The chain link fence was made of the finest Equestrian steel. It stood over fifteen feet high and was topped with coils of concertina wire on both sides. Every support pole was cut with runes that glowed faintly even in daylight, protecting against rust, wear and tear, and (considering what lay on the other side) chewing. It was magically electrified as well; every now and then one could see tiny sparks as some bug or no-see-um brushed up against the fence and promptly met its maker. A road ran alongside it on its near side, and teams of armored guards patrolled along its base every hour or so, moving between the lookout towers placed every few miles along the perimeter. It was quite an impressive looking bit of security.

Of course, thought Applejack as she watched a passing patrol from a nearby hill, the fact the trees beyond loomed hundreds of feet taller than the fence kind undermined a pony's confidence in it. It made it look like they were trying to fence in an angry bull with a length of kite string and some wishful thinking.  "Ah cain't say I mind too much, them putting alla that up between us and the Everfree," she said, finally. "It'll at least keep the timber wolves outta my mane during zap apple season. But I am kind of wondering who all's payin' for this and what my taxes are gonna look like next year." She gave Twilight Sparkle a skeptical look.

Twilight chuckled. "Actually, the Everfree perimeter fence is already covered in the national budget," she said. "You remember what happened to Cirrus Hilltop..."

Applejack looked dismayed. "Aw, now Twi, don't tell me the money that shoulda gone to rebuildin' that town went to this here fence!"

Twilight shook her head. "It's more than that, Applejack," she said. "The Cirrus Hilltop investigation was just the start. Remember that pony who threw his house at Celestia? Both of those cases revealed a whole slew of problems with the Equestrian revenue system-- both on the taxing side and on the spending side.  " She shrugged her wings. "We decided to make a virtue of a necessity, and unloaded a ton of reforms. While everypony else was doing Winter Wrap-Up, Celestia Luna and I were doing spring cleaning in the Equestrian budget." Mostly Luna and I, Twilight amended mentally. With Celestia's blessing, but still...

Applejack chuckled ruefully. "Ah kin imagine the paperwork," she said. "Better you than me. So how bad was it?"

"Ugh. It was at least three or four centuries overdue," Twilight said, her ears laid back and her eyebrows tabled. "Pretty much every city, town and village in Equestria has been featherbedding-- yes, even Ponyville," she said before Applejack could ask. "Cronyism, make-work projects, redundancies, completely unnecessary expenditures... the Crown doesn't exactly smile on the practice of hiring somepony to sit in an office and go 'darned if I know!' " when asked what his job is."

"I kinda wondered why the to-do list for Winter Wrap-Up was so much shorter this year," Applejack said with a cynical sigh.

Twilight chuckled. "Last I saw Mayor Mare she was hitting the cider, trying to figure out how to explain to her brother Gravy Train that Ponyville wouldn't be renting his snow-plows anymore." She paused and regarded the fence with heavy lidded eyes. "I wonder how many hangovers it'll take before it occurs to her that he can rent them out to the Guard to plow the perimeter road all winter...."

"D'you really think that fence will hold that Darth Vulcan feller in?" Applejack said doubtfully.

"No," Twilight said, shaking her head. "But it's not meant to. It's meant to give us a last minute warning if he leaves the Everfree. Anything that flies over, digs under or squeezes through that fence bigger than a field mouse sets off an alarm." She pulled out a map of Equestria and showed her the fence line drawn on it. She pointed again. "There will be one fenced-off road, in and out, leading to the Castle of the Pony Sisters and the Tree of Harmony. There's already a permanent garrison stationed there, protecting both.  

"Once everything is finished it will completely circle the Everfree Forest... his army of bandits won't be able to enter or exit without us knowing. We will have encampments completely surrounding him. Then, we will cordon off more and more sections of the forest every day, cutting it into sections, restricting his movements." She smirked, rolling the map up with a snap. "Then... we strike."

Applejack pursed her lips. "That's gonna take an awful lot o' time," she pointed out.

Twilight deflated a little. "Yes, it is," she said. "But Darth Vulcan isn't like our usual villain.  And it's going to take a lot of time and patience and slow, methodical planning to take him out." She let her head drop. "I think... I think we've gotten too used to having our problems easily fixed."

"Easily?" Applejack said.

"Yes, easily." Twilight raised her head and looked out over the horizon. "Think about it, Applejack. Every problem we've had, every villain we've faced, we've managed to declare victory in a matter of days, if not hours. Nightmare Moon? Chrysalis? Discord? Done and done, and home in time for dinner.  But Darth Vulcan? He's..."

"Hung in there for months, yeah," Applejack admitted.

