It was going to be one of those mornings, Twilight thought blearily as she stared at the reports piled on her desk. For not the first time in her deepest of hearts she secretly, privately, almost blasphemously questioned Celestia's decision to make the wretched law that proclaimed all alicorns to be royalty.  Ascendancy? That Twilight had earned. But a crown? What sin had she committed to deserve that?

From the first day of her alicornhood she had learned that being a Princess in Equestria automatically meant that she was continually dealing either with ponies far more experienced than her deferring to her on every fool thing, or dealing with ponies who decided that since she was the youngest and most inexperienced princess, that meant she had no REAL authority and they could snub, sidestep or completely ignore her with impunity.

It was a tossup as to which group drove her up the wall more. Some days she would have merrily strangled both.

The latter problem, at least, meant that the ponies who had been snubbing Princess Luna were now snubbing her, instead. Joy of joys.  She shuffled through the piles on her desk when she caught glimpse of a small stack of papers, crudely written in a childlike scrawl. "Spike?" she said. "What is this?"

Spike came shuffling into the room, carrying a stack of yet more forms and paperwork. He looked at the papers hovering in Twilight's magical grasp. "Those are the entries from that slumber party story contest they asked you to judge," he said. "Remember?"

Twilight made a noise of comprehension and began flipping through the papers. "I forgot all about that," she said. "Did I ever pick out a winner?"

"Nope," Spike chuckled. "But no time like the present, right?"

"True. Better late than never," Twilight agreed. She started reading the 'stories' from the CMC in earnest. She did let herself get roped into it, after all, and a promise was a promise. Besides it was the perfect excuse to take an unofficial break from the all-too-official paperwork in front of her. "I'll just take my break early and do this. Oh, and Spike? Tell the Duchess GlowerBrows I reached a decision on her proposal to raise taxes to cover her proposed over-expenditures..."

"And?"

"Take a guess."

"Right." Spike dropped the forms, whipped out a quill and a blank parchment and began writing. "Dear... Duchess... GlowerBrows. When the... Appleoosa... Desert... freezes... over. Sincerely, Princess Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight chuckled as she started reading. "He learns quick," she said. What was this? Oh yes; the CMC and their friends were seeing who could figure out Darth Vulcan's next sinister plan. A bit grim for a foal's game, but foals these days... "Okay, Scootaloo's is certainly interesting. She thinks he's going to try and steal Celestia's crown. And her plan to capture him involves all the Wonderbolts and a really big net..." Twilight chuckled as she read. They certainly had vivid imaginations.

Her chuckling faded away when she got to Diamond Tiara's entry. Her smile faded to a frown of puzzlement, then a wide-eyed expression of disbelief....

"Spike, take a letter---"

"Am I in trouble?" Diamond Tiara said faintly.

It was an understandable question. Diamond had been in the middle of classes at school when Princess Twilight had teleported right into the middle of the classroom, spoken quietly to Miss Cheerilee, and then with Miss Cheerilee's permission teleported away-- taking Diamond Tiara with her. Diamond Tiara now found herself sitting in the middle of the Golden Oaks library next to her father, surrounded by all four princesses and Shining Armor, all looking very stern. Out of plain habit Diamond began going over the past few days in her memory, trying to think of any shenanigans she might have gotten up to-- she'd been trying to be good!

"I'd like to know that myself, Your Highnesses," her father said.  He looked tired, there were bags under his eyes. Rebuilding his business since Darth Vulcan had attacked had been difficult. Some ponies blamed him for the disaster; other ponies were afraid to do business with him because they thought Darth Vulcan might come after them, next... "Please, my daughter and I have been through so much, we just want to be quit of all this."

Princess Twilight's dragon Spike went around the circle of chairs, quietly handing out cups of tea and milk and biscuits. Cups were pressed into Mr. Rich's and Diamond Tiara's hooves. "We do understand, Mr. Rich," Celestia said sympathetically. "You have suffered much at Darth Vulcan's hands. Nopony with any sense blames you for what that wretched being has done."

"And no, Diamond Tiara is not in trouble," Twilight said. "But we think she might know something that will help us against him."

