The meeting in the throneroom was a tense and unhappy one. It had been a long, terrible night, with rescue crews, repair workers, and salvage teams scrambling to stabilize the badly shaken castle and the no-less badly shaken populace. Early morning light was even now pouring through the open doorways and windows. The Princesses, the six Bearers, the Captains of the Day and Night Guard, and a handful of others were gathered around the thrones. Everyone was battered, disheveled, nursing various injuries, and more than one was rather drenched. Celestia sighed as she regarded the assembly, poking absently at her scratched and chipped horn with one hoof. It was going to be absolute murder getting it buffed back down to a smooth finish... "how go the repairs to the castle?" she asked.

One of the ponies-- a worker in overalls and a hardhat-- saluted awkwardly. "Everything's stable now. We dropped pylons down into the lake bed to stabilize the foundation, and the walls and structural supports have been magically reinforced and are being repaired as we speak. The basements, cellars and maintenance tunnels are a loss I'm afraid, but the water only comes halfway up the first floor--- perhaps if we install some pumps, we--"

Celestia waved a hoof in negation. "Just... move everything on the first floor up to the second," she said. "We'll use the first floor as a pool. Or a fishery. Or something."

"Or as a guest suite for the sea ponies," Cadence suggested optimistically. She wilted under Celestia and Luna's gaze. "aheh."

Celestia grunted. "Injuries? Casualties?"

A guard in badly dented armor stepped up and saluted. His hooves squished slightly in the sodden red carpet. (The backwash from their splashdown had crested rather high.) "No fatalities, thank the Maker," he said. "Though we had quite a number of near-drownings from the water surge and when the cellars flooded. Got everypony out, thank goodness. But there have been injuries in the hundreds, ranging from minor fractures on up. Nothing immediately life threatening, but the hospitals are overwhelmed."

"Open the royal coffers to them, give them whatever they need," Celestia said. "Send word to the neighboring towns and cities to send whatever medical professionals they can spare."

"And what of damage to the city and its dwellings?" Luna asked.

A harried looking official with a clipboard spoke up. "Well, your Highnesses, The city itself is still up on the mountainside. A few buildings built up against the castle walls were damaged, but otherwise we got off easily. The castle was sliced out of the mountainside neat as a whistle-- thanks to your magics, of course," he said, bobbing his head to the four. "A lot of houses around the lakeshore were flooded by the splashdown, but damage is fairly minimal. Some broken windows, sodden furniture, that sort of thing... workers are sinking support roots, I suppose the word is, into the mountainside, to restabilize everything. There is some debate among the nobles as to whether they should have their mansions moved down to the, er, new locale, but it's mostly scuttlebutt at the moment--"

"Thank you. That will be all." The pony bowed and scurried off. "And see about getting a bridge built to shore," Celestia called after him. "Or lengthening the drawbridge-- or something! Ugh." She flopped back on her throne cushions and blew her bedraggled mane out of her face. She realized that her little ponies were staring at her. "I'm sorry, my little ponies," she said, "I am just all out of serene and majestic today. What a debacle."

"What are your orders concerning...him?" the Captain of the Guard said cautiously.

"What word from those pursuing him?" Luna interrupted, before Celestia could respond. Celestia gave her an odd look but said nothing.

"Nothing worthwhile," the Captain grunted. "The beggar threw them off with a mass of clouds over the Everfree. They didn't fly clear till just before dawn; they found the royal airship floating adrift, with no sign of Darth Vulcan and his crew. There's no telling when they abandoned ship or where." He looked to Celestia. "Shall we continue our search pattern?"

Luna shook her head. "Nay," she said, cutting Celestia off. "Bring thy soldiers in; return to thy posts in Ponyville and thy regular patrols."

Celestia blinked. That's twice, she thought. She felt unaccountably miffed. She put the feeling aside as petty and addressed Luna instead. "Really? Why would you wish to halt pursuit, sister?"

