//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9: Betrayal 
// Story: Change the Heart 
// by FatesWinds 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 9
Betrayal
"My worst fear is that I may wake up to find that everything I once thought was true is little more than a cruel joke played on a gullible fool." —Star Gleam




“Hello there, Heart Shield.”
Heart Shield took a step back, staring at the pony before him in disbelief.
“Ch-Chrysalis?” he stammered.
She stood with her hoof on Twilight’s neck, looking at him with a small smirk on her face. His eyes moved from her to the bodies beside her. His friends lay on the ground, each one looking like they had been in the middle of a buffalo stampede. He looked back to Chrysalis, his heart pounding.
“What happened here?” he demanded. “Who did this to them?”
“I did.”
He jerked back at her admission to attacking his friends.
“Why…?” he said slowly. “What reason did you have to-?”
“What reason?” Chrysalis began to laugh coldly. “Why would I need a reason?”
“Because you changed! You aren’t the Chrysalis you were back at the wedding!”
She threw her head back, laughing louder.
“Changed? Me?” She looked at him and sneered. “Did you honestly believe that? You actually fell for that ruse?”
“R-ruse?”
Chrysalis stepped off of Twilight, kicking the unicorn aside. She slowly began to stalk toward him, her horn beginning to glow.
“You were so naïve,” she said. “You brought me back to health not knowing who I was. You trusted me completely, to the point where you actually got in the way of an attack meant for me. A few simple actions, a little healing, and you fell right into my plan, you trusted me, believed I’d changed. Your little friend Twilight was right all along. I used you, and you never knew it!”
Heart Shield took another step back, his head spinning.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “No, I don’t believe that!”
She fired a blast of magic at him, causing him to jump aside.
“You’re such a foal,” she laughed, firing at him again. “You’re still letting your emotions cloud your view of the truth.”
He shook his head again. “No, you changed. I heard what you were like before, and you aren’t like that anymore!”
Her next shot barely missed his right wing.
“You can’t honestly believe that still,” she sneered and charged him, knocking him aside with her head before he could react, sending him sprawling into the dirt. “So naïve, so foalish. You’d believe anything if it meant that somepony was good!”
“Chrysalis, stop this!” he shouted, getting to his hooves. “This isn’t you!”
“You have no idea what is and isn’t me!” she shouted back, hitting him square in the chest with another blast of magic.
He flew back several feet, only managing to skid to a halt by digging his hooves into the dirt and spreading his wings. Why was she doing this? This wasn’t the Chrysalis he knew, she’d never hurt him, never hurt his friends like that! She had to be under the control of somepony else, there was no other way she’d possibly be acting this way otherwise.
“Chrysalis, whatever spell you’re under, you have to fight it! Come back to your senses!”
She leapt into the air and shot towards him, firing another blast at his chest. He just barely managed to dodge it, but her next shot clipped his wing, causing him to cry out in pain.
“Please! Fight it!”
“I am under nopony’s control but my own!” she cried, slamming into Heart Shield.
He dug his hooves into the dirt, trying to gain some traction even as she pushed him back. The more he struggled the harder she pushed until he tripped over a stone. He was once again knocked to the ground, this time he wasn’t given a chance to recover, as she used her magic to lift him into the air and repeatedly slammed him into the ground. He cried out with each impact until the wind was knocked out of him. She threw him into a nearby tree then pulled him back to her before bucking him straight up into the air. When he smashed into the ground she pinned him down, planting her hoof on his throat and leveled her horn at his head.
“You were such a complete sap,” she sneered, horn glowing as she charged up her magic, “and so easily manipulated. All I had to do was stay silent and act interested in your annoying stories, act like a helpless pony, and you became putty in my hooves. You should have listened to your friend, Heart Shield. I must admit, you were quite the toy to play with, but a girl must outgrow her toys eventually, and you have outlived your usefulness. It’s time to say goodbye.”
Heart Shield looked at her pleadingly, begging her with his eyes to stop even as he saw that it was useless. He closed his eyes, preparing for the end, when suddenly, her weight was knocked off of him.
“Get yer heartless hooves off him!”
He opened his eyes, seeing Applejack lower her legs from bucking Chrysalis away. His body was surrounded in a light blue glow and he was raised up onto his hooves as Rarity helped him up and joined Applejack. A blue blur shot past them and slammed into Chrysalis, knocking her into the tree she had thrown Heart Shield at.