"What could she know that she hasn't already told you?" Mr. Rich protested.

Princess Twilight hesitated. "We'll... explain in a moment, Mr. Rich..."

Shining Armor leaned forward in his seat. "Tell us, Diamond," he said earnestly. "When you were Darth's prisoner, did you hear him talk about his plans? His strategies? What he was going to do, or wanted to do? Anything like that?"

Diamond Tiara shook her head. "No," she said. "Nothing like that. He kept me locked up in his room; he didn't meet with his minions or anyone there. He'd do all that--" she waved her forehooves around and pulled a snarl. "Rarr, curse those ponies, arrr, I'll show them all...'  but it wasn't like he told me all about his dastardly plans." She scowled. "I know, I waited." She had known better of course, but while she'd been his prisoner she'd kept her spirits up by pretending she could get a chance to be the plucky heroine like in the movies, overhear the villain's sinister plan and reveal it to the heroes when she was rescued. No such luck; Darth Vulcan had probably seen the same movies.

Some of the grownups looked amused; even Celestia dimpled a bit. Diamond Tiara expected them to have disappointed looks in their eyes; instead, they looked perplexed. "Mayhap the filly o'erheard something that she forgot," Princess Luna said suddenly, "and it lay in the back corners of her mind?"

"We would have to enter her subconscious mind in a dream-delve to determine that," Princess Twilight said; her tone said she didn't like the suggestion. Several of the adults stiffened; Princess Luna flinched and scowled like she'd been scolded.

Diamond's father bristled slightly, but he spoke in a calm voice. "I won't have my daughter's mind trespassed on," he said firmly, glancing at Princess Luna.

The Princess' expression soured even more. After the debacle with Darth Vulcan's minion and the regrettable consequences, it had been leaked by somepony in the castle staff... most likely one of the servants who had helped clean her up after her... accident...  that Luna had, indeed, used her powers to invade a pony's mind. The laws and traditions that governed dreamwalking were considered sacrosanct by ponydom; the difficult circumstances behind her bending them were lost in the sensationalist uproar that accompanied the news that the Princess of Dreams herself had trespassed against them. Despite Celestia's best efforts, and Luna's own contrite explanations, the scandal had spread like the smell of soured milk; more than one noblepony or politician had sought to use it as leverage against the Crown, and trust in the younger Princess had fallen to an all time low.

"Your daughter's mind shall not be trespassed upon," Luna managed to say evenly, though inwardly she seethed. "I defend the Dream Realm; I do not exploit it. I have done so once in all my centuries... in cause against our current foe, who is unlike any other that ponykind has faced before. For that reason and that reason only, did I allow myself to bend the rules by which I govern the dream realm and all that walks there." She looked Filthy Rich square in the eye. "Unless you think there is some cause here?"

Filthy Rich looked abashed, but said nothing.

"What we're trying to determine here," Shining Armor said, less than artfully dragging the conversation back to the topic, "is how Diamond Tiara knows what she DOES know."

"Wh-" Diamond Tiara blushed. "Why do you think I know anything at all, Prince Shining?" she squeaked.

In answer, Princess Cadence pulled out a familiar looking stack of papers. "Do these look familiar to you, Sweetheart?" she said kindly, showing them to Diamond Tiara.

Diamond Tiara blinked in surprise. "Those are the essays we--- the Cutie Mark Crusaders and I--  sent Princess Twilight," she said.

"What are they?"

"We were sort of playing a game at a sleepover," Diamond Tiara admitted sheepishly. "A contest. We were trying to see who could guess the best what D-- Darth Vulcan would do next, and how we'd catch him if we were the Princess. We sent them to Princess Twilight to pick a winner, but she never sent them back..."

"We read them," Shining Armor said, eliciting a further blush from Diamond Tiara. "I think my favorite one was the plan to wait until Darth Vulcan tried to steal the crown jewels, give Spike presents until his greed growth kicked in, and then trick him into stomping on them."

Princess Twilight picked up the papers, conjured up a pair of reading glasses, and looked at the essay through them. "Just to review, what exactly did you think he was going to do, and why?"