Luna snorted. "Because it would provoke him," she said. "And he hath demonstrated a perfect willingness to elicit-- what did thy generals call it?-- 'collateral damage.' He would think naught of, say, unleashing another chaos-driven thunderstorm on the countryside merely because the sight of thy guards irked him."

Celestia nodded unhappily. "True enough. What do you propose instead?"

Luna touched the tip of her nose with her tongue... a gesture from her foalhood Celestia recognized; one Luna used when the lunar princess was feeling unusually thoughtful or introspective. "Let us ponder that for a little, sister," she said. "I have... an inkling of an idea, but would rather hear more before setting it out." She looked brooding suddenly. "Methinks we have made enough rash decisions with this creature."

There was a sort of universal muttering of assent... and a bit of flustered sulking on the part of Rainbow Dash. "I thought we were past blaming me for everything--" she grumbled, crossing her forelegs and hunching her shoulders.

"We weren't talking about you, Dash," Twilight said with a longsuffering air. "Besides, even if you did jump him without provocation--"

"Hey--"

"--even if, I said-- he's responsible for his own actions ever since."

"So," Celestia said, "That brings us to the point. What have we learned about Darth Vulcan? What sort of creature is he?"

For the edification of those present, Celestia and Luna had cast glamours that had played back their interrogation of the angry warlock. It had been enlightening for many, and shocking for more than a few.

"He's very angry, for one," Cadence said dryly. "Incredibly easy to provoke, too."

"Ain't that the truth," Applejack said. "And mean as a rattlesnake with a toothache if he thinks he's been wronged."

"Rude and loutish," Rarity huffed. "And foul mouthed."

"Temperamental," Luna chipped in. "Paranoid.... Resentful." She looked away, eyes half-lidded."Angry at the world."

"Egotistical," Twilight said. "In the extreme. Moody and arrogant. Sarcastic and contemptuous."

"So how is he kicking our butts?" Spike said bluntly. Twilight shushed him, but Luna chuckled and replied. "Give even a dullard enough power, and they will prevail," Luna noted. "And while he is tempestuous, he is not exactly a dullard. Though how much of his skill, and powers, and cunning are his own, and not granted by the Amulet, we cannot say for sure."

"More than enough, I think," Fluttershy said. She blushed when she realized she'd spoken up and hid behind the curtain of her hair. "Um, I mean..." she pawed the ground as she spoke. "One thing I know from caring for animals is that they have claws and fangs and scales and quills and poison barbs for a reason. You showed us him telling his story... and you heard him describing the world he comes from. It's a horrible place, with war and crime and violence and all sorts of awful things in it...."

"We're not exactly living in a nursery ourselves, Fluttershy dear," Rarity said.

"Compared to his world, we are," Fluttershy said.

"Strewth, he said it himself," Luna said. "I looked in upon his dreams from the outside, listened to his words. He sees us as... naive infants. No, worse than that-- as if we were... plush toys, created to entertain naive infants."

"Heck, Equestria's pretty plush even compared to other parts of this world," Spike said. "Those dragon dorks were all sneering about 'namby pamby pony princesses' the whole time I was in the migration with them."

"It's a common mistake among the rough and cruel to mistake kindness for weakness, Spike," Celestia said. "I think it escapes some people's attention that in a world full of dragons, hydras, minotaurs and gryphons, one does not oversee a millennium of peace by being weak."

Celestia sighed. " Even disregarding his power, he regards us with condescension. When the Knights of the Elements challenged him, he looked upon them with genuine amusement-- as if a foal dressed in his father's armor had challenged him to battle." A corner of her mouth quirked up. "I think he's modified that stance a touch once our dear Twilight blasted him the length of the village square... but he still regards us all as rather soft and naive, if not the pushovers he imagined."

"Compared to him, we are," Luna muttered broodily.  "Though biased, he was not entirely incorrect-- seeing how swiftly he swept our guards aside when he escaped. For all the monsters in our woods and the enemies on our borders, Equestria hath lived in a time of peace and innocence for a thousand years unbroken. And what travails we have suffered, our magic hath swiftly mended.