"When we interrogated him, I found out his species has been in countless wars," Twilight went on. "Ones that went on for years, decades... there have been bloody feuds going on in parts of his world that have gone on for centuries. They do that sort of thing naturally as breathing, according to him. If one of his cities had been invaded by an army of changelings, they would have hunted the changelings down, for years if need be, till they'd crushed them out of existence.

"Us? We practically forgot the changelings existed not one day after Cadence and Shining's love-spell swept them out into the Badlands... and now Darth Vulcan has changelings under his command! If it isn't right there bucking us in the face,  we stick it in a tomb or a statue or up on the moon for a thousand years, if we do anything at all, and forget entirely about it. Out of sight, out of mind..."  She chewed her lip. "Darth Vulcan was right. We're like little foals who never grew up."

"If endin' like him is the cost of 'growin' up,' I'd rather not 'grow up' at all," Applejack said scornfully.

Twilight just looked troubled. "Maybe. But what's the cost of not growing up?"

Things were very different among the colts and fillies of Ponyville. Before Darth Vulcan, there had always been a certain predictable dynamic: a perpetual Cold War, with the Cutie Mark Crusaders at one pole, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon at the other, and all the little individuals and sub-groups in between, wavering from one side to the other as peer pressure and passions drove them.  It wasn't a good dynamic, but it had been predictable.  Now it was completely gone, and it left the colts and fillies unsettled, not sure of who was friend or foe.

Diamond Tiara had been changed after Darth Vulcan. The brash, loud, pushy, obnoxious filly with the flashy tiara and the royal hairdo was gone; It was almost like she had died. In her place was a sad-eyed little filly with a short bob-cut mane who rarely if ever spoke, and never put herself forward. Much of those first few weeks had consisted of Diamond Tiara going about town and apologizing to many of the ponies she'd hurt or been rude to in the past. It had been almost unsettling to see the change in her. More than one adult found themselves torn between relief that the aggressive little filly had finally been cowed, and guilt at feeling that way after they knew how it happened...

The change in the Cutie Mark Crusaders was even more startling. It was expected of Silver Spoon to stick by Tiara's side, but the Crusaders had closed ranks around Diamond Tiara, like a tiny herd closing protectively around one of their own. Their astonishing compassion toward their former bully had gone a long way in healing the wounded filly....still, months later, she wasn't seen anywhere in town when she wasn't in tow behind one or more of her adopted herd.

Another sight that would likely leave ponies bemused was the increasingly frequent sight of the CMC at Diamond Tiara's manor... and even more so, the sight of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon at the Cutie Mark Clubhouse. A genuine, if initially awkward, friendship was growing between the two rival groups, one that heartened many.

The former Terrible Twosome were at the CMC clubhouse even now. They were all gathered at the Cutie Mark Crusader Clubhouse. Objective? Celebrating Babs Seed's new cutie mark: a pair of beautician's scissors. Procedure? An overnight campout, featuring junk food, gossip, the latest music, cheesy movies (courtesy of Diamond Tiara's home movie projector), and, of course, makeovers, so Babs could practice her hairdressing skills. She was currently giving Twist a shampoo, massaging out the candy filly's cloud of cherry-red curls in warm soapy water, While the others sat in towels or curlers, inexpertly daubing hoof polish and makeup on each other.

And, of course, stomping the merry hell out of the Bechdel test. ".... Shining Armor," Diamond Tiara was saying as she re-braided Silver Spoon's mane. "Definitely Shining Armor."

Applebloom rolled her eyes. "He don't count," she said. "He's already married, and 'sides, ANY filly would want HIM to be their first kiss. C'mon, pick again."

"Yah, c'mon, DT," Babs said.  "Pick a colt a little closer to the can-do range."

"It'th gotta be a colt in Ponyville," Twist insisted firmly.

"Oh fine, fine." Diamond puffed out her cheeks. "Um, Rumble." There were giggles of agreement around the clubhouse; Diamond Tiara wasn't the only one to have noticed that the younger brother of Thunderlane was shaping up a lot like his older brother. "Okay, how about you, Twist?"

"That'th eathy," Twist said. she crossed her forehooves on her chest. "Truffle."

"Yah, we saw you trading cards on Hearts and Hooves day," Applebloom teased.

"Wait wait." Diamond Tiara looked up, disbelieving, from where she was re-braiding Silver Spoon's hair. "Truffle? Little round colt, fork and knife cutie mark, wears a fez while he reads the newspaper?"

"Is that what them things are called," Applebloom murmured.

"That's who you'd want to be your very first kiss?" Diamond Tiara's nose wrinkled. Twist turned pink and nodded.

"And what's wrong with that?" Applebloom demanded.

