Natura Stella and Inanna left some time ago. Andromalius stayed to watch over the members of the Secret Service.

The five stallions were sitting, forming a circle. Their magic was nullified with Andromalius' spell, so, they couldn't do anything. Their blades were secured by the demon.

"Will Helm," one of the stallions spoke in a hushed tone, barely hearable for Andromalius. "How do you feel?"

"I... I don't know how to describe this." the recently resurrected stallion stared blankly at the floor. "I just... One moment, I felt myself dying. The cold void that is death was waiting for me. I... I was swallowed by it whole. And then... a great light came, pure and gold. It was so warm and comfortably bright, and I felt myself better than ever. It's like..." Will Helm looked at the stallion that asked the question. "It was like all my fears and doubts were gone, Mear."

"I'm glad you're alive, Will." Mear put his hoof on Will's shoulder. "I thought you were gone."

"The vile demon has something planned for us, that is certain!" another stallion spoke, louder than the previous two.

"I doubt it, Artemis." Mear shook his head. "Why would he bring Will to life, then? Wouldn't it be easier just to leave him dead?" he turned to Will. "Sorry for talking about that, pal."

"I would stay on your guard if I were you." Artemis shook his head. "I've read that Tartarian demons like to make their prey suffer."

"You've been obsessed with demons lately, your mind is clouded." the fourth stallion spoke. He sounded older. "Have you ever seen a real demon, Artemis? No one have. Besides those strange bug-bears and Cerberus, of course... Doubt that the latter is a demon at all."

"There are facts." Artemis huffed. "He—" he glanced at Andromalius. "Led a necromancer here. A damn necromancer! His rotting teachings corrupted princess Luna! We've all seen her raising a whole army! Why would she do that willingly? There isn't a war anywhere. There is no need for an army, especially an undead one! I tell you, this demon wants to take over Equestria!"

"Shut it." the fifth stallion said. "He's listening."

Indeed, Andromalius was listening. He wasn't looking at the stallions, yet one of his ears was turned to them, catching what they say.

Andromalius himself had a trouble on his mind. He didn't show it, but it shocked him that he killed one of the stallions. But he resurrected the killed one, and that made the hell stallion feel much better. At least he made himself think that, technically, no one was killed at the end

To ease his mind, he meditated with his eyes closed. Yes, he was slightly focused on keeping the anti-magic spell running and on being aware of his surroundings, but even that kind of meditation helped him.

"And what?" Artemis heatedly continued. "He should know the crimes he's committed against the ponydom! Against all that is life!"

"But we haven't seen that undead army near Canterlot." Mear replied. "Why should we—"

"You know very well why we should do what we do." Artemis didn't let Mear finish. "For Equestria and for its princesses. We are bound by the oath to serve for the good of all who live in Equestria. We have sworn to protect them from evil.

"And what are we doing now? The army of the undead is surely marching to Canterlot while we're here, Celestia is under a spell of Andromalius. The Elements won't go against the princesses, they are too young. They don't know what we do, and—"

"You know nothing." Andromalius suddenly spoke. Everypony turned to him. "I'm not planning to take over Equestria."

"Lie more, I'm listening." Artemis snorted.

"Why would I ever want to capture Equestria?" Andromalius turned to the stallions. "Gold? I needn't it. Gold can be spent on food, water, and luxurities. In other words, on survival and relaxation.

"What would I be spending the gold on? I don't need to eat, sleep, or drink. I have no interest in building, say, statues, monuments in my name, or simply, hm, a bath made of pure gold. I needn't gold.

"So, what else does Equestria have? Its population. Millions of ponies. How could I possibly use them? As slaves? Slaves are free working force, and why would I need working force? To build monuments in my name, to dig for gold... I already said I needn't gold.

"Souls? Why would I need souls of ponies? They don't make me stronger, they don't do anything at all. I have no idea whether souls even exist at all or not.

"Or... Should I conquer Equestria just to make you, ponies, suffer? No, I shouldn't. I see no point in making others suffer just for suffering. Suffering for a crime, that can be explained and justified. Suffering because of other's simple desire? Absolutely illogical and unreasonable.

"Tell me, Artemis," Andromalius walked closer. "Tell me, why should I conquer Equestria? Why should I corrupt its rulers?"