"His world, he did imply, has no magic. Whatever they have made of their world, they have had to hammer with their bare... appendages.... from unwilling earth, wood and stone. And whenever calamity has befallen them, they had to rebuild everything, from the first stone to the last, bludgeoning it back into shape by blood and tears and brute force."

"No magic?" Applejack said, stunned. "No wonder he flipped out when we used the Elements of Harmony on him."

"Or when he found I had walked into his dreams," Luna added. "Or when he learned that Twilight--"

"When he learned that I had brought along mind-changing spells to the hearing," Twilight winced.

" It must have been like finding out that somepony had been...sneaking into their room while they slept and rifling through their things." Luna said.

"Or thinking that we were going to... to cut open his skull and carve out parts of his brain," Twilight lamented. "He wouldn't have the cultural references to understand how mind spells do and do not work." Mind-altering spells couldn't fundamentally, permanently change a mind; but they could influence it.

"I can't say I approve of you using them either, Twilight," Celestia said, a trifle sternly. "Such spells should only be used by a trained and experienced doctor of the mind. And even then only carefully."

"That never stopped thee before," Luna muttered darkly. Celestia either did not hear or pretended not to.

Twilight winced but held her ground. "I only intended them as an absolute last resort," she said, defending herself. "And after what happened to Trixie Lulamoon when she wore the amulet, I thought it was better to have them at hoof and not need them, then need them and not have them."

"That would be the Great and Powerful Trixie, correct?" Celestia asked.

Twilight nodded. "She's going to therapy even now, dealing with what the Amulet did to her mind," she said.

"Yeah. She only wore the thing for like a day or two, and she was actin' a few bushels short of an orchard," Applejack said. "Goin' on about how wheels weren't trustworthy, and tryin' to make me grow apples without any peels. This Darth Vulcan fella has been wearin' it for weeks, months now. No tellin' what it's done to his mind."

"And yet... he seems coherent," Shining Armor mused. "Whoever or whatever he is, he's more resistant to the amulet's effects than this Trixie was. He's cruel, but not crazy."

"Yet," Twilight amended grimly.

"Be ye not so sure," Luna said. "He spoke, or more hinted at, voices." Her eyes were hooded. "Ones that goad him, quietly, subtly. I heard their echoes in his dreams."

"You mean the amulet has already started... making him go nuts?" Rainbow Dash said.

"I mean that the amulet has been speaking to him," Luna said.

This went over as joyfully as one might expect. "You mean the Alicorn Amulet is intelligent?" Twilight said in dismay.

"I would be inclined to think such," Luna murmured. "After I was...expelled from his dreams, defenses against my further intrusion fell in place, so that I could only observe from outside. Defenses I would judge to be beyond his own native capacity. And there was a... duality about the landscape of his mind. As if there were another there, echoing his thoughts-- or that he was echoing theirs."

"And you didn't think to mention this sooner?" Celestia said.

Luna shrugged. "I merely thought it the duality I often hear in pony's minds when they are conflicted, or introspective," she said. "When thou arguest with thyself, who art thou speaking to?"

The rest pondered that. "Please don't say that to Pinkie Pie," Twilight said. "She might implode." (The improbable party pony had wisely been excluded from the meeting and dispatched to the hospitals and temporary shelters to cheer up the colts and fillies there during the rebuild.)

"For all of his aggression, he has his soldiers' loyalty," Shining Armor noted.

"Only because he keeps them well-fed," Rarity said disdainfully.

"And you think that's a little thing, do you?" Shining Armor said, a trifle sharply. "Lady Rarity, no matter what species you are, an army marches on its stomach. And soldiers may start marching thanks to noble causes and pretty speeches by kings and queens, but it's a commanding officer who keeps them dry and warm and fed and alive that they'll follow right into Tartarus if he so much as whistles.