“That’s for ambushing us!” Rainbow Dash shouted, glaring at her.
“And this is for being a heartless mare!” Twilight cried, slamming Chrysalis with as much force as she could muster in her spell.
Chrysalis was smashed through the tree, flying back several feet before slamming into the ground.
“Stop it!” Heart Shield cried out. “Don’t hurt her, she’s got to be under somepony’s-!”
“Y’all need to stop defendin’ her and open yer eyes,” Applejack snapped. “She’s nothin’ more than a no good, back stabbin’ mare who’ll use whoever she wants to so long as she gets what she wants.”
“She’s right Heart Shield,” Fluttershy said, coming to join them along with Pinkie. “No matter how much you want her to be good, she can’t be the mare you want her to be.”
“You’re wrong!” Heart Shield said. “She’s not like that… She can’t… she can’t be like that.”
“I’m sorry, sugar cube, but that’s the cold hard truth of the matter,” Applejack said to him.
Chrysalis staggered to her hooves and narrowed her eyes at them all. “I’m tired of you six getting in my way!”
“Oh yeah?” shouted Twilight, firing another bolt of magic at the Changeling Queen. “Well we’re tired you destroying our home!”
Chrysalis smirked as the attack raced at her. Before the magic got within a foot of her a ball of fire shot into its path, exploding on impact with Twilight’s spell. The flare from the explosion blinded the unicorn and her friends. They heard more explosions around them, the earth shook from the force of each impact. Twilight counted thirty in total before the explosions stopped and her vision returned, and she couldn’t believe what she saw. Surrounding them were changelings, for there was nothing else they could be, larger than the ones they had faced before, but that wasn’t the only thing that froze her heart in her chest. They had an aura around them of pure darkness, stronger than even Sombra’s! Chrysalis took a step forward, laughing triumphantly.
“What do you think, Twilight?” she asked, running a hoof under one of the changeling’s chins. “Impressive aren’t they?”
“Wh-what are those things?” Heart Shield asked. The sight of them sent a cold chill down his spine, his breath caught in his throat. Those… those creatures, for some reason the mere thought of them filled him with fear. It wasn’t that their size was intimidating, though they were almost as large as Lady Luna. No, what terrified him was the darkness he felt coming from them, the way they seemed to waver in his sight like faint ripples in water. Whenever that happened, he thought he saw them change. It was never longer than a fraction of a second, but he felt like there was much more to these… things than first look. He wanted to turn and run, but his body wouldn’t obey him.
“Oh, that’s right, you’ve never seen a changeling before, have you?” Chrysalis sneered, fixing her eyes on him. “Well, savor this moment. The seven of you are the first to witness my new army’s strength.” She walked around her changelings as if they were her pride and joy. “These aren’t at all like the ones your friends encountered before. They- oh, but why ruin the surprise? You’ll find out what I mean soon enough.”
She turned around, meeting the gazes of the frightened ponies before her. Her eyes wandered over each face; not a single one of them could hide their fear, the fear her new pets would strike into the hearts of every pony in Equestria. They had no clue as to why they would cower, but as she had expected, they succumbed to their inexplicable terror.
“Go take care of Canterlot, I’ll deal with these ones personally. After all, I still have unfinished business with them.”
The changelings vanished in bursts of flame, leaving her alone once more with the helpless ponies before her. Her horn lit up and she knocked the group aside easier than she would swat a fly. They crashed together into the tree she had been sent crashing through. Without pausing for a second, she pulled them apart, lifting them high into the air until they looked like the ants they were, before bringing them back to earth like stones. Each of them smashed a crater twice their size into the ground, which grew larger and larger as she repeated the process again and again. She could hear their cries, their screams, of pain, of terror. It was the most wondrous melody she had ever heard, she was almost sad when they ceased. Chrysalis walked slowly over to the single crater formed from their final impact. She looked over each of their bodies, weak, helpless, broken, she was surprised to see that any of them still breathed, more so when they finally managed to stand up. What a truly pathetic sight they were. The ponies who had once foiled her plans were now battered like she had been, not a single one of them looked like they could remain standing for much longer. Her eyes fell on the foolish pegasus who had helped her, and a cold smile formed over her lips.
For a second, Heart Shield saw her eyes flash to a solid violet color, before they resumed their usual dual green. “It’s not her…” he whispered to himself.
Chrysalis’s horn began to glow.
“What’d y’all say?” Applejack asked.