It said much that DT backed down as much as he did. "Well, fine for her," she said, scrunching her nose and looking away with a toss of her head. "I just like my colts hunky, not chunky. Okay, I mean, he's not as bad as Snips or Snails, but--- oh you're kidding me," she said, her head whipping around. "Snips and Snails?" For Silver Spoon had, when Diamond mentioned the colt's names, unmistakably cringed.

"I, well, it...." Silver Spoon stammered. "...Snails is... kind of sweet..." The other girls giggled. "He is! He's dumb, okay? But he always tries to be nice. He holds open doors for me and says nice things and offers to carry my books..." She looked away. " He's always been nice to me! Even-- even though we're... not very nice to him." She looked shamefaced.

Diamond Tiara tucked her forehooves under herself and bit her lip in reflection."...Yyyyeah," she said. Her memories flew back to dozens of little run-ins she and Silver Spoon had with the 'dorktacular duo.' Snails didn't seem to care how often she or Silver Spoon snubbed him; he'd be back there again next morning with a goofy smile, telling Silver Spoon she was pretty and asking how her day was--  She was feeling a little ashamed of it herself, if she was honest with herself.  "You're right," she confessed. "I don't think Snails has a mean bone in his body."

"Maybe you should give him a chance," Applebloom said. "Or at least be less mean to him..."

Silver Spoon winced again. Diamond Tiara wasn't the only one who'd had a few band-aids painfully pulled away from her ego these past few months. "Maybe," she admitted. She blushed a bit, fiddling with her half-completed braid.

Sweetiebelle  primped at her enormous beehive of curlers . "But shouldn't somepony give Snips a chance, too?" she squeaked. The others grimaced. "Oh come on!" Sweetie said, slapping her hoof. "Fair's fair, you know."

"Yeah, but who would YOU see with Snips?" Scootaloo said. They all had to stop and painfully ponder that one.

"What about Babs?" Twist said suddenly.

"Why me?" Babs said, alarmed.

"Well you have the same cutie markth..." Twist said.

"That ain't no reason!" Babs protested.

"Sure it is! Mr. and Mrs. Cake both have cake cutie marks," Sweetiebelle said. She nodded firmly, confident of her unassailable logic. "Now that you moved to Ponyville, maybe you and he could hang out--"

"I'm Aloe and Lotus' apprentice trainee as a beautician. Snips' dad is a barber. Not. Happenin'." She scowled, daring anypony to compare the illustrious beautician master race to the lowly barber peons.

"Well, whatever colt I'm with has gotta be cool. Why are all the colts in this town weird?" Scootaloo lamented.

"Button Mash is not weird!" Sweetiebelle said, hopping to her feet angrily--- then blushing madly as she realized what she'd said.

Applebloom deadpanned. "Last week in art class he covered himself in glue, rolled through the craft materials and ran around yelling that he was a Katamari Damashi."

Sweetiebelle hunkered back down. "Okay he's weird." She mumbled. She gave everyone a defiant look. "But he's still sweet!"

"Calm down, we know y'all are sweet on each other," Applebloom chuckled, running a brush through her mane. "I swear, you two are even cutesier pootsier than Dinky and Pipsqueak." The fillies all giggled. "But yeah... the colts around here do tend to get strange. Like that one with the orange mane who drools all the time? Or the one with the tubs of jelly?"

"Well, like Twilight says," someone said from the trapdoor. "'The odds are good, but the goods are odd.' Heh." Spike appeared in the trapdoor, holding a heavily laden tray. "Nachos are up, ladies!" The nearest foals fell on the platter with a will, sing-songing thank yous to the dragonling.

Among the changes the grownups in town had instituted was that foals were no longer allowed out and about without chaperones.  In the case of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, they were fortunate enough to have Spike to tag along. More than one parent breathed a sigh of relief that he had taken the task in claw; despite being only a dragonling he was strong, tough, armored with fireproof scales and armed with claws and teeth that could crush rock and flaming breath. There were bank vaults that weren't as safe as the colts and fillies under Spike's easygoing watch. At the moment he was playing chaperone for the sleepover: camping out below the treehouse in his own little tent, keeping an eye out for trouble... and coincidentally making himself handy making and fetching snacks.

"Hey, Applebloom, we haven't heard who you'd like to be your first kiss..." Sweetiebelle said.

"Not too many options left," the farm filly replied around a mouthful of guacamole.

Sweetiebelle got a sly look on her face. "Well there's always Spike..."

Applebloom choked and sprayed nacho crumbs. Spike did some spluttering too. "Hey, leave me outta this!" he said. He shot a look around as if expecting Rarity to be standing there listening in.

