He stalked trough the tall, dark green grass, the forest clearing was lit only by lightning bugs and the silver moon light. The grass was soft and cool under his paws, soothing the cuts and scrapes on the pads.

Standing in the centre of the clearing was a large, dark grey wolf. Huge, backwards curling goat horns sitting just in front of its ears.

Huffing out a breath, he walked to the centre of the clearing, stoping directly in front of the wolf. He was careful about his body language, holding his tail at mid-length and his ears at neutral.

The familiar feeling of dread creeped along his spine, a sure sign that you are in the presences of The Tormentor. He was used to this feeling, haveing lived in close quarters with Levi for many years, so he easily shoved it aside.

It tilted its head to the side, glowing orange eyes flashing brighter. It smiled, addressing him in a deep, rich voice.

"Ah, Chevix BlackCrow. It's been awhile" it chucked, deep and rich. It sent involuntary chills up his spine.

Chevix scans the hybrid, a small grin gracing his own muzzle when his gaze lands on the rectangular pupils "Same can be said to you, Leviathan Poltergeist. I have to say, I was surprised by your letter"- he flicked his unique tail, the long, silky fur flowing gracefully behind it -"normally you don't bother with Inter dimensional affairs" he purred, tilting his head.

Leviathan scoffed, pawing at the dirt with a sickeningly sharp, black claw "Well, you know me, always shuffling in my logic" he dismissed with the flick of his tail.

"Quite..." he trailed off.

Rolling his eyes, Chevix sat, beginning to wash a paw with his tongue in smooth, practiced strokes. He was infinitely annoyed at his colleague, not that he was going to let that show, that will just encourage him more. Calling him away at 2:00 am, rather rude.

The Tormentor recoiled slightly when The Trickster began purring, face twisted in mostly mock distaste "You've been spending to much time around your pet, Chevix. You reek of cat" He taunted, gagging at the end.

Chevix stoped immediately, glaring daggers at the younger Gralock "Thiron is not my pet" he spat, looking about ready to tear the others throat open, a low snarling growl already rumbling deep in his throat.

The younger smiled smugly, not in the least concerned of The Trickster attacking him "Oh. I've hit a nerve. You are awfully protective of The Scholar, you sly old dog" he teased, smirking, only aggravating the older further.

Chevix unsheathed his claws, bared his teeth and snarled, glowing eyes flashing a sickly neon green, pupils narrowing to paper-thin slits.

The other grinned darkly "Chevix, it has been entirely to long since I've been able to trigger a reaction like that from you. I have to say, I'm rather glad we took in that stray of yours" he said dreamily, fluttering his eyelashes.

The older didn't take kindly to this ether, large amounts of clear, thick venom flowing from the venom glands and over his upper canines, dribbling down his chin.

The hybrid huffed, bringing a paw up in defence "Alright, calm down now, Yeller. No need to go picking a fight, we both know you'd win" he calmed and, reluctantly, the coyote backed off with a final, vicious snarl, spitting leftover venom on the ground.

Leviathan smirked, looking over the reddish-brown coyote in thought before shrugging "Besides, not here to discuss your dalliances-"

"I suggest you learn to hold your tongue, mutt, before I rip it out" Chevix snarled in warning, spitting like a rabid fox.

Leviathan rolled his eyes, but mostly ignored the threat "-Now, darling Vixie... how do you feel about detective work?" He asked, arching a brow.

Chevix tilted his head, a look of confusion on his face. He, of course, was still working out how to exact his revenge on the younger.

The Trickster narrowed his pupils slightly "Isn't that Andrew's job?" He asked, completely lost.

After about another five minutes of confused stuttering, the princess recived a letter from her sister, calling her back to Canterlot. She left rather quickly after that. The ponys that had fainted woke up just as Melody decided to ask a question that had been bothering her.

Melody sat next to Discord, looking over to Arlin she asked, "Hey, Arly? How are the other Gralock's doing? I haven't seen many other then Grant Thane for the last couple century's" she tilted her head as the tiger beamed and trotted into the centre of the clearing.