“It’s not Chrysalis…”
He knew what he had seen, this wasn’t Chrysalis at all, she wasn’t the one who had done all of this, and that realization filled him with anger. Anger that somepony dared to attack his home disguised as her. Anger that somepony had attacked his friends hiding behind her face. Anger that he had allowed himself to believe for a moment that this was her. He jumped into the air, ignoring the pain that shot through his entire body, pointing at the Changeling Queen. 
“That’s not her!” he shouted as he flew straight at her, his anger giving into rage, which became hatred, which he in turn used as strength.
Chrysalis, startled by his shout looked up at him, the glow vanishing from her horn as her concentration broke. Heart Shield rammed his head into her chest, tackling her to the ground. They tumbled over the earth for a moment before he jumped up and pinned her down, planting a hoof one of her wings and another on her chest, glaring at her.
“Who are you?” he demanded, digging his hoof hard into her chest. “And why are you pretending to be Chrysalis!”
“I have no idea what you mean,” she sneered, not even bothering to struggle.
Heart Shield moved quickly off of her, turning to buck her side like Applejack had taught him when showing him how to deal with some of the dead trees around the barn. Chrysalis was knocked back, tumbling around before she managed to roll over and dig her hooves into the ground. She stood up as fast as she could and was rewarded with another buck from the pegasus, sending her up into the air. Heart Shield raced after her, slamming into her from below, clipping her wings as he shot past before turning around in midair and shot down like a cannonball, a technique he’d picked up from Rainbow Dash one day. He rammed into her with as much force as he could muster, sending the both of them crashing into the earth even as his friends ran over. He forced himself to his hooves, stamping onto her sides as hard as he could.
“What did you do to her?!” he snarled, planting a hoof on her neck, preparing to bring his other crashing onto her head. “Tell me what you did to Chrysalis, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll spare your life!”
Chrysalis looked up at him and laughed. “You care for her. And you fear that caring might have been misplaced after all. You fear you’re as naïve as everypony thinks you are for trusting her.”
As she laughed, her voice began to change, transforming into a rough, icy snarl of a voice. It wasn’t the only thing that changed. Her dual-colored eyes shifted to be the solid violet he’d seen. Her teal mane and tail were replaced by a raging inferno of emerald flames. The horn on her head vanished into the flames as a white fang-like one emerged from her snout. Teal plating ran down her neck and under her entire body even as armor grew over her chest, back and legs. Her wings melded together until they resembled dragons’ wings, though the holes remained in them and her legs.
“Where. Is. She!” Heart Shield snarled again, pressing his hoof harder into the unmasked creature’s throat. “This is your last chance!” He raised the hoof poised over its head higher.
“Preparing for your kind’s destruction,” the changeling laughed. “We have become more than the changelings we once were, and it’s all thanks to you, and your unicorn friend of course. You gave us back our queen, and now we shall return the favor. We shall give you back your fear, your land’s darkness and destruction!”
Heart Shield brought his hoof down. Before it could land, he was grabbed from behind  and wrestled away from the changeling by Applejack and Rainbow Dash. He struggled to get free, to escape so that he could make that creature pay for everything. Twilight encased the changeling in a powerful magical bind she had been studying.
“Let me go!” he shouted.
“Not a chance,” Dash said, helping Applejack to force him to the ground. “You need to cool off!”
“Like hay I do! That thing still has to pay for attacking my friends! My home! It has to pay for using her face to do so! LET ME GO!”
“Stop strugglin’ before y’all break somethin’!” Applejack ordered,  pinning her friend down. “Twi, we could use some help here!”
Before Twilight could answer, another changeling, looking just like this one, appeared beside the first. “Assessments have been completed Captain. We’re heading back as planned to alert the Swarm.”
“Took you long enough,” the first growled, flames licking up around it.
The flames shot straight into the air, forcing Twilight to retreat back to avoid being burned, and when they died down, both changelings were gone.
“Mind tellin’ me what the hay just happened?” Applejack asked, still keeping her friend pinned down.
“I-I don’t know,” Twilight stammered, staring at the lingering smoke from where the flames had been, “th-that was a spell that should be strong enough to keep a full-sized dragon pinned down, I got it from one of the Princess’s books! I don’t know how they escaped!”
“You should have made it stronger,” Heart Shield growled from under Dash and Applejack. “Or better yet, let me have dealt with it!”
