It was a normal day in ponyville, the birds were cherping, the sun was shinning, the bees were buzzing. And miss Twilight Sparkle was reading one of her books inside instead of going out.

Twilight scanned the page again, memorizing each word. Her ears twitched and she tuned to her number one assistant and his own reading of a new comic he had just gotten. The tree she lived in was birightly lit by the sun so there was no need to turn on the lights in order to read.

She smiled and went back to her book, but before she could read another word there was a knock at the door. She sighed, getting up and walking to the door. She turned the knob and her jaw dropped. Standing in front of her was a ginger tiger with fiery orange stripes it also had huge, sharp horns that curled forward and looked like they could impale somepony with little more then a effortless push. But what happened next was what really scared her.

"Hello, I was told this was the home of a Miss-" he looked at the padding of his paw "- 'Twilight Sparkle'?" He looked back at her with his emerald green eyes that were literally glowing, slightly illuminating the fur around them, the pupils were slitted. She could tell it was male, mostly from the voice which was clear apart from his British accent witch was vary strange for this part of the world.

She nodded slowly, trying not to make any sudden movements "uh huh" she said dumbly.

"Oh, good" he smiled and bushed past her into her home "I've been looking for you awhile, Miss Sparkle" said the tiger. She closed the door and looked over to him.

"Uhhh..." she tried to talk but it was clear that her brain was out of order for the moment.

The tiger looked at her for a second before he brought one of his forepaws to his face "My apologies, Miss Sparkle, where are my manners. My name is Arlin ZincStrike" he smiled and held out his paw.

She cautiously took it with a hoof and shook his paw. He purred politely and placed his paw back on the ground "N-nice to... meet you?" She smiled forcefully.

"As is to you, Miss sparkle. I have been sent here by my Queen to protect and serve you" Arlin said padding over to the dragon starring at him from the couch "You must be Spike. I must admit, you look nothing like the dragons back home, thay are quadrupeds" he looked spike over for a moment as the young Drake growled at him before looking back to Twilight "Well, I will sleep down here and follow you around until I receive my next orders. But I'll stay out of you way" he purred jumping up the stairs and walking into her bed room.

Twilight looked at Spike then the door the tiger had just gone trough, her eye twitching "WHAT?!" She bellowed. Spike was fairly sure she could be heard all the way in canterlot. She was panting, eyes wild.

The tiger padded back out of her room with a confused look on his face "Something the matter, Miss Sparkle?" Arlin asked, tilting his head "Oh dear, you look like rubbish. Do you want some water or something? I can go get you some chips from that restraint I saw on the way here" he said, concerned. He padded down the stars.

Twilight growled "Stop! Dear Celestia, next thing I know you'll be asking me if I want tea!" She spat "What do you want?!" She huffed.

Arlin's eyes flashed with a bright green glow "Calm down, dear. As I said I'm here to protect you, Miss Sparkle. Now how about that tea? You seem like you could use a cup" he said, walking over to the kitchen.

Twilight took a deep breath "Sorry, Arlin... Where are you from?" She asked, sitting on the floor with a thud.

Arlin walked back into the room with a smile "I come from a land called Maratie" he said with a purr of amusement "Its a nice enough place with many strange and wonderful creatures"- he brought a paw up to his chest -"my kind being one of them"- he placed his paw back on the ground -"You see, my dear, I am a Feline shapeshifter. A cat shapeshifter if you will" he said with a hint of pride.

The high-pitch whistle of the kettle sent the large tiger into the kitchen, emerging a few moments later with two cups of chi tea in one surprisingly dextrous paw "Do you like it with milk?" He asked, she nodded "Ok. One lump or two?" Arlin questioned.

"One" she said. The tiger hovered his paw over her cup, milk and a sugar cube materialized over his paw, completely controlled by the tiger. The sugar was dropped into the tea without even the smallest splash. The milk, levitating over his paw like a wave slowly drained into her tea. The tiger did the same to his cup.

Twilight gaped along with Spike at Arlin "H-how?" The young drake asked in awe "I've only ever seen Discord do something like that..."

Arlin chucked "Being a shapeshifter has its perks" he said, levitating his tea up to his lips and taking a sip.

"I see. Your species sounds interesting... I would love to learn more about you. If that's okay with you, that is" Twilight said.

Arlin put down his tea "Your wish is my command, Miss Sparkle" he bowed.

"Grate! Fist things first, what's that necklace of yours for?" She asked, taking a sip of her tea and pointing to the pendant around the ginger tigers neck, it was silver and circle, half of it was half the face of a lion and the other was half the face of a wolf. It had the black engraving of five runes.

Arlin smiled "My allegiance pendant. I was born in the kingdom ruled by the lion, King SolerEclipse but was relocated to the kingdom ruled by the wolf, Queen LunerFlight. The runes spell my name, Arlin" he said.

Twilight nodded "fascinating…"

"Quite. But I'm afraid I must retire, it was a long journey here" Arlin said, downing the rest of his tea and walking over to a warm corner of the library.

Twilight tilted her head "don't you want a bed or something?" she asked.

Arlin shook his head "No I don't want to impose. besides, I'm quite content sleeping on the floor" he said, yawning and drifting into sleep.

Twilight shrugged and continued to read her book.

Phoenix groaned. He was bored out of his mind.

Griffin, taking a page out of his brothers book, growled.

Phoenix sat up on his bed. They were currently locked in their chambers as they shared a room.

Griffin sat up on his bed. The two beds were on opposite sides of the room.

Phoenix looked his brother over "You're bored to?" He asked.

His other half just nodded sluggishly.

"Maybe we should find another hobby?" He suggested.

Griffin tilted his head "What do you mean?" He asked.

"I mean we should stop torturing and killing the staff. Let's get a job that appeals to our need to hurt people but doesn't get us in trouble" he said with a grin.

"I don't follow" Griffin said in confusion.

"Let's put it this way... I hear auntie Luna is in need of some 'persuasive interrogators'" Phoenix said.

Griffin's eyes widened in understanding "Ohh... We get paid to torture people?" he said with a gleeful smile.

"Bingo" Phoenix said with an evil smile.

Author's Note

I know, I know "Why in the name of hell would Twilight be just fine letting a talking, magic tiger just sleep in her home?!" I'll explain later but for now you just have to accept 'because plot'

I apologize for any spelling errors. Other then that, I hope you enjoyed, have a nice day.