He cleared his throat, talking a bit faster then necessary "Chevix and Thiron have been carrying on their regular banter, you know how they are. August and Andrew buddied up a couple weeks ago and are helping Prince Danyel Van Darerin with his experiments, much to August's displeasure. Leviathan, Keyrouh and Nathan are -well, I'm not entirely sure what they're up to, actually. I know the girls and the young 'uns are working on a 'secret project'. Everyone else are just kinda siting there on the side lines, I guess" he shrugged and doubled over, gasping for air. He hadn't really breathed all that much.

Melody nodded slowly "O...kay... Well, thank you. Vary... informative" she chuckled nervously, slowly backing away.

Applejack stepped up to the panting tiger, ever the brave, and nudged him with a hoof "You all right, Suggercube?" She asked cautiously.

Arlin turned his large head to look at her "Hello" he said with a smile "Just fine, thanks. I can get a tad bit ahead of myself some times" he hummed at the end, tilting his head at the orange pony and waveing vaguely with a large paw.

Discord looked at Arlin, then Melody -and to Arlin- "What's a Groloag?" He asked loudly.

Melody looked up at him with a small smirk "Its Gralock, h-"

"That's what I said!" He cut her off.

She grinned "Obviously. It's what Arlin is, a kind of rank class in the shapeshifter society" she chirped.

Discord shrugged.

Twilight spoke up, looking over her friends "If I may ask -Melody was it?"- Melody nodded -"Melody, what is a 'Hybrid-mutt' and who is Larcen?" She asked, not even bothering to try and cover up her slightly confused, slightly curious tone. Not that anyone had expected her to, this was Twilight, after all.

Melody rolled onto her back, stretching her limbs "Larcen Whesslevic is a child trapped in an adults body -not literally, of course" she said in a bored drawl "A hybrid-mutt is the child of a hybrid shapeshifter who bred with a non-shifter spices. For example,"- she rolled onto her stomach with an odd, cat-like grace "Leviathan Poltergeist is a hybrid-mutt, his mother a wolf-fox and father a goat. He mostly looks like a wolf, though" she hulled herself of the ground, not a spec of dirt on her.

Arlin nodded, walking back over to Twilight's side "Come now, Lord Discord. The princess entrusted you into miss Sparkle's care" he said, absently scratching the base of his horns.

Discord burst out laughing, snapping back from whatever spell made him act relatively normal.

Twilight growled "DISCORD!!" She bellowed, catching she Draconequus' attention.

Melody laughed, grinning in time with the other Draconequus. Looking at the sky she clicked her tongue "I gotta go. But, I'll come back tomorrow!" She said cheerfully, launching herself into the sky before anyone could stop her.

Arlin chucked, shaking his head like this was a normal occurrence with her. On second thought, it probably was...

Suddenly, the tiger gasped in such a way it could rival even Pinkie pie "I forgot to tell her about the watch she is posted on!" He exclaimed, face-pawing... somehow. He sighed, then shrugged "Oh well, Grant will fetch her..." he muttered.

Andrew dashed about the lab in a flash at his usual 100 mph. The Detective hoped over a console, snatching a screwdriver from the other side, and hoping back over with a effortless grace only a Felidae is capable of.

August rolled his eyes, looking around the room from his animal-pelt clad armchair.

It was a large underground chamber with pail grey stone walls and polished dark wood as flooring, high ceilings. It was lit by enchanted crystals embedded in the stone work, glowing a bright warm-orange colour. multi-levelled with ladder-stairs ascending to the next floor. It was rather nice, compared to the rest of Prince Danyal's dwelling.

He sighs, watching his friend running around "Andrew?" The blondish-brown haired shapeshifter stoped dead in his tracks, twirling around with a vary elegant flourish.

Tilting his head slightly, he trots over to The Anpath "Yes, August?" He hums, not even slightly out of breath or sweaty from running around. The showoff...

"Why am I here? You seem to have this covered..." he gestured to the lab they had been permitted to work in. The tech was all rather advanced and he knew most of it was most likely stolen from some other race in some other dimension.