“And why would I do that?” she replied, rounding on him. “What the hay was wrong with you? What did you think you were doing!”
“Why did you stop me! We would have had one less problem to deal with!”
“You were going to kill it!”
“It would have killed us given the chance.”
“That’s not the point! You allowed your emotions to get the better of you!”
Heart Shield bit back his response and looked away. Twilight was right, he shouldn’t have acted like that. His friends allowed him to get to his hooves when they saw that he had calmed down.
“I’m sorry,” he said, not looking at any of them. “I over reacted…”
“That’s an understatement,” muttered Twilight.
“I agree, it was a rather disturbing display of brutish behavior,” said Rarity.
“I said I was  sorry,” Heart Shield said through gritted teeth. “Can we head back now? Everypony’s waiting for us back at the ruins, and I don’t think there’s anything left to do here…”
“Fine,” Twilight replied, “I need to send a letter to Princess Celestia anyway…”

***

Everypony crowded around them when they returned. The ponies who worked at the hospital tended to their injuries the moment the seven friends reappeared at the entrance to the ruins. Everypony demanded details from the group, but one look from Heart Shield quelled all questions for the moment. Twilight called for Spike after the nurses had finished, wanting to send a letter to the Princess immediately, but before Spike could even begin to write, he belched out a letter from Celestia herself. Celestia had received Twilight’s earlier letter and requested that they report to Canterlot immediately. Fortunately, the train station had been left intact during the destruction, so they were able to travel faster than they would by balloon. During the trip there was one thing on everypony’s mind.
“What were those things?” Dash said.
“Some new form of changeling I guess,” replied Twilight.
“So where did they come from?” asked Heart Shield. “How did they know all of those things?”
“Clearly-.”
“If you say Chrysalis is behind this Twilight, so help me-.”
“That’s enough out of the two of y’all,” Applejack said, stepping between her friends. “You have different opinions, but don’t let that cause any more trouble between us. We have enough on our hooves as it is without y’all fightin’ all the time.”
“Fine,” Heart Shield replied, glaring out the window of the car they were in.
“I don’t know why you won’t just face the facts,” Twilight muttered. “You just keep letting your feelings for her cloud your judgment.”
“Drop it Sparkle.”
“No! You need to get over yourself and see that she is not the pony you thought she was!”
Heart Shield turned around and glared at his friend until she backed up. He walked past her to the door to the next car and kicked it open. “I’ve had enough of this,” he said  as he went inside, kicking the door shut behind him.
Rarity sighed and looked at Twilight. “Honestly, the two of you are so stuck on this fight. Perhaps you should consider that topic taboo before one of you says something you’ll regret.”

***

“Thank you for coming so quickly,” Celestia said when the group of friends stepped off the train. “As you can see, we too had an attack not long ago.” She waved her head at the city.
The ponies she had asked to come stared at what they saw. Though Canterlot appeared to be much better off than Ponyville, there were still dozens of burning houses and shops, the stadium where the Wonderbolts’ races were held was nothing more than rubble, even the walls of the castle had giant holes smashed into them, the tower where the library could be found was burning with around thirty pegasi were busy trying to put out the flames.
“I-I can’t believe it…” Heart Shield said, unable to comprehend the amount of destruction to his old home.
“What… what happened Princess?” Twilight asked, trying to soak it all in.
“Soon after your letter arrived Canterlot was attacked by changelings. We thought that our new defenses against them would help, but we were as helpless before them as we were at the wedding. These changelings had no particular target in mind, in fact, it seemed as if they were merely testing our reaction time. As quickly as they appeared, they vanished,” Princess Luna said, gliding through the air to land beside her sister.
“That explains what that changeling meant by ‘assessment,’” Heart Shield muttered. “They were testing us…”
“For what reason?” asked Fluttershy. “Why now?”
“I’m wondering that same thing Fluttershy,” said Celestia, her tone sounding as if she were treading on thin ice as she looked at Heart Shield.
“I know what you’re thinking Lady Celestia, and you’re wrong. Chrysalis isn’t behind this, not directly at least. One of them impersonated her and attacked us, playing us all for fools. Why do that? If Chrysalis was behind the attack, wouldn’t it have been much easier to be here herself? Something has to have happened to h-.”
“You need to stop defending her! Look around you, the evidence is all here! Why are you so stuck on believing she’s good!” Twilight shouted at Heart Shield.