Diamond Tiara squirmed a little in her seat. "Well, I heard about the Grimoires, and I knew he'd want them bad," she said. "I mean, he's bonkers about books. He made me spend my whole time when I was his prisoner just teaching him how to read, just 'cause he wanted to use magic books and do more magic. So I knew he'd have to go after them. But he'd have to know it was a trap. I mean, it was pretty obvious. I mean really...." She started to give the Princesses a sarcastic look, caught herself and went on.

" Ahum. So he wouldn't go for it... he'd fake everybody out, and go for another target while everyone was guarding the library." she leaned forward, eyes brightening as she got into her subject. "But no way that would be good enough for him. He'd do a double fakeout. He'd go after some other target, or a whole bunch of them, all at once, so everypony would HAVE to come running... then while everypony was running one way, he'd run back the other and take the books. I just knew that was what he'd do."

"But how would you know?" Princess Twilight demanded.

"Well, I didn't KNOW, know," Diamond Tiara averred. "I mean, I didn't know how he was going to steal the books, i just figured he'd "magic" them away somehow... " she gave the typical earth pony shrug at 'magic' and went on. She missed the look the Princesses gave one another. "and I really didn't know what his other targets were going to be, I just guessed at a bunch of stuff that sounded really valuable..."

"Still..." Twilight pressed.

Diamond Tiara shrugged and rubbed the back of her head. "Well... I mean... it's kind of obvious, isn't it?" she said. "I mean, if you know anything about him, or you've listened to him." At their uncomprehending looks she burst out. " Come on. He's smart! Or... he likes to THINK he is. And he hates Equestria because he thinks it's lame and stupid. " She waggled a hoof like a puppet, imitating the ironclad villain. "This world is  so dumb, the Princesses are so dumb, I could conquer this whole country with nothing but a butter knife, blah blah blah, durr durr durr.... '

Shining covered a snort. DIamond gave him a funny look and went on. "And, well, he IS smart.But that's not good enough for him. He wants everypony else to feel STUPID. To get even with them for being so dumb and being so lame." She looked shamefaced for a moment, casting her eyes down. "...I... used to feel that way, a lot. I couldn't just win. Everypony else had to lose---" a particular group of fillies crossed her mind. She shook off the guilt and went on.

"So any plans he makes, he's gotta TRICK somepony. He could probably just smash in and take whatever he wants... but it'd be hard and dangerous, and it wouldn't make any of you," she looked at the Princesses and the Prince, "feel dumb or embarrassed. If he's got two plans, one simple one that tricks you once, and a harder one with all sorts of steps and loops that tricks you twice, he'll take the second one---"

"Because it reaffirms what he already thinks about us even more," Princess Twilight said dryly.

Diamond Tiara nodded. She paused and looked up. "You know, now that I think about it, I'd bet that after he got the grimoires, he'd go back around behind you again, and got all the other things that he was pretending to go after too," she said. "While everypony ran back and forth between the museum and everything else."

The grownups exchanged startled looks. "She got it in one," Shining Armor said, amused.

Filthy Rich cocked an eyebrow. "Beg pardon?..."

"Where this is going, Mr. Rich," Luna said, "Is that somehow Diamond Tiara guessed every single move that Darth Vulcan made in his most recent and most successful raid on Canterlot."

Filthy Rich's jaw dropped. The actual thefts had been public news, but the Crown had done its best to keep the most salient details out of the public eye. As the rulers of Equestria proceeded to describe in full detail just how Darth Vulcan had hoodwinked the Princesses not once, not twice, but at least three times in a single night, he started to realize just how out of the ordinary this situation was. Was this Darth Vulcan creature raised on a planet of criminal masterminds?

Diamond Tiara was equally astonished. "Oh my gosh, I was right!" She actually started bouncing up and down in her seat in glee, clapping her forehooves. "I was right, I was--- right... and... that was bad..." she stopped bouncing and grinned sheepishly, face tomato red. "Sorry, your Highnesses..."