"Oh, I know why." Artemis frowned, looking straight into the eyes of the demon. "For the mares. You capture Equestria, and all mares are yours. You will use mares for pleasure, whether they want it for not. If a demon doesn't care for suffering of others, it sure cares for pleasure of itself."

"So..." Andromalius' face darkened, his tone lowered. "You suggest... Rape?"

"I found out what you want, didn't I?"

"Rape..." Andromalius snorted angrily. "Is one of the most disgusting things I know!" he stomped. "And you say that I will be able fuck each and every mare I want? Without their consent? No!

"Rape will not give me pleasure. It won't give mares pleasure. It is utterly disgusting and terrible crime I can ever think of! It leaves a disgusting memory that makes the victim suffer, it destroys them. From whence I came I know a few rape incidents that happened in my town..." he frowned. "The rapist was found and sent to prison to serve a life sentence. What became of a... mare? What, do you think, became of her?"

"She was happy the rapist was punished for his crimes." Artemis replied.

"She was never happy again." Andromalius growled. "The memory of what the rapist did to her left her shattered. No one could help her... A few weeks after the incident she..." he stepped even closer, and said: "Hanged herself."

"W-what?" Artemis widened his eyes.

"You have never seen anyone who suffered a rape, Artemis." Andromalius said quietly. "There isn't a record of rape in Equestria for many hundreds of years, as far as I know. So, you only know little of truth, if any. And I..." he sighed sadly. "I saw the victim myself. She was my friend..." he looked at the floor. "After that incident, she never talked to any stallion, she barely talked to anyone. She was afraid of what they could do to her. She lived in constant fear of rape happening again." Andromalius looked up and met Artemis' eyes. "Do you honestly think I will rape anyone?"

"I... I didn't know..." Artemis replied, all anger in his voice gone.

"Because you never thought of asking someone like me, am I right?" Andromalius growled, loosing calm fast. "You don't even know what I now feel, knowing that if not my spell, he—" he pointed at Will Helm. "Would be dead!" he yelled. "Because of one misunderstanding, someone you know, or even all of you, would be dead!" he continued to yell. "Not even knowing me, you already accused me of all possible crimes!" he shook his head, then began to calm down. "Yes, you think that I led evil to your home, that I want to do something bad towards you, your families, all ponies.

"I know I look absolutely evil to you." Andromalius spoke calmly. "Black color, fire, strange magic, no less strange companions... All of that led to your suspicions. I understand that." he nodded. "But there are more ways to solve the problem that just killing me." he sighed. "By killing me, you would have to deal with my lover that would be completely devastated and enraged by the loss. You'd have to deal with someone who likes me and who will also mourn the loss, and... My family that I never knew until recently. My aunt and my mother.

"What would they do if they found me dead by your hooves? If you won't be killed right away, fate worse than death would wait for you." Andromalius looked at every stallion. "You don't know what it is to lose someone you love. I don't know it either. And may we never gain such knowledge..."

Silently, Andromalius walked away from the stallions and took his place near the wall. His heart was beating fast, his mind was in complete chaos. He returned to meditation, yet it didn't help him as much as he hoped it would.

"Andromalius?" Inanna appeared in his mind. "I felt what you felt, and I've heard these words..."

"Later about that." Andromalius sighed. "Did you get Celestia and Luna?"

"The thing is, I found Celestia, and yet no one knows where Luna is. Natura went searching for her." Inanna replied.

"Get her here as soon as possible." Andromalius thought. "I can't stay here any longer. I will join Natura. I want to talk with my mother... about everything."

After Inanna brought Celestia, Andromalius teleported himself to Canterlot.

So, the solar alicorn looked at the five stallions with displeasure. Inanna stood aside, just listening.

"Inanna has already told me what happened." Celestia stated in a stern voice. "I need you to tell me everything from your point. Well, I'm listening."

"Your majesty," Artemis bowed. "We have much to tell. Well, the first thing is, we ran an investigation about Andromalius. At first, we kept finding absolutely nothing. As if no one has seen him before nor heard of. His... intentions were unclear to us. He kept himself around princess Luna. We were also searching for the symbol he bears on his helmet. We found some similar symbols, a pentagram, for example, but there wasn't enough information about hexagram. There were only some mentions in one book that it is a symbol of protection, but nowhere did we find anything that could shed light on it.