“Because the fact of the matter is that you saw a different side of her when you sent her away, and she was not taking part in the attack,” he said calmly.
Celestia shot her student a look and turned to the young pegasus. “And what makes you say she wasn’t behind this, other than your own personal stance on the matter?”
He looked back at her. “For one, she wasn’t part of the attacking force. Given what you all had said about her, it stands to reason that she wouldn’t sit back given a chance for revenge, nor would she waste her time with an attack like this. She would be at the forefront so that she could take care of those who stopped her before, and she would have brought an entire army like before. For another, from the sound of things, the original changelings had similar magic to hers. I’ve felt what her magic is like, and the false Chrysalis’s magic felt nothing like hers; I’d go so far as to say that it felt like it was at the opposite end of the spectrum. The mere sensation of being encased in it was painful.”
“This does not mean that she isn’t behind the attack.”
“Then let me prove it.” Heart Shield took a step toward Lady Celestia, a determined look in his eyes. “Give me the chance to prove that she’s innocent in this matter.”
“And how would you propose doing that?” Lady Luna asked.
“I’ll find her,” he declared. “I’ll find out where she is and I’ll get the truth from her.”
Twilight snorted. “You wouldn’t be able to tell if she was lying even if you found her.”
“Now who’s letting their emotions cloud their judgment?” he shot back. “You owe me for what happened. You acted out of spite and didn’t trust your own friend, so back off and trust me now! I’ll know if she’s lying to me.”
“You would still have to find her,” Luna pointed out. “How do you plan to do so, to find somepony who we’ve searched all over Equestria for?”
“By looking elsewhere. I’ve looked over all the documented histories of Equestria, all the maps from over the centuries, and I can’t find a single place that looks like she’d be hiding out in. And I know why now. She’s not in Equestria. That’s why nopony can find her. From what she told Twilight and me, the home of the changelings is far from Equestria; I don’t even think it’s on the same continent as us, otherwise, wouldn’t there have been reports from other nations of their activity?”
Celestia mused over this for several minutes.
“It is possible,” she admitted, “and it does make sense. I’d sent word to every nation, even to those as far away as Saddle Arabia, and nopony anywhere had even heard of the changelings. Tell me, how are you going to find her when nopony has been off this land since Luna and I were young?”
“Your unicorns were able to find a tiny amount of Chrysalis’s magical signature on me before, I’m assuming it wasn’t enough to get a trace on her location otherwise none of this would have happened. There’s a lot more magic lingering around Canterlot and Ponyville than there was on me, can you use that to track the changelings to where they came from?”
“We might be able to. Several members of the Guard managed to isolate the magic for that reason.”
“If you can, you need to use it as a focus. I doubt we’ll get the exact location, but a general sense of where to go would be ideal at first.”
“Very well, I’ll see what can be done,” Celestia said, looking at Heart Shield with calculating eyes. “If we succeed, what do you plan to do.”
“Find her, or at least find those changelings,” he replied, standing up straighter. “Find the truth.” He paused and thought for a moment. “If it does turn out that they are not anywhere on the continent, I need to borrow a ship; chances are that any land overseas will be at least a few days away, too long to make the trip by flying alone.”
Celestia and Luna exchanged a look at this. Luna nodded to her sister.
“Sister, it would be wise to allow it,” she said. “It will need to be repaired, and fixed for haste.”
“Nopony has left on such a journey for centuries, are you certain that is the ideal choice?”
“Nay, but ‘tis the only one we have.”
Celestia sighed and turned back to the pegasus. “Very well,” she said. “There is one that we used to use to visit Dragon Isle, an island several days journey from here, before it was damaged by Nightmare Moon. Since then, nopony has even laid eyes on it. I regret to say that in order to show me how powerful she was, what forced me to use the Elements of Harmony against her, she attacked the island. Due to this, the dragons there forbade any contact from anypony, lest they retaliate and lay waste to us. I shall have my best ponies working on repairing it if it turns out we must use it, but on one condition.” She looked at Heart Shield with a grave and serious expression. “If you embark on this journey to find her, it shall be to attempt to prove her innocence in these events as you so wish, but should another attack come before that happens, consider it a reconnaissance mission to identify the location of our enemy so that we can strike back. In other words, if Chrysalis is behind this, or if Equestria or any nation here is attacked, we shall be at war.”
