"Danyal?" Jaycob called out again. It was hard to smell his brother here, it smelt like animal fur and smoke from the torches.

With every cell he passed the animal inhabitants growled or snarled at the new-comer.

"Prince Jayheart?"

Jaycob jumped, violently lashing his claws trough the shadows.

"Woah there killer!"

Panting with fear, Jaycob narrowed his eyes, alowing them to adjust to the darkness "Tyler?"

A cloak-wearing young man with golden blond hair stepped out of the shadows "The one and only" he smiled.

"My god" Jaycob muttered "You nearly gave me a heart-attack!" He growled.

Tyler rolled his eyes "That's quite dramatic, don't you think?" He said sarcastically "and besides, you nearly scratched my eyes out. I think we're even"

Jaycob scoffed "whatever" he growled. Taking a deep breath, he forced him self to calm down "do you know where Danny is?" He asked.

Tyler hummed, thinking. Tyler was Danyal's apprentice, assistant, house mate and close friend. If any one knew where his brother was, It was Tyler.

"Some time soon? It's important" Jaycob asked.

"Okay, one, rude. And two, i last saw him in his lab. He's working on a new project"

"Thank you" Jaycob started on his way to his brothers lab. He found what his brother did in said lab kind of weird and sometimes just plain gross but useful none the less.

Twilight galloped trough the halls of Canterlot Castle, her amulet flying back and forth violently. When Twilight had asked Zecora if it was hers the zebra had said that she had never seen it before. So Twilight had taken the liberty of keeping it.

She slowed near the door of the throne room causing the amulet hang limply around her neck. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were there, talking just out of ear shot. She cleared her throat, turning the princesses attention to her, she gave them a sheepish smile. Celestia smiled warmly back at her before whispering something to Luna.

"You wanted to see me? To give me a test?" She asked as Luna passed her "I brought my own quills"

Melody purred. She was on her favourite couch in her livening room. The room was lit with enchanted glass shards, neetly embedded in the walls, much unlike the large majority of the castle which was lit with torches and a fireplace or two, one reason this was her favourite room was because of that simple difference.

Melody flinched as she plucked a damaged feather from one of her wings.

Much to her dismay, Draconequii had to regularly preen their feathers- which wasn't all that difficult as their long, flexible necks could easily reach to the back of the wing and their ever so slightly serrated incisors made short work of parasites and debris.

Melody herself had about fifty four teeth and She wasint all that surprised that ponies feared Discord, If you look past all the chaos magic and treason, he's just a big, threatening animal with large and sharp teeth and claws.

Sighing she rolled off the couch and stretched.

Her ears pricked and she smiled "Kitten? Is that you?" She sarcastically drawled.

The clouded leopard jumped out his hiding place in one of the empty barrels scattered around the room, normally used as make-shift chairs.

"Melody" he hissed playfully.

"Someone's in a better mood today"- she smiled warmly but her tone was mocking -"Oh! Did the doctors finally manage to fish that stick out of your ass?" She purred.

Grant rolled his eyes, trotting up to her "Oh ha-ha" he deadpanned "real comedian aren't you?"

"I like to think so" she purred "Now, Kitten, did you find my amulet?" She asked as she coiled her long, slender body around his stomach "you know how important it is to me..." she purred.

Grant rolled his eyes "I didn't..." Melody narrowed her eyes, Grant put up his paws in defence "Hay now calm down, Melody. I asked Chevix if he had it and he said he hadn't seen it in years" he said carefully.

Melody sighed, uncoiling from the cat and leaping onto her couch, kneading it with her claws before settling "Well that's fine, I suppose. I don't need it..."

Grant tilted his head slightly "why do you want it, anyway?" He asked.

Melody's shoulders dropped "It was a gift..." she whispered, tucking her fore paws under her chest and curling her tail around her body.

"A gift?" Grant asked, settling on to an armchair that was about three meters away from her "From who?"

Melody looked up at him "My brothers..." she whispered sadly.

She had said it so quietly it was unlikely any creature other then a Shapeshifter would have been able to catch it. Luckily enough he was a Shapeshifter.

"Brother's? I didn't know you had one sibling, never mind multiple" he said, her ears drooped and a long, sad wine excaped her muzzle. He flatend his ears, shighing "Do... you want to talk about it?"

Melody half-smiled, it wasn't any thing sinister, just... sad. She nodded "Okay..."

He shifted, adjusting his tail "what were their names?"

Melody looked at one of the enchanted crystals "Sarrick and Arivant, we were litter mates" she said, looking back at him and frowning "I tryed to save them... thay were just... to heavy..."

Grant nodded slowly "I...I... And you blame yourself for their deaths?" He asked.

Melody began to nod 'no' but half way trough she stoped "Wait a second! Why am I talking about this to you of all creatures?! We hate each other!" She barked.

Grants eyes widened "Oh god... we... just talked about your feelings" he said with disgust.

Melody cringed "Blagh!" She cried out "Just... ew" she growled.

"Melody!" He snapped jumping over onto her couch, landing just next to her, he slapped her with his paw, grabbing her solders and shaking her vilontly "Snap out of it!"

