Espirit felt as if she was in a dream. One moment she and Steelhorn were having a nice, relaxing talk, the next the door was slammed open and the two of them were being dragged through the castle towards the meeting hall.

She could only listen in stunned silence as she was told of what happened. It had all begun soon after they had arrived, Cadence had come from the west, leading an army of ponies and dragons. The fight had ended almost as soon as it had begun, the queen's magic enslaving all those there in her charm, turning them into obedient minions who would fight, and die, for her alone. Only a few ponies had managed to escape, all pegasi. The companies hadn't stood a chance, taken by surprise and either killed or enslaved before they could do anything.

Though, apparently only the capital city was taken, for now, the other cities in the country were now calling for aid and preparing to defend themselves for as long as they could. But the main city was taken which meant one thing. The crystal heart was now in the hooves of Cadence. She had to be stopped now, before she grew too powerful.

Espirit was only vaguely aware that the pony had stopped talking and, accordingly, nearly every eye had fallen on her and her friends. She shook her head and tried to focus as Aetherbind stood up. “There's no other choice. Cadence is a threat we can't ignore. We'll have to muster our forces and--”

“No!” Espirit shrieked, her eyes going wide. “If you do that, they'll just be enslaved, too! Haven't any of you ponies ever read the stories of Cadence? She was the alicorn of love! Of LOVE! We can't hope to defeat her with numbers, they'll just be controlled and enslaved!”

Aetherbind looked ready to object, but Steelhorn stood up. “Espirit is right. Canterlot is our home, we should be the ones to defend it.”

“What? I said that?” Espirit asked, eyes widening.

“Yes. A full army won't be able to take her down, this isn't like Celestia. Cadence never ruled through power or might. It was love, the love her subjects had for her and she had for them. Our only hope, our only chance, is to fight her directly with a group small enough to get close and defeat her before she can charm us.”

“What makes you think you'll have a chance?” Espirit's father asked.

“I'm a changeling. We have a natural resistance to magic such as that and I should be able to keep the alicorn from controlling the others, at least long enough for us to stop her. I hope.”

There was a sigh. “How many do you wish to take? A dozen? Two?”

“Just the four of us,” Steelhorn said firmly.

“WHAT?” there was a loud roar from down the table as the zebra council member stood up. “There are thousands of lives at stake, you wish to risk them all on--”

“The four of us can sneak in far easier than a large force can. This is all new, Cadence can't be at full power yet. If we wait until a full force is ready, then there's no telling what she'll do with the crystal heart's power. If nothing else, the four of us should be able to delay her. That will give you the time to muster your forces and get Cloudsdale to help.”

“Cloudsdale?” the buffalo leader asked.

“Yes. They have changelings now. No group of fighters will be more prepared to fight a creature of love than a horde of changelings. If we fail... they may be your only hope.”

Espirit cringed as the table erupted and the leaders talked and yelled to each other. She'd never seen them so wild and emotional. But then, one of the three cities had fallen over night and it had been centuries since the return of Cadence. There was no telling what would happen. However, with no other choice, they relented. A small vessel was prepared for them, one coated in magic and the color of the blue sky. The zebra could barely believe her eyes as she stared at it. “I can't believe they even have something like this,” she whispered softly.

“It's from Canterlot,” Steelhorn said with a chuckle. “Created by the changelings, I believe. It's based on our ability to change, with a few pony modifications due to the size and less refined coloration needs. Come on, let's go.”

Espirit nodded and nearly jumped into the ship, but paused when she looked out to the ponies coming to greet her. Aetherbind was there, watching her. Even if it wasn't her own face staring back at her, there was no doubt the stallion was angry. She couldn't blame him. After all, she'd gone behind their backs to do this. It was delaying the ability for them to trade places again. She softly mouthed her apology before jumping into the ship after the others.

“It's going to be a long trip,” Silverwing said firmly as she sat down. “Two days at least. This vessel, unfortunately, can't teleport closer. But it's our only real shot of getting in without being detected. So, here's the plan. We have two days to study.” She motioned towards the back, where a few chests were resting. “Supplies for us and the small crew, and every piece of information they could find on Cadence in the short time we've had. It's not a lot, but it might help.”

Espirit let out a shriek of excitement and dove into the books. After a moment she giggled and put some aside. “Read this one, read this one, ohhhh, loved this one. Read this one.”

“Were you a fan of Cadence?” Steelhorn asked with a chuckle.

“What? Well, a little. I always adored the romance between her and Sombra. You know, there's some ponies who believe that Sombra may have been the secret brother of Twilight, making Cadence and Twilight sisters in law.”

Steelhorn chuckled and sat down by her. “I see, that makes sense if Twilight was a pony. Well then, what can you tell us about her?”

“Sadly, not much,” Espirit mumbled. She pulled out a few books. “It's been so long that almost all we have about her is myths and legends. The main thing I know for certain is that she was the pony who created the crystal heart, she used it to funnel her great love of her ponies to the very far reaches of her kingdom. Well, she and Sombra. Her power was love while his was the power to control crystals. Granted, apparently she had a little crystal control herself. You know, it's said that they were the ones who created all of Crystalopolis and made the first crystal ponies. Their love and the crystal heart changed all the ponies who lived there, turning them into that.” She sighed softly. “They were both so powerful and so loved. I can't believe we'll actually be fighting her.”

“We'll be fighting an echo of her,” Steelhorn grumbled. “I think we should focus less on the stories, more on what we know from the last time she appeared. Hold on.” She pulled out a small file from the chest and sighed. “Really? This is it?” There were only a few pages in the file.

“It was a long time ago,” Silverwing said with a sigh. “She appeared in Canterlot then, too. Most of the records on her are likely stored away there.”

“If we had access to them, it wouldn't be such a massive problem,” the changeling grumbled. “There's next to nothing here aside from don't fight her head on.”

“How did they defeat her last time?” Espirit asked.

The changeling flipped through the papers and cringed. “Heavy fire.”

“Archery?”

“No, literally. Dragons. An army of dragons descended on her, burning her to cinders before she could enchant them. Apparently the full grown ones had a resistance.”

“O-oh.”

“She was stopped before she had the crystal heart or a large army, as well. They'd have to burn Crystalopolis to the ground, fight through her army, killing thousands.”

Espirit shivered and gave a nod. “Let's... let's not let that happen again.”

“That's why we're going in now,” Silverwing said. She glanced up as the crew started to ready the vessel. “I'd hold on. It's not gong to be as windy as the dragon, but I hear this thing has a bit of a kick when it starts up.”

Espirit eeped and quickly moved back besides the books, quickly putting them back into the chest and closing it. The balloons on top began to inflate slightly larger and the vessel began to rise into the air. The zebra held her breath and waited, nervously look around at the pegasi and negasi surrounding the vessel, carefully monitoring in case anything went wrong. The earth ponies working the controls seemed unfazed.

Then they stopped rising. “Okay, hold on!” the ponies yelled before quickly lowering themselves to the ground. There was a sudden burst of magic and the ship rocketed forward, shoving the ponies, changeling and griffon against the back wall for a few moments.

The conjurer gulped and stared ahead as the wind ruffled through her mane. They were on their way, now. There was a good chance they would all die before they even faced her, but she tried desperately not to focus on that. Instead she focused on the fact the alicorn of love had the crystal heart and there was no telling how powerful she would be now. They were going to die.