The others started laughing at his appalled expression. Even Applebloom started giggling, too. "Aww," she said, leaning in and batting her lashes at him. "And here ah thought you could be mah sweet baboo..."

"I am not your sweet baboo!!!"  Spike half-shouted before collecting himself. He glared at the circle of giggling fillies and stomped to the trapdoor. "That's it, I'm outta here..."

They waited till he had descended out of sight ."Alas, a love that was never meant to be," Sweetiebelle sighed dramatically. The others lost it.

"Shouldn't you all be talking nonstop about cutie marks like always?" Spike shouted from below.

They snickered at that. Babs gave a sort of wry grin as she did Twist's damp mane up in curlers. "...Kinduva awkward subject, right now," she said, regarding her own brand-new cutie mark over her shoulder.

"Why?" Silver Spoon said naively.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes up to her foil-wrapped mane (dye job... she wanted some cool lightning bolt highlites.) " Oh, I dunno why us blank flanks would feel awkward talking about that around certain someponies..."

Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara both flushed. "We said we were sorry," Tiara said, pooching her lip out a little.

Babs blushed a little too. "No, not dat. I mean, I'm not exactly guilt free about dat, myself," she said. "I meant... well, now that I got my cutie mark, I... guess I ain't a Cutie Mark Crusader no more, am I."

"Oh. Oh yeah, right," Applebloom said. "That's right, isn't it?" She and the other 'blank flanks' in the room looked a little downcast.

Then Diamond Tiara let out a snort. "Are you kidding? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of!" The others looked up at her in surprise, and a little annoyance.

"Diamond..." Silver hissed unhappily.

Diamond Tiara waved her off. "Sorry, sorry," she huffed. "--- but-- it is!" she insisted. "You're going to throw Babs out of the Cutie Mark Crusaders because she finally crusaded her Cutie Mark? That's crazy! It's like.. like..." she fished for a metaphor. "Like throwing somepony out of the Wonderbolts for doing a Sonic Rainboom!" Scootaloo, at least, seemed to get it.

"But now that she's got her Cutie Mark, she can't cruthade for it anymore," Twist protested.

Diamond shook her head firmly. "So what? You don't fire your best talent when they can't work on the floor any more, you promote them," she recited authoritatively. "Put them in charge of teaching others how to do what they did! So what if Babs can't get her own Cutie Mark anymore... who in Equestria would be better at showing you how to get your Cutie Mark than somepony who just got theirs?"

The Crusaders mulled that over. "YYYeah, I guess she's right," Sweetiebelle said. "The Cutie Mark Crusaders isn't just about getting our own cutie marks, it's about helping each other get them." She held up a hoof. "I propose that from now on, any pony can be in the Cutie Mark Crusaders, so long as they're willing to help anypony else earn their Cutie Marks!"

"Seconded!" Scootaloo said, holding up a hoof.

"And that makes it unanimous!" Applebloom said.

Babs was all smiles. "Cool, so I'm still in the club?"

"Well somepony has to handle the Manehattan branch," Applebloom said. "Sure can't be one of us."

"...thanks, Diamond," Babs started to say.

Diamond just turned red and looked away. "It's-- it's just common sense, don't read anything into it," she huffed. Still there was a hint of a smile on her face.

"So what's the story with your cutie marks?" Sweetiebelle said, pointing at Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara.

"Y'know, all this time an' I never heard what your cutie marks are for," Applebloom said.

"I always just thought it meant they were rich," Scootaloo confessed.

"No. That's my dad's thing," Diamond Tiara said. "He's aces at making money and profit and making businesses grow-- um, or he was before..." she finished quietly.  Things had been rough since Filthy Rich's run in with Darth Vulcan. Filthy Rich's businesses were suffering; quite a few ponies still blamed him for angering the evil warlock and refused to shop at his stores. Other business ponies, suspicious of the pony who had allegedly had 'financial dealings' with the warlock, were leery of doing business with him...and Mr. Rich had lost a lot of the edge he'd used to have. They were far from poor, but for the first time in her life Diamond Tiara was seeing signs that the lifestyle she was so accustomed to could just disappear... and it frightened her.

"Well, mine is for having excellent taste in food," Silver Spoon said, preening a little. Diamond Tiara felt a little relief at the topic being deflected.

"Really?" Babs cocked an eyebrow. "You're good at tasting stuff?"

"She is," Diamond Tiara said. "She can taste a spoonful of soup and tell you all the ingredients, and how much salt and pepper it needed."

"Our family chef says I could be a great food critic or a restaurant manager or a cordon bleu." Silver Spoon said proudly.

