ሴ ኀ ሙ ኺ ኵ ኸ ተ ጒ ። ‡ ፐ ኊ ሴ ሙ ‡ ተ ኺ ሴ ꬃ ጙ ፧ ‡ ꬬ ወ ነ ‡ ኋ ‡ ኋ ሃ ሴ ኀ ተ ኯ ኾ ከ ሃ ‡ ፐ ጳ ‡ ꬭ ቚ ‡ ሙ ፐ ተ λ ኈ ጐ ሃ ፧ ‡ ꬫ ፐ ጳ ‡ ቒ ኈ አ ቀ ‡ ቒ ኻ ኮ ꬃ ሃ ። ‡ ꬫ በ ‡ አ ሴ ኀ ሃ ጳ ‡ ፁ ‡ ꬫ ኯ ጳ ‡ ꬁ ሴ አ ተ ‡ ኺ በ ኖ ፔ ሃ ጳ ። ‡ ꬫ በ ‡ ቴ ኯ ለ ሴ አ ‡ ች ጷ ‡ ኺ ዌ ኈ ‡ ተ ወ ‡ ꬁ በ ‡ ቒ ‡ ቴ ኮ ጳ ‡ ፐ ኀ ሃ ‡ ጽ ሴ ኀ ቓ ꬎ አ ‡ ቷ ዟ ዯ ። ‡ ተ ኺ ሴ ꬃ ጙ ‡ ፐ አ ኜ ‡ ꬭ ፐ ተ ‡ ፁ ‡ መ ሀ ኸ ‡ ꬭ ቚ ‡ ኸ ቡ ኦ ‡ ꬁ በ ተ ቴ ሀ ኀ ‡ ቐ ኺ ‡ ሴ ነ ኸ ኮ ኺ ‡ ፐ ኀ ሃ ‡ በ ሞ ቶ ሴ አ ተ ኺ ሆ ቒ ። ‡ ꬫ በ ‡ ቒ ኈ አ ቀ ‡ ቴ ኯ ለ ሴ አ ‡ ተ ወ ‡ ቒ ዞ ሾ ‡ ፁ ‡ ꬭ ፐ ተ ‡ ኸ ኺ ኯ ኀ ኢ ሴ ኡ ጲ ‡ ኢ ሴ ኈ ሴ አ ተ ሆ ቒ ‡ ፐ ኀ ሃ ‡ ኈ ሐ ኀ ቒ ‡ ꬫ ፑ ꬃ ‡ ተ ኺ ቡ ተ ሴ ሃ ‡ ꬫ ኯ ነ ‡ ኾ ራ ኈ ሁ ‡ ፐ ኀ ሃ ‡ ቴ ኯ ꬮ ‡ ጊ ኀ ሴ አ ተ ሁ ። ‡ ተ ኺ ሴ ꬃ ጙ ‡ ꬫ ፐ ጳ ‡ ኀ ቀ ‡ ሃ በ ጳ ኮ ኺ ‡ ተ ወ ‡ ቒ ኊ ቍ ‡ ꬫ ኯ ጳ ‡ ኸ ኺ ሴ አ ሴ ኀ ኦ ‡ ገ ኀ ‡ ቐ ኺ ‡ ቴ ጐ ኈ ሃ ‡ ተ ወ ‡ ሙ ጋ ኧ ‡ ፐ ኀ ሁ ‡ ሙ ገ ኀ ኾ ኈ ኯ ሙ ተ አ ‡ ꬁ በ ተ ቴ ሀ ኀ ‡ ቐ ኺ ‡ ተ የ ‡ ኀ ፈ ሏ ꬌ ኀ አ ። ‡ ꬫ በ ‡ ቴ ኯ ለ ሴ አ ‡ ተ ወ ‡ ነ ሀ ተ ቴ ኯ ꬮ ‡ ፁ ‡ ኯ ኀ ‡ ቒ ‡ ኾ ዊ ‡ ሃ ፌ ጳ ‡ ተ ወ ‡ ቒ ሂ ኺ ሴ ኡ ‡ ꬭ ፐ ተ ‡ ሃ ኮ ኺ ‡ ነ ፐ ቱ ቓ ‡ ቴ በ ‡ ሃ ኯ አ ሙ ꬋ ኡ ሄ ‡ ኈ ፐ አ ተ ‡ አ ꬋ ኑ ቓ ። ‡ ‡ ‡ ኖ ሐ አ ተ ፐ ꬃ ‡ ‡ ‡ ֍ ֎ ֍ ֎ ꬭ ቚ ሴ ነ ኸ ቓ ቘ ኯ ጳ ቒ ኾ ኯ ኇ