Melody blinked a few times "Thanks" she sead before instantly regretting it.

Grant groaned and face-pawed "No, don't thank me! That is far to close into the friendship taritory for my likening!" He snarled.

"Ok, Grant! This talk never happened, capeesh?" She said.

"Agreed. And since when do you use the word 'capeesh' in a sentence?" He asked.

"Since I decided it sounds at least slightly comedic"

"So you are a comedian!" Grant smiled.

Melody scoffed "I will hurt you, little man" she hissed as she narrowed her eyes.

"There's the Melody I know and hate" he purred "Glad we're back to being not-friends!"

Melody half smiled "Likewise, not-friend" she purred "now, leave my home before I sick my Aratropi on you" she growled menacingly, narrowing her eyes paper-thin.

Grant smiled nervously "Aye, captain" he mewed as he faded into oblivion.

Melody smiled "Zephyr?" She called. A huge canine-bear hybrid known as a Aratropi trotted in. It had a short mane-like... mane-ish... a spiked fur thing thing on the back of its neck and long brown fur. This one was hers and he had a thick-ish titanium chain with a dangling tag that read 'Zephyr'. Despite their meniceing appearance, an Aratropi would never hurt a fly and were peaceful scavengers.

She gestured him over. He trotted up to her and she began to pet him "good boy" she said as she scratched behind his pointed, fluffy ears.

"Danyal?" Jaycob walked into his brothers lab. And he instantly regretted it.

In the centre of the room was an operating table, on that operating table was a male lion, or at least the front half of one, it was being stitched to the lower half of a albino female tiger.

"That's fucked up, man" he said causing his brother to look up at him "wait... no yah I'm gonna puke"

Danyal flicked his wrist, causing a garbage can to materialize in front of Jaycob, who continued to loudly do just that. But thankfully in the garbage can.

"Do you mind Jaycob?" Danny sighed "I'm trying to work"

Jaycob grunted, pulling his head away from the can, spitting out bile, blood, half digested chunks of flesh and dull shards of bloodied bone.

"Gross"

"That's rich coming from you, Frankenstein" Jay growled as he wiped his mouth, flicking the blood in the bin.

"Please, Nathan and I look nothing alike" Danyal scoffed as he continued to stitch.

Jaycob stared at him "I thought his name was Victor"

Danny looked up again, staring for few moments, he snapped his fingers, pointing at Jaycob "You mean the guy from the book! I thought you were talking about the Gralock, Nathan Frankenstein 'The Necromancer'"

Jaycob face palmed. A Gralock was a class of Shapeshifter that was born with unique powers, most notable was Chevix BlackCrow and Leviathan Poltergeist.

Danyal occupied the previously abandoned west wing Dungeons.
He cross-bred animals and sometimes surgically atached several of them together and used magic to revive them, the ones he revive lack a soul so they can't be released. He Instead breeds them, their children were born as a cross and therefore have souls. It's a whole process Jaycob didn't care to know.

"Luna wanted me to give you this" he opened his satchel and pulled out a baby Dhimoreo, a small horse-like mammal originating from the northern Amithist Mountains.

Danyal walked up to his brother, removing his blood-stained gloves and placing them on his desk "A Dhimoreo? " he asked as he took the rabbit sized foal in an arm, cradling it. A full grown Dhimoreo would be just about 37 Millimetres tall at the shoulder "What for?"

Jaycob smiled and leaned ageist the wall behind him "Happy birthday, Big Brother"

Danyal looked at the Dhimoreo he was cradling in his arm and it looked at him, whinnied and pawed his shirt with its small cloven hoof. It's whinny was high pitch but not painfully so.

"My birthday... ok, but why a Dhimoreo?" He asked, looking back at his brother.

"You said you wanted a pony" Jaycob said dismissively.

"That was over twenty eight malenia ago, I was six hundred and fourty eight" Danyal said, deadpan "and this isn't even a pony its a miniatue horse"

"So, you don't want it then?" Jaycob asked as he went to grab the small animal.

Danyal gently swatted his hand awy "Don't touch Jerome" he said firmly, moving the small horse away

"You named him Jerome?" Jaycob asked with a expression on his face that could only be described as 'seriously, dude?'.

"Yes, Sir Jerome the fifth" Danyal said with pride.

"What happened to Sir Jerome one through four?" Jaycob asked in mock interest and genuine confusion.

Danyal's eyes went blank "We don't speak of it" he growled darkly.

"Armed boobytrap eh?" Jaycob said with a sigh.

Danyal brought his free had up to his chest "'twas a dark day"

Jaycob nodded "Amen" he said, pating his brother on the back comfortingly.

Author's Note

Hellooo, sapient creatures of earth! Hope you liked it. I finely learned the difference between there and their, and it only took me, like, four months! Yay me...

I'll try to get the nex one out soon. Also, I'd love to know what you think of it so far. Sorry for spelling errors and bad grammar.

I know, I know I said Discord would be released in this chapter. I can't make any promises but that should be soon.

Sorry