Elsewhere in the depths of the Everfree, Chrysalis and her changeling minions are planning an attack on the Crystal Empire for the third go round.
"So, we have a bit of an issue this time around, the Savior child Flurry Heart," hisses Chrysalis.
"And the fact you can't masquerade as Cadance again," pipes up a changeling named Larvae.
"But I could masquerade as Shining Armor if we knock him out," responds Chrysalis hissing. "But even that's too risky as the foal is super close to her father and would notice an imposter. Drat! And if you're about to say masquerade as Twilight, that would also backfire as she's also super close to her Auntie Twily."
"Then what do we do, your highness?" inquires Larvae.
"We replace the Crystal Guard. Each and every one of them," responds Chrysalis. "They'll never see that one coming." That night they put their plan into action, replacing each and every one of the Crystal Guard by morning time comes with the sunrise. Chrysalis then retreats back to their hiding hole in the Everfree and transforms into a phoenix so she can keep an eye on things from the sky above in the nests hidden throughout the Empire.
That morning, Shining notices something is not quite right. "Why are you guys lounging around, soldiers?! There's a war at hoof. Get to your posts!"
"Sorry, Captain, long night," respond the changeling guards in unison before heading off to the posts of the ponies they replaced. Chrysalis, now as a ladybug, watches from the window and whispers in a hiss to herself, "our plan in going perfectly." She then flies off back to the forest.
Meanwhile at the palace, Shining brings up his complaint to his wife. "Honey, I can sense something wrong. My magic feels it. I think the changelings are back and that they replaced my guards."
"Yeah, I sense it to," responds Cadance. "But how do we know which guards are real and which are fake?"
"I...I don't know," responds Shining. "Other than our power, our daughter's power, combined with the Crystal Heart." Shining then runs off to gather Flurry Heart and the Crystal Heart and brings them into the throne room. They then use the Heart to search out throughout the castle for the changeling spies in their midst and they soon find them. They're each and every single one of the guards. Now, now, they can worry. This is truly a bigger problem than the three initially thought.
"So, mommy, daddy, how do we take down a whole army worth of changelings?" inquires Flurry Heart. "We can't do it, three against thousands."
"I...I don't know..." says Cadance starting to freak out. She knows with this many around, their queen can't be far away. "But I'm honestly more worried about their queen...Chrysalis...as they are a hive mind species. We find her and destroy her and we get rid of all her drones...for good."
"Yeah, she's right," responds Twilight who has since entered the room, "The question is just where could she possibly be? Surely she's not that far away. Do you mind doing a locator spell, brother?"
"Already on it, Twily," responds Shining. "And it seems like she's within the Everfree Forest, but that's as much as I've got."
"Well, it's better than nothing," responds Twilight. "But the others aren't available, we'll have to figure this out on our own. Just the four of us."
"Oh, may Celestia help us," sighs Cadance in fear. The four then leave the room to try to talk and relax Cadance's nerves over some tea.