The sound of soft coos echoed around the room. The sound came from the foal that Princess Cadance held in her hooves, Princess Flurry Heart. Cadance yawned as she put the foal down in the crib.

“For once, she's actually sleeping peacefully.”

Cadance turned around to see that the voice had come from her disheveled husband, standing in the nursery doorway. He was right — although she slept a lot in the day, she often woke up in the middle of the night, crying and screaming until either Cadance or Shining Armor could come to calm her down.

“Even though I haven't gotten any sleep recently, I wouldn't give her up for anything,” said Cadance.

Shining Armor smiled. “Yeah…”

Much to Cadance's displeasure, Shining Armor was dozing off and his eyes were starting to close. “Tired, are we?” asked Cadance, walking towards her husband.

Shining Armor jolted. “What!?”

Cadance let out a chuckle and then frowned.

“What is it, Cady?” asked Shining Armor.

Cadance sighed. “It just seems like you're coping with this whole ‘parenthood’ thing a lot better than me.”

“What?! Cadance, you're a great mother, an incredible wife, and a wonderful ruler. You're doing fine!”

Cadance exhaled. “I guess this feeling comes to every parent. I just hope I'm doing a good job.”

Shining Armor stroked his wife’s cheek with one hoof. “You are doing a great job! Flurry will be a great pony in the future.”

They each kissed the forehead of their foal. Princess Cadance turned on the baby monitor and turned off the light of the nursery. The rulers of the Crystal Empire then headed downstairs to the dining hall.

“Honestly, Shining, did you really name your baby after when she nearly destroyed the Crystal Empire?” asked Twilight Sparkle.

Shining Armor glared at the princess. “Hey! Cadance agreed!”

Luna raised an eyebrow at her niece who in return let out a defeated sigh.

“A mare can only take so much, Auntie Luna. It was either Flurry Heart or Skyla and you don't want to know how Shiny thought up the name Skyla.”

Celestia let out a chuckle and so did every pony else at the dinner table. After a newborn foal had nearly destroyed the Crystal Empire, a relaxing dinner was needed. In the dining room were all the Elements of Harmony, Four Princesses, Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst, and Prince Shining Armor.

Princess Twilight finished her strawberry cake and put down her fork, turning to her new apprentice to talk about their next friendship lesson, but Starlight Glimmer was deep in a hushed conversation with her old friend, Sunburst. The two unicorns noticed the alicorn staring at them and quickly ended their discussion.

“So, Starlight, how did you two become friends again?” asked Twilight.

Starlight Glimmer idly levitated her knife, spinning it in the air while she spoke. “Oh! Well...at first it was pretty awkward and we only had a short encounter. We then bonded when the Empire was being invaded by the icy snow. We admitted our pasts to one another.”

Twilight nodded towards Starlight’s untouched dessert. “Not hungry?”

Starlight bolted her head towards her teacher. “Oh! Didn't notice that.” Starlight then quickly used her magic to cut into her slice cake and used a fork to lift it to her lips. “Yum!”

Twilight thought her student was acting strangely. It wasn’t like her to forget about dessert. Was she feeling unwell? Before she could ask, she was distracted by Princess Celestia calling out her name.

Starlight turned back to Sunburst, lowering her voice to a whisper.

Princess Cadance’s eyes fluttered open as familiar loud coos and giggles slowly made her conscious. She was barely awake and looked to her right to see her sleeping husband, snoring peacefully. On her nightstand was the baby monitor which had woken her from her long-overdue slumber. She could clearly hear the coos and giggles of Flurry Heart — awake, but happy.

Shining Armor stirred in his sleep and slowly awoke and mumbled, “your turn.” He turned to his side and then drifted off to sleep. The Love Princess groaned, but Shining was right — it was her turn.

She half-rolled, half-crawled out of bed, rubbing her eyes. Yawning and walking to the door, she reflected on how unusual it was to be woken by such happy noises. Being woken in the middle of the night wasn’t exactly welcome, but Flurry’s sweet little giggles were a lot better than the usual wails and screams that pierced Cadance’s eardrums at one o’clock in the morning.

The pink alicorn ambled along the crystalline corridor, heading from her bedchamber towards the nursery. She felt so tired that she wasn’t sure if she was sleep-walking. When Cadance reached the nursery, she lazily pushed the door open with her hooves — she could have used magic, but… effort.