Applebloom gave her a look. "Ah'm gonna test you on that when ah get my hooves on some o' Granny's apple fritters," she said skeptically. "Okay, so what about yours, Diamond?"

To everyone's surprise Diamond Tiara actually looked... embarrassed. "It's nothing," she mumbled.

Everyone present gawked at her. After an incredibly long, awkward silence, Applebloom finally spoke. "Whut?" she said.

"I don't really wanna talk about it..." Tiara mumbled louder.

Applebloom's jaw nearly hit the floor. She got to her hooves, pulling her tail out from under Bab's brush, and walked over to where Diamond Tiara lay cringing. Her eye was twitching.

"After all this time," she said, unbelieving.

"After all that teasin', and hecklin', and bullyin', and makin' fun o' me an' the girls cuz we didn't have our cutie marks, an' all that buffalo brownies about how special an' wonderful you thought you were 'cause you had yours--- and now you don't wanna talk about it? Oh that is IT!" She threw a foreleg around Diamond Tiara's neck in a mock hammerlock and began noogying her for all she was worth. Diamond squealed and wriggled like a worm.

"Hey hey hey!" Babs complained. "I spent half an hour on that 'do!"

"Talk! Talk! We have ways to make you talk, so TALK!!"

"AAagh! All right all right! I got it--- I got it playing a board game!!" The answer surprised Applebloom so much she let her go. Diamond Tiara rolled away and began fussing with her mane. "my bob-cut," she whined.

"A board game??" the other fillies present all said in disbelief.

"What. The HAY. Does a sparkly tiara. Have to do with a board game?" Scootaloo said.

Diamond Tiara huffed and waved a hoof. "It's not just a board game," she said. "It's 'the Princess Gala Game.' "

"'The Princess Gala Game?' " everypony repeated.

"It's a game where you try to... ugh, it would take too long to explain...."

Silver Spoon brightened up. "It's okay, I brought it!" She hopped to her hooves and trotted over to her saddlebags. A bit of digging and she pulled out a large game box and a rulebook. "I was... kind of hoping you'd all want to play," she said, blushing a little. "It used to be Diamond Tiara's and my favorite game ages ago."

The others started shuffling through the box and the rulebook. There was a large board, playing pieces, several kinds of cards, scoresheets, toy money, and a toy tiara made of plastic. "Wow, this looks... really complicated," Applebloom muttered.

Diamond Tiara had perked up considerably since the game had come out. "It's really simple once you get into it," she said. "The idea is, all the players are Princesses, see? And you're competing with each other to host the Grand Galloping Gala. The pony who gets the most points wins-- and gets to wear the tiara, ta da," she said, putting the toy tiara on her own mane and primping for a moment. "One day Daddy had a bunch of his rich friends over. Their daughters came along, and I had to entertain them, so me and Silver Spoon set up the game. We played for hours... and after the third time I won the tiara and put it on--" she pointed to the matching crown on her flank.

"Tho how do you play?" Twist said, leaning over the game, her towel turban wobbling dangerously.

Diamond Tiara started arranging the board and the pieces. "Okay, you get to host the Gala if you get the most points. There are three kinds of points you can earn: for being rich, for being famous, and for being powerful...."

They soon found themselves hock-deep in a round of the game. Had Darth Vulcan been observing, he would have compared the game to a mish-mash of Monopoly, Life, Risk, and quite possibly Cards against Humanity. What looked on the surface like a fluffy, "mystery date" style girly board game was in truth more akin to A Game of Thrones, with only slightly fewer beheadings and burst eyeballs. You had a little kingdom to maintain to make you wealthy, and you had to win points for your social-fu not just from the board but from the other players. And winning the right to wear the tiara and host the Gala was only the start; how everyone played the gala helped decide where they started out relative to each other in the very next round.

And Diamond Tiara was an absolute shark at it. Four rounds in and she was still wearing the toy tiara. Scootaloo finally threw her cards down in frustration. "I give up," she snapped. "No matter what I do I can't get enough points!"

Diamond Tiara shrugged. "It's 'cause you do everything Rainbow Dash style," she said. "You focus all your attention on doing stuff that'll make you famous, but you don't pay any attention to forming alliances or to your budget--- you're broke and nopony wants to do anything for you," she explained.

"Applebloom, on the other hand, she pays all sort of attention to making her kingdom grow, but nopony knows her name. And Sweetiebelle... well, she makes lots and lots of friends, but it's so easy to come in behind her and turn her alliances against her or buy them away."

"It's just a fluke," Scootaloo fumed. She picked up her board piece and glared at it, then picked up her cards and glared at them. "She just knows all the rules better than us."

