Cadance was beginning to gain consciousness once again, but this time, she felt a little more disoriented than the time before. She hoped that this time she would wake up in her bedroom with Shining Armor back in the Crystal Empire. Surely this was a nightmare she was having.

When her eyes opened, she discovered that she was still in her prison cell abroad some sort of strange extraterrestrial ship. It wasn’t a dream at all; it really happened.

The last thing that Cadance remembered before blacking out was that Queen Chrysalis, and what appeared to be a few of her changelings, had pinned her down on the floor where they along with Chrysalis brutally raped her in means of feeding. It would explain why her nethers were aching and burning.

The lingering pain made her groan and cry out. Not only that, but she remembered what Chrysalis told her before her molestment, “I hope you can deliver the same amount of  love to them and me, just as you do with your pathetic husband--who is possibly dead now. My new friends do have a way of killing without mercy after all.”

This recurring thought made Cadance shed tears once more. She didn’t want to believe it was true, but there was no way of finding ways to debunk the statement. These aliens weren't hesitant to attack anything on command or instinct. It proved when one of the creatures shot at the base of one of her wings to cripple her.

As she wept, she heard the distinct binging sound of the brig’s door opening up as someone entered.

Thinking it was Chrysalis again, Cadance turned her head away to hide her face. She didn’t wish to be mocked for her emotions again.

The footsteps that approached her were making a clunking sound as the steps hit the ground indicating that the feet were bigger, and armored.

Looking up, Cadance saw that it wasn’t Chrysalis; but was one of the split-lip aliens which happened to be an Sangheili minor with a T51-C in hand.

This didn’t make Cadance feel any better at all. Both these aliens and Chrysalis have become the icons of torment and torture to the poor alicorn princess of love.

“Please,” Cadance begged backing herself up into a corner and cowered like a scared filly. “Spare my life! I’ll do anything you wish!”

“So you’ll come then? Good,” the alien said in clear Equestrian, and with contentment. “Hopefully that means you won’t be any trouble to me on the way there.”

“W-where are you taking me?” Cadance stuttered, fearful that she was going to lose her life if she went with this creature.

“The shipmaster wishes to speak with you about one of your artifacts retrieved from your keep,” he replied and deactivated the cell barrier. “Now get a move on, and don’t give me any trouble on the way or you’ll regret it.”

To make himself clear, the minor shot a round from his Carbine near one of Cadance’s hooves making her jump up and yelp.

After gaining a bit of composure, Cadance nervously stepped out of her cell and followed the alien out of the cell block.

As the Sangheili led Cadance through the interior of the carrier, she observed the structures of the corridors which looked the same with the textures, lights, and the symbolic purple paint job.

As they approached a door that was lighted green, it automatically opened up with the repetition bing chime. Cadance noticed that some doors were lighted red which probably indicated they were locked.

Cadance also caught sight of other alien species that walked past them. One being a group of Unggoy that were carrying small packages of supplies to an unknown location of the vessel. The group was being escorted by a single Kig-Yar that trailed behind them to make sure they weren't goofing off or slacking.

As the group passed, one of the Unggoy took notice of Cadance and stopped dead in his tracks to gawk at her in mesmerization. In doing this, his fellow companions bumped into him yelping is surprise and spilling the contents held in their packages, which to Cadance looked like some kind of dark blue balls.

The Kig-Yar let out an angry series of chirps at the downed group as if he was yelling at them for making such a foolish mistake. When the Kig-Yar finished his undistinguished rant, one of the Unggoy pointed a hand at the faulty Unggoy as if the Kig-Yar asked who was responsible for the disaster.

The Kig-Yar then strolled over to the blamed Unggoy, brought one of his claws up, and swiped it across the side of the Unggoy’s face drawing three lines of luminescent blue blood. The Unggoy then cried out in pain and grasped the side of his injured face with one hand.

Cadance was shocked that not one of his companions did a thing to help him out. She couldn’t figure out why a fellow soldier fighting on the same side would do such a heartless thing to an ally.

“You could feel sorry for the little gas-suckers,” the Sangheili remarked as if reading Cadance’s mind. “But this is how these little runts learn how to be better soldiers; and what better way than to place them with their rival cannon fodder.”

“How can they be so cruel?” Cadance foolhardily asked. She had to admit to herself she had little to no tolerance for mistreatment of weaker beings. “It was nothing but a simple error.”

“I can assure you that what those sniveling grunts were carrying in those packages were T1 antipersonnel latent plasma explosives. If one happened to be ignited within a cluster of the rest of the supplies, it would blow this carrier in half. Then where would we be?”

Cadance silently thought about the alien’s explanation. It wasn’t hard to come to the conclusion that most of the occupants onboard the vessel would be sucked into the vacuum of space to suffocate to death.

“My sediments exactly,” he said. “Now we’re almost to the shipmaster’s quarters. If you give him any trouble, I think you would know what you’ll have to face.”

Cadance gulped. She knew what could happen if she did anything wrong. She just hoped it would all be over quickly. Since the alien said it was an object from her kingdom, she shouldn’t have any trouble explaining it to him.

After about several more moments of seemingly endless walking, the Sangheili brought Cadance to a locked door which looked like all the others, except this one had a holographic terminal displayed on it’s right-hand side.