Heart Shield met her gaze, defiance lighting his eyes like a wildfire. “I accept your terms Lady Celestia. If another attack takes place, or if she truly is, as you all are determined to believe, behind this, then I will send word when I find her to prepare Equestria’s army for war.”
Twilight stared at her friend. She had expected him to refuse Princess Celestia’s condition, or to take much longer to decide.
“You shocked as much as ah am sugarcube?” Applejack whispered to her.
“Yes,” she whispered back. “He agreed so easily, it’s like he didn’t even think about it for a second!”
“I’m surprised too,” said Fluttershy. “Given how much he seems to care about her… this had to have been a difficult choice. He’ll have to stand against her if he’s wrong.”
“So then why agree that quickly?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“You don’t think he doesn’t plan to do as Princess Celestia says do you?” Pinkie said.
“Go against a direct order from the Princess? Why I don’t think anypony would be that foolish, no matter how much they cared for somepony else,” interjected Rarity.
“After everything we just saw today, how quickly he reacted, how completely unlike himself he was, I don’t think we can say that for certain,” Twilight muttered. “He’s acted like a completely different pony ever since he met her.”
“No, that don’t sound like our Heart Shield,” Applejack replied. “If ah know anything about him, it’s that he stands by what he says. If he agreed to do as Princess Celestia said that quickly, then it’s because he believes completely that mare is innocent.”
Celestia searched Heart Shield’s face for any hint of dishonesty and found none. His words were sincere. She nodded. “Very well then. I’ll instruct everypony who can help with the spell to trace the magic back to its source to do so at once, and I’ll let my best working team know that we need to repair the ship. The spell should be complete within a day or two, I’ll send word to you as soon as it’s finished, but I suspect that the ship may take a while longer to be fixed.”
“Whatever needs to be done,” replied Heart Shield. “I need to help rebuild Ponyville as it stands anyway. There are a lot of ponies without a home now, and from the looks of things here, Canterlot will be too busy with the same to help out or house those of us needing shelter.”
“Will there be anything else you require?”
Heart Shield turned to look at his friends over his shoulder. “Supplies for all of us, enough for at least a few weeks since we have no idea what’s out there. I’m going to need my friends with me in case things turn out badly, if they agree of course.”
“You must have hit your head hard earlier if you think for a moment that we’d let you go off on an adventure like that on your own!” declared Rainbow Dash.
“What she means to say is of course we’ll come with you,” said Twilight, smiling a little at Dash’s enthusiasm.
“Then it’s settled,” said Celestia. “I’ll let you know what we find in a few days’ time.”
“Thank you Lady Celestia…”
“Sister, I know you wished to speak further with them, but we must assist with the reconstruction of Canterlot. Now, more than ever, are we needed by our subjects,” Luna said, looking regretfully at her sister.
“I know Luna,” Celestia sighed. She looked back at the young ponies who stood before her. “I will let you all know what we find. For now, please return home, I’m certain your friends will need your help in rebuilding Ponyville. Once Canterlot has been put back together I’ll have some of the ponies here come help you, I have a feeling that your home may be in  worse shape than ours.”
“Thank you Princess,” said Twilight.

***

Ten days passed before Ponyville began to resemble its former self. Even with magic the reconstruction moved slowly. Supplies were limited and they kept having to travel to neighboring towns and cities to get what materials they needed. Almost everypony had lost their homes, and many with foals and fillies had to leave and stay with family until they once again had a place to stay. The aid from Canterlot helped to move things along quicker, but from how everything looked, it seemed that it would be at least another month would pass before all the houses were rebuilt, and then another month before the shops were completely restored. While the rebuilding progressed, there was one thing on everypony’s minds: would there be another attack? So far, there was no sign of any more changeling activity, but the threat still remained.
Princess Celestia notified Twilight and her friends that the spell to trace the changelings was a success, and that it did indeed look as though they would have to travel by sea a few days after their return to Ponyville. A week later, another letter arrived at each of their homes.
My little ponies, it appears as though the time has arrived at last. The ship has been fully restored and remodeled for Heart Shield’s specifications. We do not know if or when the next attack will arrive, so I require you all to come to Canterlot at once, time is of the essence. My Guard will be awaiting your arrival at the station and they have been instructed to lead you to a gate Luna and I set up so that you can meet us at the bay. You will need to be taught everything you need to know by the technicians who recreated the ship. I wish I could say more, and that I could be less cryptic, but this has been kept a secret from everypony save for those involved. I pray that you understand.
– Princess Celestia