Silver Spoon shook her head. "No, she's always been like this," she said. "anything with strategy. Board games, card games, chess and checkers..." she dimpled and giggled. "Remember that time you beat your father's army friend at a tabletop wargame?"

Diamond Tiara's eyes went wide at the memory. "Old General Blowhard?" She snickered. "He couldn't believe he'd been beaten by a little filly!" she snickered. "Of course that was what made it so easy...." she opened her eyes as wide as they could go and fluttered her lashes. "Oh my oh me, Mister General sir, I don't stand a chance,  I'm just a little girl, la la la..." They all had a belly laugh at that one.

"He FELL for that?" Twist hooted.

"Hook, line, sinker, and half the fishing pole," Diamond Tiara giggled. "He nearly bit his corncob pipe in half!"

"I'm startin' to see how you managed to stay the most popular filly in school for so long," Applebloom said, half in amusement, half in disgust.

Diamond Tiara smiled a little wanly. "Yeah. It's easy... if all you care about is having a crown."

Applebloom bit her lip. She finally ventured the question that had been preying on her ever since Diamond Tiara's cuteceneara. "Diamond.... why did you do it, anyway?" she asked. "Why'd you, why'd you pick on me an' Sweetie and Scootaloo all this time about our cutie marks?"

The smiles died. Diamond hung her head, face burning. "Because you were there," she said. "I was always... rotten. I always figured..."

"You figured the only way to stay on top, was ta kick somepony else back down to the bottom once in a while. Right?" Babs said, smiling abashedly.  Silver Spoon winced, too. Diamond Tiara had been a bully, but she and Babs were in their own way worse; they'd been bullies just to curry favor with a bully. There was more than enough guilt about past sins to go around the room, it seemed.

Diamond Tiara nodded. "There's no real reason anypony starts bullying, Applebloom," she said. "Other than they do it and it makes them feel good to-- to make other ponies hurt. You were there, you were a blank flank, and Cheerilee was talking about cutie marks, and--" she shrugged. "Everything else was just an excuse."

"The funny thing was, well not ha-ha funny, but... if it hadn't been for how it all went down at the cuteceneara, Silver Spoon and I would have probably forgot all about you in a couple of days." The corner of Tiara's mouth curled wryly. "But then we picked on you three at the party... and the next thing we know everypony at my cuteceneara was eating right out of your hoof. We.. I... got obsessed."

"Kind of. A lot," Silver Spoon admitted.

"I saw what you did at the party and I just knew that you three could be the most popular fillies in Ponyville.  I mean, you coulda mopped the floor with me and Silver Spoon, popularity-wise. You still could, even now, if you just half tried. Especially you, Applebloom. Your family is everywhere, you host all those parties and special events-- the Sisterhooves Social, Cider Season--- and everypony you meet seems to like you.... you would've been the most popular filly in school. And if you were the most popular filly in school, where'd that leave me?" Diamond Tiara looked shamefaced, poking at a stray nacho that had fallen to the floor.

"I think everypony's got other thtuff on their minds right now," Twist said. She was leaning on the windowframe, looking out over the orchard. The light was fading, but the new border fence girding the Everfree and its watchtowers was still visible in the darkling light.

Silver Spoon shivered. "Don't remind us," she said. "Can we please talk about anything but Darth Vulcan?"

The others nodded. Babs shook her head. "Dunno, Silvie," she said. "I tink we're better off talkin' about him and gettin' it outta our systems, than sittin' here shakin' and afraid to say anything." She looked at Diamond. "That's what bullies want; Everypony to be too scared to say anything behind their backs."

"This guy's a lot more than a bully, Babs," Diamond said fearfully.  "He's a lot meaner than that."

"Diamond? Can I ask something?" Sweetie said. She was laboriously trying to undo the curlers in her mane. "I mean, why couldn't you get away? His gang is just a bunch of Diamond Dogs, and even Rarity got away from them once. I mean, they're really cowardly and really really stupid..."

"He didn't just have Diamond Dogs, Sweetie," Diamond Tiara said. "And these dogs weren't like those. The ones that kidnapped Rarity were just bullies and dum-dums. If they'd tried to do anything but boss her around, Lady Rarity could have messed them up."

Sweetiebelle cocked a skeptical eyebrow. "My sister?"

Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes impatiently. "Don't you watch what your sister does? I did, when I got my cuteceneara dress fitted. She made razor-sharp scissors and needles and junk fly around her head in a cloud. She didn't even have to look at what she was doing! If those Diamond Dogs had tried to get rough with her-- ew. I mean, don't you remember that movie we watched, 'Kiss of the Spider Mare?' Remember what she did to that one stallion with just a hat pin?' " The fillies present all cringed; one of the side benefits of having DT and Silver Spoon in the herd had been access to (ahem) contraband, such as certain forbidden movies. The aforementioned movie had been rather... graphic in what a vengeful mare with telekinesis could do with a needle and thread.