The Detective smiled, un-tilting his head "Well, I thought you'd be bored if I left you to tend the flat, by yourself" he said in a 'duh' tone, as if August should know this already.

Andrew and August were fild-agents, operating in New York City, New York, USA. Dimension code EH613U17, current year 2006. They shared a flat, more for convenience then finances, as they both worked in the homicide division at the NYPD and had the same schedule. Even when they weren't on duty, they worked as partners in crime in EH613U17. Not literal crime, of course. They had been stationed in that dimension for decades, used to be London, back in the 80's, hence the ascents. Well... that and British accents are fun.

EH613U17 was close to the main hub dimensions and alternate universes, therefor The Queen was slightly more adamant of posting agents in them.

He scoffed "I think I would have preferred that, Andy" he said in a mocking tone.

Andrew flashed a lopsided grin, bright olive-green eyes sparkling in their usual fashion, turning on his heel and going back to his work, his navy blue trench coat twirling around him dramatically, talking animatedly to August all the while.

"If I can figure out how to genetically edit the fertility of ranch animals -effectively making it so no matter what, females will become pregnant on the first attempt- we can cut a good quarter of work time. BUT if I can also decrease the gestation period and increase fetal development ten fold and up fertility, it will cut work less but our food stores will sky rocket!"

He finishes, fingers flying over the keyboard of a holo-console, rune-like numbers and letters whipping across the luminous light blue, slightly transparent, screen.

August nodded his head slowly "Right... well, good luck with that. Now, if you don't need me, I'll be going" he said, getting up and beginning to walk in the direction of the exit.

He was abruptly tackled by Andrew in his natural form, most likely having transomed in mid-air.

August groaned, half in pain, half in annoyance.

"KITTRYE!!" He bellowed, snarling and fighting the growing urge to latch his jaws into The Detective's throat and just shake.

Hesitantly, Andrew stepped off him, nudging his arm apologetically.

August sighed, standing back upright and glaring at the man-turned-caracal.

Andrew flattened his ears to his skull, looking up to August with apologetic, clear olive-green eyes.

Shaking his head, August went back to the armchair he was sitting in and flopped down with a huff.

He gestured to the lab "Go on then, his highness will be in soon to help" he muttered, looking at his wrist watch. He grinned "Dazzle me!" He breathed out dramatically.

Andrew stood, transforming in the blink of an eye, and nodded enthusiastically. He began explaining everything in immense detail, August wasn't listening.

Augest allowed his thoughts to wander, as his thoughts often did, this time about life as a Shifter in general. Evidently, Shifters were dimension hoppers, even able to manipulate the timelines of the dimensions they went to. Not all Shifters can make rifts and portals strong enough for Inter dimensional travel, but most of importance could.

Life wasn't bad, at least for him, he knew other Shifters had it worse. He, being a Gralock, was shipped off to the capital city almost instantly after being discovered. but the thing is, he already lived in Fairmore. The others used to live in the neighbouring kingdoms. Well, some of them, BlackCrow was from a noble coyote clan in the Wild Lands.

August knew of the BlackCrow Clan well, as well as its Master, Harem BlackCrow, Chevix's twin brother.
August himself was from a far smaller coyote pack, the Robinson pack. What was he originally thinking again? Oh! Right!

Take Andrew for instance, he was a Caracal, he used to live in Feniclow. Not the capital city, no, just a small farming village on the outskirts of the kingdom. He knew Andrew well, they were in Gralock training together, and later were termed together due to their ability to work so well together. He knew their teem name by heart, Alpha-7, it wasn't hard to remember, but still.
And since he knew his friend so well -They had known each other upwards of twenty thousand years, both being 21,998 years old, only separated by a few months- he knew Andrew had three little sisters he hasn't seen since he got here all those years ago.

Well, life wasn't ideal but it was certainly not boring. Back in EH613U17, he had heard people on whatever crap program was on the television talk about how they were 'Alive but not livening', a ridiculous concept in a beautiful but harsh world such as Maratie.