"We began to worry. We knew nothing about Andromalius or his origins, we didn't know what he was doing here.

"But when one day princess Luna made a duel between him and captain Shining Armor, we finally had something. Powerful battle magic unknown to even the most powerful magicians... We had our suspicions.

"And then something happened in the throne room where your majesty summoned Andromalius after the duel. We heard yelling, swearing, and then... We felt a powerful mind-affecting spell being cast. One that made the guards in the throne room forget what they witnessed there. So, we were ready for action. When you called six of us to, finally, do something productive, we had already seen much to know how dangerous Andromalius can be.

"You wanted these six stallions to spy on him. We knew you would do something to Andromalius when you find him, and yet...

"Suddenly, your majesty made a public announcement, in which you told everypony that you need some rest from the royal duties. We found that... strange but acceptable. But then...

"Your majesty went all-alone to the Frozen North to find Andromalius. We still can't understand what drove you.

"Some time later, you came back with him, some strange unicorn, and somepony we found later to be a necromancer. The latter was later seen in teaching princess Luna necromancy, who in turn, learned and succeeded in it, raising an army of about three hundred undead.

"That was enough for us to make up our minds. We were sure he had you and princess Luna under his spell. We needn't anything more, for we knew we had to strike before it's too late."

Artemis finished his report. With the magical inhibitor gone, he picked up his sword and sheathed it, as all stallions did.

"I think I understand the reasoning behind your actions, lieutenant Artemis." Celestia nodded, frowning. "I see no flaw in it. You worked like you were supposed to, Secret Service." she narrowed her eyes. "But there is something that I must ask. Who conducted the investigation?"

"Previous captain of the Royal Guard, Silver Stone." Artemis answered. "May I ask a question, your majesty?"

"You may, lieutenant." the princess nodded.

"What will be done to us?" Artemis asked.

"As per law, I should reward you for excellent work." Celestia stated. "But I should also explain you why you were wrong. Andromalius isn't hostile to us. As for his necromancer friend... I shall talk to him. I had no idea he was teaching anything my sister, to whom I shall also talk."

"We have talked with the demon himself." Artemis looked away. "We were wrong about him. Those things he said... He didn't lie, and I can see lies clearly."

"And what did he tell?" Celestia interested.

"Forgive me, your majesty, but I think one of those things he told us is an old wound that hasn't yet closed." Artemis replied. "I could see pain in him as he told me that just to convince me I was wrong about him. I can see such things, and... he proved to me that he doesn't want to have our country in his hooves."

"Princess," Inanna spoke. "You should ask Andromalius himself. He is feeling... not well."

"I will." Celestia nodded. "Thank you all for what you told. Artemis..." she turned to the stallion. "While I certainly disapprove of such action your team did, I have to thanks you all for proving yourself to be worthy defenders Equestria needs. However, you still need a lot more training to be able to overcome powerful foes." she chuckled. "Ironically, Andromalius has something for that... Powerful spells you've already seen in action. If he's willing, he'll share the knowledge." she cleared her throat. "So, let us all return to Canterlot."

Author's Notes:

Andromalius has seen some things that shouldn't happen at all. A little bit dark, but we all know what happens throughout the world. We all hope nothing like that will happen to us... Andromalius didn't have the luck.

Also, maybe someone will ask why Celestia was rather calm, knowing that someone tried to kill her nephew. First of all, no one was seriously hurt (except the unlucky one who experienced death, of course). Second, Celestia listened to the other side and understood their reasoning. If seeing things in different way, they seem to be bad. We humans experience it, too. But Celestia lived longer than any human, so, many misunderstandings were made and solved by her. Third, she had the same misunderstanding with Andromalius not that long ago. She experienced it firsthand, you readers should know that. After all, that happened somewhere in the first ten chapters, if I remember right.

I don't like giving such explanations, but I want to avoid having to answer questions while I can explain everything before that happens. Also, some people have a different view of the situation because of their mindset (absolutely no offense. I just know such people exist.)

Also, the chapter's title has nothing to do with the famous witch-heretic-burning Inquisition.