"It's all right, Diamond Tiara," Princess Celestia said. "Even if what he did was terrible, it was terribly clever of you to figure out what he was going to do." Diamond Tiara beamed at the praise. The solar princess leaned forward; her tone did not change, but the atmosphere in the room got suddenly intense. "Now comes a more interesting question: how would you have caught him, in our place?"

Diamond Tiara's confident smile faded. "I don't know," she admitted. "That's the part I didn't finish. I wanted to come up with a really good idea but Scootaloo was in such a big rush to send the letters off--"

Princess Twilight looked at the papers again. "I can see," she said. "It starts off with 'cut him off from--' and then trails off."

"Yeah. It's s'posed to be 'cut him off from the Everfree,' " Diamond Tiara said.

"But he wishes to leave the Everfree," Celestia said carefully. "Didn't you say as much?"

Tiara snorted. "Yeah, but not right now," she said. "The Everfree's where he keeps all his stuff. With all those different targets he could hit there's no way to tell where he'll go next...."

"But everypony knows where he'd go BACK to," Shining Armor said. " A good sized magic dome dropped down behind him while he was out on a raid... It would have cut him off from all his stockpiled resources. He would have been fit to be tied."

Diamond Tiara shook her head. "Yeah, but then what?" she said. "He would still have all his magic power, and a lot of his soldiers--- and I bet he's got a lot of allies OUTside the Everfree too."

"Who would work with him?" Spike scoffed. On more familiar ground talking with somebeing closer to her age, Diamond Tiara scowled at him.

"He tried to set up a deal with Daddy, remember? He probably went right out and found somepony else who would deal with him. It's not like he stopped wanting toilet paper," she said scornfully. "There's lots of bad ponies out there who would trade with him--- criminals and robbers and stuff..."

Celestia and Luna traded a glance. It was disturbing how cynical the filly was, at such an early age. What was more unsettling was that she was probably right; Equestria had its thieves' guilds and black markets, its gangsters... and more than one or two would-be evil overlords.

Their estimation of the filly's cynicism sank to a new depressing low at her next words. She sat back and crossed her forehooves. "Betcha that Boss Hoss pony was one of 'em," she said. "He probably tried to make a deal with Darth Vulcan but messed up and made enemies with him."

"Now pumpkin," her father said. "Boss Hoss might be a ..." the financial mover and shaker hesitated. "A not very nice stallion, but he's just a businesspony who got robbed... and he was building the fence around the Everfree..."

"Daddy, come on," Diamond Tiara said. "Darth Vulcan doesn't go after anypony like that unless he thinks they crossed him. He didn't take revenge on the ponies building the fence, or the guards who've fought him, has he?" She looked at the Princesses. "He doesn't just... take stuff out on random ponies. Does he?"

Celestia looked thoughtful, but Luna was the first to speak. "As a matter of fact, he does not," she said. "Not truly. He is callous and careless and free with his sword and his sorcery, but if tis conflict in the course of battle, he cares not either way. But if he perceiveth his injury to be personal..."

"He makes it really, really personal," DIamond Tiara said. She shivered as unhappy memories flitted across her mind, and pressed herself into her father's side. "I mean, holy cow. He stole an entire train cargo and all right out from under Boss Hoss' hooves, peeled his traveling car like a grape, and scared Boss Hoss so bad he pooped himself!"

"Pumpkin!" Filthy Rich scolded.

"....Well that's what I heard," Diamond Tiara said defiantly She looked disappointed. "I... I guess that's the best idea I can really come up with, after all. Just chipping away at him till he wears out."

"Still, a worthy strategy," Luna muttered. "Twould have halved his forces, at the least, and upset an unknown number of his machinations... had we thought beyond attempting to trap him like a foal with his hoof in the cookie jar," she added with a snort of annoyance.

"Thank you for your time, my little ponies," Celestia said to Diamond Tiara and Filthy Rich. "While it gave us no easy answers, it was at least enlightening. You may go now." Filthy Rich and Diamond Tiara got to their hooves and trotted for the door.