"Diamond dog tribes are often hanging on the edge of survival. They're not welcome in more civilized places, so they have to live in wildernesses and wastelands. They bend to the biggest, meanest 'dog around as ruler. They often get enslaved by some dragon or other creature to dig for gems-- and they think that's a good deal, because at least if you have a big nasty monster for a boss, the other big nasty monsters will leave you alone. They trade away their freedom for a hole in the ground to sleep in and whatever scraps fall from their master's table.

"This Darth Vulcan has ruled them with an iron hoof but he's also fed them off the fat of the land. OUR fat, unfortunately. But he's probably done more for them than the last five bosses they've had. Their pups go to bed with their bellies full... and that's more than enough to win their loyalty; enough loyalty for them to spend a week tunneling back and forth through solid rock just to rescue him. And I hate to admit it... but I think he earned it."

"It seems so... inconsistent, though." Twilight said. "One minute he's the next General Bucephalus, the next he's...."

"Oh let's just say it," Rarity said. "A teenage brat."

"I didn't want to be the one to say it," Twilight said uncomfortably. "but I didn't want to make any assumptions about his species' development. But... yes. His moodiness, his temper, his attitude--" her eyebrows tabled. "He's a teenager, all right. He could've walked out of the local Trot Topic. Confound it, he told us himself he was seventeen... but... I didn't want to assume anything outright."

"You're telling me that the Princesses, the Knights of Harmony, and the armed forces of Equestria and the Crystal Empire combined have gotten their flanks kicked by a half-grown colt?" Shining Armor said. His voice was rich with disbelief.

"A powerful teenager. A teenager from a world a good deal harsher than our own. But a teenager nonetheless," Celestia murmured. "So we now have an enemy with the maturity, ego and unstable hormones of a pubescent colt... and the destructive power of an alicorn at his beck and call." She shuddered.  

"Don't forget to throw in the psychotic violence and appetite for wanton destruction," Twilight snarked. "he's more like a-- a teenage dragon than a teenage pony." Next to her Spike bristled a bit. She bit her lip and resisted the urge to facehoof as she recalled that despite his still diminutive size Spike had just turned thirteen a short while ago. "Sorry, Spike. No offense..."

"Yeah, well," Spike grumbled. "Okay, yah. I can see it, with the aggression thing. He seems a little sharper than a teenage dragon, though. You remember the migration. Those guys were as thick as two planks. I sure don't see Garble and his goons pulling off this sort of stuff."

"I should have seen it myself," Luna confessed. "He is a childish and petulant mind, young and rash, far too inexperienced to even conceive of such shielding as he threw up in his mind. " She looked ashamed for a moment. "Twas my fault we lost any chance of gaining his trust. I entered his dreaming as a wrathful avenger, imagining him to be a black-hearted warlock of great experience and terrible skill, intending to smite him for his malice. I did not know till too late that he was merely a bitter, half-grown colt, lashing out at the world...for all his spitefulness, had I walked more softly-- " She shook the thought off. "Now he is convinced that we are going to try and use our magic to invade and violate his mind, to render him as infantile as he imagines ourselves."

"I don't think it was avoidable by that point," Celestia said wryly. "From the moment he was blasted with the Elements of Harmony-- and escaped unchanged-- he has been convinced of our malevolent intent.... Or the Amulet itself has persuaded him of it," she added, a shade ominously.

"But shouldn't the magic of Harmony have convinced him we were trying to help him?" Fluttershy said.

"Why would it?" Luna said brusquely.

Taken aback, the shy pegasus stuttered. "W-well because the Rainbow of Harmony is good, and... um..."

"And thou supposeth it feels pleasant to be subjected to its power, then?" Luna said sharply. She got to her hooves and stepped away from the group a few paces.  "Dost thou not remember mine own screaming when the light of Harmony purged me?"

A subtle air of horror settled over the assembly. "Princess..." Rarity said, horrified.

"We didn't know--" Fluttershy squeaked.

"Luna..." Celestia said, chastened. "Why did you never say anything?" She stood, started to approach her sister, hesitated.

"What would it have mattered?" Luna said over her shoulder dismissively. "What was done was done. Besides, it was necessary, was it not?