Sweetiebelle buried her face in her forelegs. "Great, I'm never gonna get to sleep tonight now..."

"Sorry," Diamond said. "But it's true. Those diamond dogs were weenies."

"Weenie dogs," Scootaloo quipped. The girls giggled at the bad joke.

"These guys aren't. I tried to escape. I did. I tried every trick I heard Rarity used. It... it just got me punished." She swallowed, ill at the memory. "Then I tried other things...faking sick, picking the lock on my chain, everything. There were just too many dogs watching. And they weren't falling for anything I tried. I even tried hiding behind a door and breaking a jug over somepony's head like in Daring Do." She grimaced. "It was Darth Vulcan... and he was still wearing his helmet.

"He didn't even care. He sat me down and told me what I did wrong. Then he chained me back up and punished me again." She shook her head again. "This guy isn't like you think. He's not clowny like Discord or loud and noisy like Nightmare Moon or wacky crazy like the Mane-iac or Ahuizotl.   He's smart. and cold. and hard. He's always thinking, always making plans. And he's scarier than anything I've ever seen."  She was shivering anew. Sweetie and Silver Spoon huddled up beside her, shivering a little themselves.

"You don't gotta be afraid no more, Diamond," Applebloom said. "The Princesses and the Elements of Harmony will fix his wagon!" She pointed out the window at the steel fence. "They're gonna fence him in and round him up. See?"

Diamond Tiara shook her head. "Do you really think that dumb fence and those dumb guards are gonna stop him?" she said. "He's not a pack of gophers, Applebloom." She glared at the fence. "It's stupid. You know what it's gonna do? It's gonna make him mad."

"So what, you think he'll smash it down?" Scootaloo said.

Diamond Tiara shook her head. "No. He's too proud. Putting a fence around him like he was a herd of sheep, he's going to be insulted. He'll find a way around that fence like it wasn't even there, just to make a point.

"He'll bribe somepony to open the front gate for him, just so he can walk in and out right under the Princess' noses. Then he'll make himself a magic portal or something, so that he doesn't even have to look at the fence.  Just to show the Princesses that they can't stop him. Then he'll take revenge on whoever decided to build the fence, for insulting him..." her eyes were grim.

"Is that what you'd do?" Scootaloo said, a trifle scathingly.

"If I was an Evil Overlord, yes," Diamond Tiara shot back. "Or at least, if I was him."

Silence fell over the treehouse as the fillies brooded over that thought. An odd glint suddenly filled Scootaloo's eye. "Say, Diamond Tiara," she said. "You say that you know what Dork Vulcan is gonna do next?"

Diamond Tiara had been around the CMC long enough to recognize that gleam and be wary of it. It usually was in Scootaloo's eye, and it usually involved cutie mark crusades with the highest probability of grievous bodily injury. "Yeah! Well, I can guess pretty good," she said cautiously.

"Sooooo.... If you were in charge of stuff.... how would you go about beating him?"

"Well, I can think of a lot of things," Diamond Tiara said, "and none of 'em involve building a big fence around him."

This caught the others' interest. "Scoot, what're you up to?" Applebloom said.

"New party game, everypony!" Scootaloo said. "Everypony get out some paper and something to write with. Each pony has to write down what they think Darth Vulcan is gonna do next, and they have to come up with an idea how to beat him. The best idea is the winner." She snatched the toy tiara off Diamond's head. "And gets to wear the fancy princess hat all day at our next sleepover."

Applebloom gave Diamond Tiara a sidelong glance and leaned over to Scootaloo. "Are you sure that's a good idea, Scootaloo?" she murmured. "I mean, it might open up old wounds for DT..."

Scootaloo shrugged. "Hey, it's better than sitting around all night thinking about how scary he is," she said. "And who knows, maybe we'll come up with an idea that'll thwart the villain and save the day, or something."

"Doubtful," Sweetiebelle deadpanned. "Unless thwarting him involves getting him covered in tree sap."

"Why does that happen to youse guys so much?" Babs commented.

"We hang out in a treehouse in the middle of an orchard," Applebloom pointed out. "It kind of comes with the territory."

"But who gets to judge?" Twist asked.

"That's easy-- Princess Twilight!" Sweetiebelle squeaked."She's really nice, I'm sure she won't mind judging which one's the winner."

"Cool. So pass out the paper and pencils already!" Scootaloo said. for the next half hour, pencils and paper flew. More than a few collaborated, whispering ideas to one another. When they were done, Scootaloo gathered up the surprisingly large stack of paper and stuffed it into a manila envelope. "Now to get this to Princess Twilight," she said.