To: Griffonstone, he read, From: Embassy Canterlot, Regarding: Cat-Lord, Attention: Emperor Tail Feather

Panthera, one of the shadowcat friends of Allec Trevar, has arrived to instruct me on how to operate this Enigma encryptor. Trevar, whom I identified as the Cat-Lord, has also arrived. He sends you his best regards. He wishes your rule to be a wise and generous one. Trevar asks that you keep the peace between our empire and Equestria and wishes to assure you that Princesses Celestia and Luna have treated him fairly and with honesty. Trevar has no desire to allow his presence on our world to cause any conflicts between our two nations. He wishes to meet with you in a few days to address that dire matter we discussed last summer.

Well! That's a very nice message! he happily thought to himself. It put him at ease for all the panic he had suffered upon meeting them. He saw Gustav's signature, along with the traditional four-character indicator for "end of telegram" … but then ….

"'THE EMPEROR IS A FINK'!?" he screamed in outrage at reading the final words he had translated.

"He took that rather well," Tail Feather barely noticed the Cat-Lord mutter.

"'THE EMPEROR IS A FINK'!?"

"Better than Gustav predicted," the shadowcat replied.

"'THE EMPEROR IS A FINK'!?"

"So much for having a good sense of humor," the Cat-Lord said with a sigh.

"Oh, I have an excellent sense of humor," Tail Feather growled, taking note of the Cat-Lord once more. "'THE EMPEROR IS A FINK'!?" he demanded, grabbing a new sheet of parchment. "I'll show him 'the Emperor is a fink'! How about 'off with his head'!? And that's just for starters!"

"Calm down, Tail Feather," the Cat-Lord said as he stepped up to lay a hand on his shoulder. "I'm the one who insisted on that be put in. It's the key for the VB table in your return message."

"Wha—you did this!?" Tail Feather asked, blinking in astonishment at the bipedal creature. "But—WHY!? Is this for not recognizing you this morning? No! Wait—that can't be right! This message predates that—"

"Which brings us to our last lesson regarding using these encryptors," the Cat-Lord told him. "'Predictable keys'."

"I—I—I don't understand," Tail Feather said confused.

"Tell, me, Tail Feather," Lady Panthera spoke up. "What were the keys just used in that last message?"

"What do you mean?"

"What was the key used for the VB encryption? What were the rotor dials set to throughout the nesting?" she reiterated.

"Uh—'Griffons rise to fly'," Tail Feather replied. "What has that got to do with this?" he asked, gesturing to the decrypted message.

"'Griffons rise to fly'?" the Cat-Lord inquired. "Isn't that some sort of famous battle cry?"

"Of course," Tail Feather replied.

"Yeah," the Cat-Lord said with a huff. "A little too famous, I'm afraid. That was another part of why the ones who used the original Enigma eventually lost their war of conquest. After their enemies managed to break several of their messages, they noticed additional patterns in the key settings that were being chosen. In addition to the headers in their messages which never changed, the predictable keys were dead giveaways that greatly helped them break the codes in future messages."

"Wha—what's this got to do with 'the Emperor is a fink'?"

"Is that something one might expect to use as a key for one of your messages?" the Cat-Lord asked.

"Of course not!" he indignantly shot back.

"Not even the Princesses would guess something like that, correct?"

"Of cour—" Tail Feather's reply cut off at the implications he had just admitted.

"You guys consider yourselves warriors, right?" the Cat-Lord questioned him, and the sudden change of topic dislodged Tail Feather's mind for a moment.