"But yes, for those of us who have NOT been scourged clean by the light of Harmony... it hurts. A lot. It blinds, and it burns... and it's terrifying. And it strips you, leaves your body and your mind hanging naked while it... flays away all that should not belong. And it goes on and on...." Luna shivered. "I remember coming to; this tiny, shrunken thing, nigh all my power gone, even my body dwindled, and huge, blank holes, like peeled-away scabs, in my soul. Wondering how much of me was even left..."

Celestia stepped next to her and threw a wing over her withers. Luna drew a breath. "After it's over, it's better. But it's hardly a wonder that Darth Vulcan fears what it might have done to him."

"Especially as there was no corruption within him for it to purge."

"Come again?" Twilight said.

Luna looked at them. "The Nightmare was... merged with its host. The medallion is not. He is influenced by the medallion, not possessed by it. There was nothing for the Light of Harmony to strip away. "

"That explains a lot," Twilight said grimly. "He didn't resist it-- he just didn't have anything for it to cure. The amulet, or whatever indwells it, must have retreated from the light into the medallion where the Rainbow of Harmony couldn't reach it."

"Soooo, does that make things better-- or worse?" Rainbow Dash said. "I mean, yay, he's not Nightmare Darth or anything, but doesn't that just mean he's a colossal jerk with or without the medallion?"

"It means there's a chance," Twilight said. "We might be able to reach him, to convince him to let us remove the amulet before it controls him completely."

"So how do we use all of this to our advantage?" Shining Armor said. "Cure him or not, first we have to defeat him and capture him. Does anything we know give us any kind of edge?"

"I would think that was obvious," Cadence said.

"Obvious?"

"Let's review," Cadence said with a half-smile. "What is he, first and foremost?"

"A jerk?" Rainbow Dash provided.

"A warlock?" Applejack said.

"A teenager," Cadence said. She got to her hooves and started pacing. "He's at that absolutely awful age. His glands all raging. He's moody, temperamental, emotional--"

"Horny," Shining Armor muttered. The others stared at him. He gave a half laugh. "Well come on! We all remember how it was back then. It was the pits! Your body and brain a mess, and then your glands start dragging you around-- and anything from the opposite gender could turn your brain to mashed potatoes..." his expression grew reflective. "Ugh. I wouldn't want to go through puberty again for anything. But let's point it out. He's an adolescent male and the nearest female of his species is in another universe. There's got to be a way to use that as leverage."

"Let's... stick a bookmark in that one to think about later," Celestia said. "Go on, Cadence."

Cadence rolled her eyes at her husband. "As I was saying, he's at that terrible age. Just after innocence is lost, but before he's gotten the maturity and experience to deal with it, and to move beyond it. Santa Hooves is a fake, the Tooth Breezy is a myth, and your parents turn out to be flawed, flesh and blood ponies just like everypony else. The safe innocent world of foalhood is gone-- if you don't have good parents, or family, or friends to lean on, it can make a colt or filly very cynical. Convinced that everything is a lie or a trick."

"So you're saying he's so hostile to us because we remind him of his childhood?" Twilight said incredulously.

"He did keep saying we looked like plush toys, or decorations for a little filly's bedroom," Celestia admitted.

"And that soft sweet safe world from when he was very little was all a lie," Cadence said. "Or so he's decided. So he sees our world, and he thinks it's all a lie too. Nothing could really be that... innocent."

Rainbow Dash laughed. "Us? Innocent?"

"Like Fluttershy said-- compared to his world? Yes," Cadence said. "Oh I doubt his world is really as terrible as he imagines, or at least not all bad... but I imagine it's bad enough that ours looks fairly idyllic." She frowned. "I'd wager that his home life wasn't very happy either. Did you notice how he never mentioned his home, his family, the life he lost? Don't you think that strange? Especially for somebeing stranded in another universe for weeks and weeks, away from everything he ever knew?"