In the doorway, Diamond Tiara stopped and looked back. "Your Highness.... Princess Celestia..." She paused. "Darth Vulcan-- Discord couldn't stop him. Sombra and Chrysalis, they didn't stop him. the Elements of Harmony didn't even work on him. And they work on everything." For whatever reason she felt she was compelled to emphasize it. She stared, her eyes boring into Celestia's. "He's not the kind of bad guy you can beat with one big shot. If you keep trying to beat him like that, he'll just keep on winning." With that, the door closed behind her with finality.

More than one pony found themselves somberly regarding the filly's ominous words.

Cadence sighed. "A missed opportunity," she said. "If we had thought to cut him off from the forest--! The only bright spot in this mess is that he didn't get Starswirl's mirror. Even though it did get shattered--- better that, than in his hands."

"I'm close to repairing it, by the way," Twilight said. "It should work just fine the next 30 moons, even with that... big chunk missing. Oh no." Twilight's eyes went round. "That shard. When he fled he had a huge shard of the mirror in his hand. I'd bet my horn he kept it. Oh this is not good!"

"What could he do with it?" Cadence asked.

"Any number of things," Twilight said, gnawing her lip. "He hasn't got much of the magic glass, so he can't try too many times. And the results are always unpredictable. But if he's got the right know-how, and is really really lucky, he might open another portal --- to anywhere in the world, to Sunset Shimmer's world, to his own world, to another plane of existence entirely...."

"And all of those," Luna said in alarm, "would be dire indeed, each for its own reasons. Any one of those possibilities would be a terrible weapon in his clutches."

A peculiar look crossed Celestia's face. "And yet," Celestia said thoughtfully, "his first thought was not to fight to take the mirror... but to destroy it. Why?"

"He said it himself," Shining Armor said. "If he couldn't have it, he sure wasn't letting you have it."

"But why?" Celestia said. She rose to her hooves and began to pace. There wasn't much room in the library for it.

"Obviously because he thought we would use it against him," Twilight said. Then she reflected on her own words. "But how did he think we would? If he thought we were going to use it to make more mirrors, he wouldn't have left the shards with us...." She tapped her chin with her hooves.

"Reinforcements," Shining said suddenly. "He thought we would use the mirror to bring help from the other world. That world's elements of harmony, or Sunset Shimmer..." he nodded. That sounded more than right.

"As powerful as my former student is... at least when she is in her unicorn form-- I doubt he feared one more unicorn allied against him," Celestia said. "And the Bearers of the Elements proved to be little more than an annoyance to him... forgive me for saying so, Twilight..." she said to Twilight apologetically.

Twilight's eyebrows tabled and she sighed. "Not like I can deny it," she said in a dull monotone. "Even when we had the Elements we might as well have been shining a flashlight on him. And twelve flashlights isn't going to do much more than six. Annoy him more, maybe."

"Maybe he thought we would... summon an army from that world," Cadence said. "That was Sunset Shimmer's plan, after all."

"I doubt he would be afraid of an army of school students, even of creatures similar to his own species," Luna said skeptically. Really, an army of a few hundred brainwashed school children against the armies of Equestria; what had this Sunset Shimmer been thinking?

"Similar?" Cadence asked.

"Similar," Twilight said. "But the proportions were off, and he confirmed that his race didn't come in pastel shades."

"But against those of his own kind, from his own world, he might not have been so confident," Celestia said suddenly, looking over her shoulder at them.

"Pardon?" Shining Armor said.

"He said it himself," Celestia said. "In his own world are beings and forces so powerful they would dwarf him at his mightiest. Monsters so horrible that merely describing their deeds to that poor guard left him catatonic. He outright laughed at the idea of conquering his world, even with the power of the Alicorn Amulet at his disposal."

"What art thou driving at, sister?" Luna said warily.

"Don't you see, Luna?" Celestia said. Her enthusiasm was growing by the moment. "In a world of such great and terrible perils, there must be even greater and more valiant heroes. He must have feared we would use the mirror to reach his world and gain the help of one such. One fit to match him-- and defeat him."

Luna's apprehensive look turned into a scowl. "Sister, you are not suggesting..."

"I am." Celestia nodded firmly.

"My little ponies, we need to summon a Champion."