A gasp. Cadance’s eyes flew open as quick as a lightning bolt. A tall figure. A black cloak. A knife!

The Princess of Love let out an ear piercing shriek. The cloaked assassin pocketed the sharp-looking blade in some beat-up old saddlebags, and quickly grabbed Flurry Heart. Flurry cried and screamed out.

Cadance stood her ground in the doorway. Moments ago, she was half asleep, but now she was wide awake and adrenaline was coursing through her veins. There was no way this pony was getting past her.

The assassin's eyes flicked to the open window. Cadance looked towards it too. “Guards!” she screamed.

The cloaked pony charged directly at her. Cadance knew she couldn’t back away, but she closed her eyes and flinched, bracing herself for an impact that never happened. Opening her eyes again, she looked behind her. Teleportation! With the cloak, she hadn’t noticed a horn.

“Stop!” shrieked Cadance, running after the assassin who still held her daughter.

Luna emerged from her guest room, already awake, and seeing what was happening, banged on her older sister’s door.

The cloaked figure released a blue wave of magical energy which flung the Crystal Guards back against the cold wall, knocking them unconscious.

Cadance bolted after the assassin, tears running down her face.

The Princess of the Night flew after them and then teleported right in front of the assassin, firing a powerful spell at the cloaked intruder. The assassin threw up a magical shield to block it just in time, and the two beams of magic clashed into each other, the ponies locked in stalemate. Fallout from their battle tore up the floor.

In seconds, Cadance arrived at the scene and her horn began to glow. “Stop!” she yelled at Luna, helping the assassin push back Luna’s beam. “Don’t harm her — she has Flurry!”

Luna at once let her magic drop, and the assassin’s beam knocked the Princess of the Night off her hooves.

“Give me back my baby!” Cadance shouted, charging once more at the assassin. She threw her shoulder at the cloaked pony just as the pony teleported behind her again.

The assassin ran the other direction down the corridor but was suddenly wrapped in a pink aura and pulled off her hooves into the air. A blue magical glow came from under her hood, but nothing happened. She kicked her hooves helplessly. “What’s…? What’s happening?” came a feminine voice from beneath the robe.

“I’m lifting you up,” Twilight Sparkle announced.

“And I’m blocking your attempts to teleport away,” Celestia explained.

The four princesses surrounded the cloaked pony, and Twilight carefully lowered her to the floor. The pony sighed defeatedly, and the Princess of Friendship at last released her. The assassin knew she had no way of escaping now.

Several Crystal Guards surrounded the assassin, pointing their spears at her. “Your majesties, are you alright?”

“We will be,” Cadance answered. She addressed the cloaked pony. “Return my daughter unharmed, and I give you my word that we will be merciful.”

The pink alicorn gently took her baby out of the assassin’s hooves and held her foal trying to calm her down.

By now, other ponies were starting to arrive at the scene. “W–What happened?” asked Starlight Glimmer. Rarity and Fluttershy shrugged. Sunburst simply stared at the scene.

“Somepony tried to kill Princess Flurry Heart,” Cadance explained.

The new arrivals gasped at the unexpected news. “Let me at’tem!” Applejack demanded, marching towards the captive pony, until Rarity held her back.

“Not just somepony,” Luna corrected. “I fought her… this could only be a very powerful unicorn… or… no… it couldn’t be Chrysalis, could it?”

“There's only one way to find out,” said Twilight. Using her magic, she lifted off the cloak covering the assassin’s identity.

The dark pink mare stood up — she was tall, about as tall as Luna, and had an elegant horn. Her mane and tail were cut short and starting to grey, but showed hints of purple, pink, and yellow. Her eyes were a darker shade of purple and showed a mixture of fear and defiance. She looked battered, and not just by her fight tonight — part of her right ear was missing, and her body showed multiple scars and burn marks that had had time to heal. She...she is an alicorn!? Her left wing, too, was missing, replaced by a mechanical substitute.

The ponies assembled, and stood in disbelief. Shining Armor was the first to speak. His eyes moved from the assassin to his wife and back again. “It’s… it can’t be… it looks just like…”

Twilight walked up, and stood beside him. “Yes… it’s Cadance.”

Author's Notes:

Finally it's done! This project has been in the works since like May. I'd like to thank VitalSpark, my co-author and my editor Angry Lass. The concept for this story is from Rated Ponystar. Comments are welcomed! Also if you know who is the artist for the Coverart please tell me! Expect a new chapter soon!