"He's an angry, bitter teenager, full of pride, with a brittle, fragile ego, and completely alone-- and he doesn't know who or what to trust. He'd rather bite off his own arm than reach out to us. But if he's anything at all like our adolescents, he'll still be reaching out. Teenagers tear away from their parents and cling to their peers for that reason. It's why he bonded with the diamond dogs, and why he accepted the bond with the changeling rogues so readily-- even if he won't admit it . He won't trust us..."

"But he might trust somepony... or someone... something... unlike us," Luna said, a smile of understanding spreading on her face. Her horn lit.

"What are you doing, Luna?" Celestia said curiously.

"Summoning somepony, or rather someponies, who might be able to gain his trust," Luna said. A moment later, three batponies glided into the throne room.

The lead pony tried to hide his yawn and saluted Luna. "You summoned us, your Highness?" he said.

"I think I see where you're going with this," Celestia said with a smile. "He does seem to have a love for the gothic, doesn't he?"

Cadence nodded."Teenagers going through that phase seem to think anything dark, grim, or sinister is somehow more 'honest'," she said, making quote marks in the air with her hooves. "Um.. no offense," she said to the batponies, blushing.

One of the mares cocked an eyebrow and shrugged. "We have mirrors," she said. "We know we're right off the shelf for Nightmare Night."

"All the same, never doubt that thy kind are beautiful to me," Luna said warmly. "For now, thy darker countenance as children of the night is to our advantage." The batponies pricked their ears. "We have a mission for thee. Thou wilt be leaving thy armor behind, for thou must act as commonfolk. There is a warlock whose trust thou must win." She quickly explained the rough details of what she intended.

The lead stallion of the group was surprised, to say the least. "You want us to infiltrate Darth Vulcan's forces?"

The others stared incredulously. "Does... do you think that will even work??" Twilight said in disbelief.

"She can at least try," Celestia said. "Do not worry, my little ponies. Luna will have means to extract them from danger, if the attempt goes sour." She looked over and noted that the expression on Shining Armor's face had gone sour, as had that of her own Captain. "You do not look pleased with the plan," she noted unnecessarily.

"Trying to win his trust is all well and fine," Shining Armor said. "But I wouldn't bet my life on it working."

The current Captain of the Guard nodded. "I'm afraid I have to agree, Princess," he said. "My job is to defend Equestria's ponies from such monsters, not try to woo them. We have to be ready for when he attacks next... and we have to be ready to do whatever is necessary to stop him. And it doesn't look like zapping him with the Elements is an option any more."

Celestia looked unhappy, but nodded. "Very well," she said. "Do what you must to prepare for that-- contingency," she said.

"The question is how to predict his actions," the Captain of the Guard said. "he has proven utterly unpredictable--"

Shining Armor did what he always regarded as the wisest thing in his life; he looked to his wife. "Any suggestions, love? Any way to predict what an unscrupulous adolescent with a dragon's hoard, a small army and cosmic power at his fingertips might do next?" His tone was light but he was far less than half joking.

"Oh he has scruples, dear; he just doesn't know it," she said, her own tone just as light.

"Yeah, I can see that," Rainbow Dash interjected.

"Where d'you get that? He acts like he was raised by timberwolves," Applejack said.

Rainbow Dash crossed her arms and floated in a slow circle overhead. "Yeah, he kinda does, but... I mean..." she huffed and started over. "Look, I'm... okay, I'm not the smartest pony in this group, not by a long shot. Okay? I'm not good with words, or... explaining why I do stuff, other than "it's cool." I... kinda get that about him." At her friends' surprised looks, she went on. "I mean, look, there's stuff he believes in and stuff he won't do, no matter what, so that's ethics, right? But he doesn't even know he has them." She pointed at Twilight. "Like that thing you told me, Twi, about the guy with the thing and the dog and the bell?"

"Pavlov," Twilight said.

"Right! It's like somepony long ago taught him right and wrong about SOME stuff, at least, and taught him real good," Dash said, smacking one hoof in the other. "I mean, my Mom did the same thing to me... there's stuff I still do just automatic, like. Like brushing my teeth. You know? He's the same way. Remember how he freaked out about slaves?