"Well, yes," he admitted.

"And your reputation is important to you, as well as honor as a high goal for your people, correct?"

"Yes. Why shouldn't they be?" Tail Feather demanded.

"No reason they shouldn't," the Cat-Lord replied. "It's just that, thanks to some friends I have back home, I've had the opportunity to meet a species of warriors currently plying the stars. They, too, hold personal and professional honor and reputation with extremely high regard. As warriors, I wouldn't put it past the Klingons to be a fair challenge for your people.

"But among their close personal friends, even those of high rank, they still tossed playful insults at one another. And the only reason those that did got away it was you can't even become a close personal friend to them unless you could beat the shit out of him or he you. But let someone who wasn't one of their friends say the same words and you'll see a fight to the death before the speaker has finished delivering the comment.

"It occurs to me that such playful insults traded among friend would make good keys that would be difficult to guess," the Cat-Lord finished.

"That's—uh—I suppose that would be a wise move," Tail Feather admitted with distain. "It's just not the sort of thing one normally does."

"That's perfectly understandable," Lady Panthera said. "But if one wishes to preserve one's secrets, those are the sorts of steps one must take."

"Speaking of secrets," the Cat-Lord began, "isn't it time one particular secret was shared with a dear and close personal friend of yours? There is a little matter I've learned about and if it was in my ability, I'd help in any way I could in heartbeat. Unfortunately, it's beyond my capabilities. She, on the other hand, just might have information and the resources you need."

"What are you talking—?" Tail Feather began.

"Your egg problems," Lady Panthera cut in. Tail Feather's eyes grew wide as his irises shrunk to dots. "Do you consider Celestia your friend?"

"NO! WE CAN'T!" Tail Feather recoiled, horrified at the suggestion.

"Who AM I, Tail Feather?" the Cat-Lord angrily rounded upon him.

"Ca—Cat—Cat-Lord!" Tail Feather squeaked in panic.

"And what does that mean to you?" Lady Panthera snarled into his face, making Tail Feather nervously gulp.

"Tha—that he's our god," Tail Feather said, wincing, hoping he reply was the correct one.

"Then you must, Tail Feather!" the Cat-Lord scolded him. "If you consider me to be such, then you must because I'm ordering you to! Your species is about to collapse! Worse, if what Gustav told me is true: that if word leaks out to your general population, you won't have to worry about the bad hatchings to end your people. They'll take their end by their own claws and do so by launching a suicidal war against your neighbors!"

"But to speak of this to her—the pity in her eyes—she'll—"

"I've only met Celestia a few times," the Cat-Lord cut him off. "She doesn't strike me as the pitying kind. If she takes her time to respond, it's not due to 'pity'. It's more likely she's searching her own history to find a suitable answer. I suspect, with her being thousands of years old, she'll carefully think about her options, and that's a lot of memory to sift through. But when she's decided, I've witness her quickly taking action. Trust me, I've seen that sort of thing before. I've a friend back home with much the same problem as her, and he goes through the same thing when confronted by new problems—he's searching for a reference to relate to the new situation before he takes an action. If anyone here can find a solution, I'd bet on her."

"If you can't find the words, then let us speak for you," Lady Panthera told him.

Before he could respond, however, the door burst open as one of his guards rushed in, only to stop to stare in surprise at the sight of the extra beings in the room.

"It's downy!" Tail Feather yelled out, giving the code word for her to stand down. "It's okay, Thelxiope! They're on our side! What's happened?"

"M'lord," the griffon hen guard hesitantly began, still looking suspiciously at the bipedal creature and shadowcat. "Riots have broken out in the city and countryside. Word's gotten out!" she said, handing him a rolled up newspaper.

Suddenly, Pardus tensed up and turned to face slightly south of east with his hackles raised.

"Celestia! Gustav! There's trouble!" he snarled. He glared at Gustav. "It's begun!

Opening it, Tail Feather felt all his hopes crash when he saw the banner headline.

"And so … it ends," he sighed.