"So, Applebloom," Babs snickered, kicking the trapdoor open. "Think you can sweet-talk your boyfriend into mailin' a letter to the Princess for us?"

Applebloom snickered and leaned out over the open trapdoor. "Ohh Spiiiike," she sinsonged.

"I'm not your boyfriend!!"

Zecora muttered to herself as she swept out her new shopfront. She was in a foul mood. Oh she knew she should be more grateful; after all, the little shack had been given to her basically for free by the Princesses, due to her status as a refugee from her home in the Everfree. They were even waiving the first year's property taxes, just to make the transition easier. But oh, how it rankled that she needed the help at all!

"An' bein on da Ponyville tax rolls now ain't exactly makin' me smile at-tall," she grumbled as she pushed the broom around. "Buncha crazy no-stripes got taxes tru de roof. Small wonder wit all de monsters and disastuhs dat roll tru this village every udda week, and now dey got dat huge fence and those soldiers marching and that road and those watchtowers, the mayor gon' use dat as an excuse to rack de taxes up tru the roof, just you wait and see!" She gave a snort. "At least in de Everfree I only had to worry about a cragodile or a manticore biting mah ass awff...."

"Awww, c'mon Zecora, it's not that bad! " Pinkie Pie said as she set a row of bottles and beakers out on a worktable. Zecora had just received a shipment of new equipment for her potion work, and Pinkie was making herself neighborly by helping her set it all up. In Pinkie's opinion the kitchen full of glassware and pipes and stuff wasn't nearly as cool and spooky as the hollow tree with the gourd bottles and clay pots everywhere... at least Zecora still had her big bubbly cauldron, even if it was sitting on a gas burner instead of a wood fire. "You've got a shiny new kitchen to work in, and now you don't have to walk all that way into town to do your shopping, and you don't have to worry about taxes going up because the whole town has to vote on those and Mayor Mare once told me that they'd hang her in Effigy if she ever tried. I dunno where Effigy is, but I think Mayor Mare better stay away from there anyway..."

Zecora chuffed ruefully. "Oh, y'all are right, it could be a whole lot wuss," she admitted. "But things hain't exactly been goin' smooth foa me since dat crazy Vulcan showed up. Bein' right in town hain't such a good deal. Now ah gotta sneak back in to de Evahfree--- wid a permit slip from her highness Princess Purple, an' a escort o' guards, an' ain't dey about as useful as tits on a bull-- to get my potion ingredients."

She kicked a counter in passing. "Not dat nobody's buyin' no potions. Go out into de creepy forest to get a bubbly potion from de spooky ol' Zebrabwe voodoo Zebra? Why shoa nuf. And don' you fool yo'self; ponies was sneakin' out to my hut ages before Twilight came 'round here, dey just din't talk about it." She paused in sweeping and chuckled. "Probly cause half of 'em was like Mr. Cake, wantin' dat potion to get his rooster ta crow, if you know what I mean. Hah. Mister 'I swear it's foah mah cousin.' " She attacked the floor with the broom. "But buy da same stuff from a Fillydelphia zebra living on main street? Not a chance."

Pinkie rubbed her chin. "Maybe if you hung more of your spooky masks around..."

"I did. Da Mayor came by an' told me it's too early to decorate for Nightmare Night!"

"Aww. Plenty of ponies still think you're spooky..." Pinkie consoled, pushing the cauldron across the room so she could polish it.

Zecora snorted in amusement. "Da flower sisters don't count." It was something of an issue that the three most skittish ponies in Ponyville were now her next door neighbors. "You know them crazy mares open up shop the same time I do every morning, look over an' see me openin' mah shutters, scream an' faint? Every single time? One look and it's "EEEE, the HORROR" And BOOM, down they go like three fainting goats." She finished over Pinkie's gales of laughter. "It. gets. OLD."

"That's the Flower Sisters for yooOOooo," Pinkie started to say when she was suddenly interrupted. She began to vibrate violently, a full body spasm that started at her nose, worked its way down her body to her tail, then went back the other way. When it was finished she stood akimbo, eyes crossed. "Wooeeoo," she said.

Zecora watched warily. She'd been told about the pink pony's strange precognitive senses. "Your Pinkie Sense?" she asked.

Pinkie shook her mane out. "Yeah. Woo. That's one I haven't felt in a while."

"And that was?"

Pinkie stuck her head out the window and looked around, spotting a sparkling purple cloud zipping its way to the Golden Oaks library. "It means somepony's just brought in a game changer," she said.