"But whoever started with him, must've given up long ago. Or quit, when they got far enough that he didn't, yknow, pick his nose in public anymore. They trained him like a dog, but... they didn't teach him. So he's got , like, this loose toolbox of things he knows are right and wrong, but... no idea why. Or how they work together. He believes stuff, he just doesn't know what." She looked surprisingly melancholy for a moment.

Celestia nodded. "I believe Rainbow Dash has put her hoof on it. Very insightful, Rainbow." Rainbow Dash beamed at the unexpected praise. "Very well. It behooves us to figure out what that loose toolbox of beliefs is."

"He believes in... keeping one's word," Twilight said thoughtfully. "Most of his anger was about how Filthy Rich broke their deal..."

"He believes in payback, that's for sure," Applejack said.

"Loyalty to his men," Shining Armor said.

"He despiseth slavery," Luna noted. "It is noteworthy: he hath killed two slavers already, in the course of his misadventures, and stolen away those bound by a geas from a third-- albeit by accident, his wroth at such things brought him into conflict with them."

"Free will," Rarity said. "The sanctity of his own mind. To my recollection he's not used any mind-controlling tricks... and I'm sure that dreadful Amulet has several of them at least."

"His self esteem," Fluttershy said softly. "I... I don't know if that's a value or a virtue, but... he hates anything that insults his dignity."

"As any proud young male would," Cadence said.

"...And... look what he did to Diamond Tiara," Fluttershy went on. "She was a terrible bully and she did hurt a lot of other little filly's feelings all the time, looking down on them and stepping on them, and he was absolutely ruthless with her."

Cadence nodded. "So he hates bullies."

"Kinda hypocritical, ain't that?" Applejack said.

"Payback's a bitch, darling," Rarity said coolly, shocking her rustic friend. "One doesn't have to be a saint oneself to despise the petty and cruel. And I suspect this Darth Vulcan has suffered more than a few indignities himself-- remember, before he came here he had no magic. And there's nothing like suffering cruelty to bring out one's own mean streak."

"It brings to mind old Count Dragon's Son, from the Land Beyond the Forest," Celestia said ruefully. "Vicious old unicorn who liked to execute his enemies by skewering them on his horn. He had an obsession with chivalry... He once caught one of his nobles refusing to tip his hat to a mare in a village, said she was a 'strumpet.' " Celestia's mouth twisted. "Count Dragonson had his hat nailed to his head with an iron spike."

"My," Applejack said faintly. "Ain't history interesting."

"Suffice it to say, Darth Vulcan does have a moral code," Cadence said. "We can predict his actions. We just have to learn to use what we know of him."

"You have a lot of insights into this guy," Shining Armor said to his wife. He was obviously impressed.

"Former professional foalsitter, sweetheart," Cadence said with a smile. "Not as much experience with teenagers, but enough to be useful."

"For now, we have a course of action of our own to try. Walk with me, my night ponies. I will instruct thee on the details of thy mission..." she left the throneroom, the puzzled batponies trailing in her wake.

Shining Armor nodded, brooding over what they'd discussed about their enemy. "Whichever path we choose, we have to locate him first. He could attack at any time, or any location...."

Luna and her night guards continued on down the hallway, away from the throne room. "I am not so sure about this plan, my Princess," the stallion said. He shook his head. "Do you really think this Darth Vulcan would fall for a trick so obvious?"

Luna lowered her head. "Indeed not, dear Nightshade. But this is not a trick," she said, keeping her voice low. The three batponies looked more sober. "Thou wilt be joining his band. Thou wilt, for all intents, be leaving the service of the royal household. Thy mission is in earnest, my ponies. When thou leavest this place, thou wilt be engaging a plan that is mine, and mine own alone. Do you understand?"

The group got very quiet. Nightshade looked about discreetly. There was nopony in the hallway with them. "We are sworn to you, above all others," he said. "What would you have of us?"