The Sangheili used one claw to interact with the interface while he slouched his Carbine over his shoulder with the other.

When the door turned green and binged opened, the Sangheili led Cadance into Dzen’s ready room where he was already there expecting them. The two aliens then began communicating in a strange language that Cadance couldn’t decipher at all.

Momentarily, the shipmaster said one final thing in Sangheilian. Whatever it was, Cadance noticed that her escort performed a head-bow, then turned around to begin leaving the room indicating that Dzen excused him to carry on other duties.

When the two were finally alone, Dzen calmly said now in Equestrian, “Please take a seat.”

Cadance didn’t hesitate to follow the instruction, but her uneasiness of her situation never faded away.

“So you are Princess Cadance, correct?” he asked.

“Yes, shipmaster,” Cadance replied. She knew addressing him by his designation was the proper way to show respect.

“Good. Now, you have been told the reason for your summoning here if I’m not mistaken?”

Cadance then recalled the memory of what her escort told her.

“I do,” she said. “You wish to know more about an object you found from my kingdom that you have obtained.”

Cadance was angry on the inside because she knew she had been robbed, but didn’t want to let it show in fearing it may cost her her life.

“Quite so,” Dzen confirmed. “Since it seems you are the leader of this keep, you can tell me what I need to know without giving me any trouble.”

“I wasn’t the only leader,” Cadance remarked, trying to fight back another wave of sorrow.

“Well, who is it?” Dzen asked intrigued. If there was more than one oracle that ruled this part of the planet, he wanted them all in order to get more information about what he needed to know about possible locations of other Forerunner artifacts.

“My husband,” she replied with a suppressed sob.

“What is the meaning of this sudden sorrow of yours?” Dzen asked, now puzzled by the equine oracle’s sudden change in demeanor.

“Your followers killed him!” she snapped while wailing once again. She couldn’t believe that this was happening to her. First her kingdom gets attacked, then is foalnapped, wounded, her husband is presumed dead, raped by changelings, and now being questioned. This was all too much to take and it was taking a heavy emotional toll on the princess.

After hesitating for a bit in baffled silence, Dzen calmly assured, “My fleet has no intention on eradicating your race since you are not the enemy we fight in this war.”

“Then why did Chrysalis tell me that you have done so?” Cadance demanded. She assumed she was still being used as a pawn in a mind game.

“That undisciplined changeling? She’s being overzealous. Our main adversary are the humans. If your spouse is an important asset as yourself, then both of you would be here.”

“Then where is he?” Cadance seethed with tears of anger and despair streaming down from her eyes.

“I cannot be sure. A couple of my Elites that infiltrated your stronghold went MIA shortly after your obtainment. It should be no coincidence that humans were reported within the structure as well. If I’m not mistaken, I would say that the humans have your husband to get even with us. Such a deed a this lies between honor and foolishness.”

Cadance calmed down a bit, but still wasn’t fully assured. It seemed like a very possible scenario. Strangely for the moment, she felt like she needed the help of her abductors in order to be hopefully reunited with Shining Armor.

“If you say what is true, then do you know where they would take him?”

Dzen took a moment to think. After serving throughout the entire Human-Covenant War, he knew that an enemy’s flagship was always the priority target either for destroying, or obtaining an important asset that would help the entire Covenant Empire reach its goal, whatever it might be. As far as Dzen knew, the Pony Express was the ship of main interest.

“I have a pretty good idea,” he finally said. “But first, I insist that you tell me what this is for.”

He then reached under his desk and pulled out a medium, clear white crystalline object that was in the shape of a heart.

Cadance eyes widened in surprise.

“The Crystal Heart!” she exclaimed. Her anger had now returned. “What are you doing with it? The empire can’t thrive without it!”

“So it does serve a strong purpose after all,” Dzen remarked, still sounding unusually calm. “Of course the purpose of your keep is of no interest to me. what can you tell me about it’s connection to the Forerunners?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Cadance protested. She had never heard of such a civilization before.

“Surely you do,” Dzen insisted, his patience already starting to run thin. “Our lords have left their relics throughout the galaxy, or across the entire regions of space.”

“I’m telling you, I don’t know anything about these things you’re calling forerunners. The Heart won’t be useful in your possession. You must return it to the empire’s square where it rightfully belongs!”

Cadance had completely forgotten about the consequences she might face if she didn’t mind herself around Dzen. she only thought about the safety of her kingdom, and her subjects that inhabited it.

Already frustrated with Cadance’s incompetence, Dzen opened up the door to his ready room and let in a couple of his minor class Elites who seized Cadance on both sides and restrained her. they even put an energy cuff on her horn to prevent her from trying any magic in means of attempted escape, even if she didn’t know any teleportation spells.

Cadance struggled, but both Sangheili had a good grip on her.

In Sangheilian, Dzen ordered, “Take Cadance back to her cell and have her guarded there until I can think of what needs to be done.”

The guards nodded and began to take Cadance out of the ready room and back to her holding cell.

On the way back through the interior of the carrier, Cadance never stopped thinking about what would become of her, her subjects, the planet, and most of all--Shining Armor.

“Please, Aunt Celestia,” she prayed in thought. “Please let Shining be okay, and that these mentioned humans are not hurting him in anyway.”