Here, one wrong move could be your last. No one has the patience for 'harmless rebelling' -there was no such thing- if you don't conform, find a job and work, you're sent to fend for yourself in the wilderness, with the Dragons and the Ravenous. Life was harsh, but not bad.

August was vaguely aware of Prince Danyal's arrival, but continued in his thoughts, not like he would be much help anyway. If they really needed him, they would ask.

In The Colony's, things were more tame, what with them being so close to The Hub and all it's normalcy. Most of their work involved safe transport of stolen tech and medical documents, the Shifter modo was 'The toughest dogs fight dirty' and sometimes, when push came to shove, the modo was 'Blood only runs so deep'.

August was distantly aware he had just been asked a question, he had better answer. What was the question? Oh, right, 'What in Midnight's name are you doing here, anyway?'. Tad bit rude.

"Sorry, I think Andrew finds my presence endearing. He says it's my 'aura'" he said with a shrug. This seemed to be a satisfactory answer, as his highness walked away, and he was left to his thoughts again.

The expression 'The toughest dogs fight dirty' is a common one among Shifters, they have a survival tactic that has served them well in the thousands of billions of years since they first came into existence, and that was if you play clean, you die. In a harsh world such as theirs, it was simple logic, if they are not kin, they simply are not as important. Which leads to the theft, many of the fastasical things of Maratie are of Maratareian in origin, some aren't, they steal.

Honestly, August didn't have a problem with it.

'Blood only runs so deep' is completely of Van Darerin in origin, Princess Winter came up with it. It means that, even though they are blood, they mustn't let that get in they way if needs must. Betrayal and forgiveness are common occurrences in the family. The only ones who have never betrayed one another are the Mystic Twins, Phoenix and Griffin. Though those two came with a whole different set of baggage. No, actually, no-one has ever betrayed The Queen, that would be a bad call.

Ether way, all shapeshifter's in the Fairmore kingdom had one thing in common, their priority was to The Queen and nobody else.

August shook himself out of his thoughts and looked around, Prince Danyal was conversing with a guard who had just entered. The guard was warring the typical attire, armour and such, nothing special. Just another guard.

Danyal spun around to face them "Robinson, Von Kittrye!" He called, they both walked over to him dutifully.

"Yes, sir?" August asked.

Danyal smiled "August, you know I hate when you call me that" he muttered.

August tilted his head in a way that he knew made him look absolutely adorable, "I know" he said innocently.

the royal family weren't constantly formal with Gralock's, they were all fairly close. Hell, Chevix had been friends with Luna since they were kids.

Danyal shook his head, running a hand through his dark chocolate curls "SummerTorent has called a meeting. You both were personally requested, it's probably the Fox Queen again" he muttered the last part under his breath.

Andrew rolled his eyes "Do we have to?!" He bemoaned, as though the vary world had just wronged him in all the most profound ways. Ever the dramatic.

Danyal grinned and nodded "Yup, you two and seven other Gralock's"
He gestured to the door with a flourish, rich brown wings unfurling slightly.

August chuckled as Andrew groaned and began shuffling to the door, intent on delaying the inevitable.

"Where to?" August asked the guard.

The guard squared his shoulders "The Crystal Glade, Sir" he answered in a clipped, overly formal tone.

August nodded his thanks and began to follow his friend. He jogged up to Andrew, grabed him by the wrist, and dragged him out. Andrew somehow managed chuff in what August could only assume was offence, but allowed himself to be dragged out by the coyote, grumbling about impatient dogs.

Author's Note

I think this may have gone to hell. I'm not sure. Might not do that first person thing after all -might confuse you- I just thought it might be easier on my poor, confused, sleep deprived brain.

Also, I know nothing of law enforcement in my own county, so most of the August-Andrew bits are from my vary extensive knowledge of making shit up. Though, they may not play that large of a roll here.

Rating may change to mature, Im kinda feeling restricted by the teen rating, as I have many graphic scenarios I can't get out of my head. Not sure though.

Anywhozle! Hope you enjoyed!

Oh! I know this wasn't great. I think I have finally lost my ability to... words. The next chapter should be better! Maybe...