The attacking dragons fled swiftly in the direction of the Dragon Realm. Twilight and Cadance chased them hard, but were no match for the speed of the dragons. King Lydda and his men were slower, marching at a brisk walk through the forest. The most direct route to the Realm passed not far from the lake. The scouters of both Princesses bleeped, showing a single high power level by the lake.
Cadance was distracted by her memories of passing two lower power levels by the lake earlier. "Twilight. You need to warn the Realm of the attack. I'm going to check out this power level."
"What?" Twilight questioned in disbelief that her fellow alicorn would abandon such an urgent matter for the sake of one power level.
"I passed two power levels around here when I was trying to find the village. I ignored them because I'd lost contact with you..."
"It can wait, though, surely?" Twilight pleaded.
"Well we can't do much to defend the Dragon Realm. Our magic does nothing against those crystals and the humans can't hurt them, either." Cadance paused, "I think the dragons are luring the humans into a slaughter..."
Twilight became wide-eyed, "But Spike was in charge. Spike wouldn't make an order like-" The Princess stopped her sentence, realising the potential outcome of having left Spike alone in the midst of a horde of war-hungry dragons. "Oh no, I've made a terrible mistake!" she cried, "What if they-" the purple princess pony panicked, growling at her own short-sightedness, "I have to rescue him!" she yelled, darting off without warning.
Cadance quickly tapped to open communications between the scouters, "I shouldn't be long, Twilight. I'm going down to check this out - it might be nothing. I'll be right behind you after that. Just remember that the dragons who attacked saw us and they might try to attack you if they see you. Don't go rushing in to save Spike, because they might be planning on trapping us, too. Take your time and observe what's going on from afar. Be safe, Twilight." she tapped the button on her scouter once more to close her end of the transmission and waited a few seconds for any reply. None came.
The pink alicorn turned her attention to the growing power level down by the lake. It was coming from the opposite side from where she was fluttering, so the Princess glided down silently toward the water. The power level was hidden amongst the trees and couldn't be seen from the edge of the water; her only choice was to venture into the trees.
Unfortunately, the pink coat of the Princess wasn't going to do much to camouflage her. Despite that, she crouched down and crept forward towards the source of the reading. She pushed leaves aside and took extra care to make as little noise as possible. The scene was tranquil, with only the sounds of the local wildlife to be heard. Birds chirped, branches swayed and leaves rustled as Cadance silently stalked her target. The reading was so close she was almost on top of it. The final leaf was turned and Cadance was met with the sight of a beautiful, blonde-haired human wearing a translucent blue dress sat facing away from her on the twig and leaf covered floor of the forest.
Cadance took a breath and loudly whispered "Hello?" The girl leapt from her place on the floor, turning to face the Princess. She'd looked as if she'd been crying. The girl sniffed, wiping her nose with the back of her hand and readying her stance as if she was either about to attack, defend or flee. The look on her face as she was confronted by a majestic pink alicorn was one of slight confusion. Cadance attempted to calm her, "It's okay, it's okay. My name's Princess Cadance. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help." she explained, "What's you name?"
The girl was still slightly taken aback, "I'm Princess Angelica." she answered, nervously.
Cadance was hit with a mixture of relief, excitement and surprise, "You're King Lydda's daughter?" she quizzed.
Angelica's eyebrows came closer together, "Yes." she answered, "You know my father?"
"I met him earlier today. He told me the dragons took you. What are you doing out here?"
Every word from Cadance seemed to confuse Angelica more and more, "Took me?" she questioned, "No. I've been coming down here to the lake for a while now. Ever since the dragons attacked the village, my father and I haven't met eye-to-eye over how we should deal with them. He bayed for blood, whereas I pushed for a more reasonable approach." she chuckled to herself, "It's funny; he'll do anything for me. He tried being peaceful about it at first because of me, but that didn't stop him arguing that we should have been taking a more 'direct' approach. I wandered off to the lake to get some peace and quiet."
Cadance awkwardly chuckled, "Well he's definitely taking the more direct approach now. The dragons have torched part of the village and your father has responded by declaring an attack on the Dragon Realm. He and his men are marching there right now, believing you're held captive inside."
Angelica's face turned to dread, "What?" she cried, "He can't!" she wept.
"He is." Cadance explained sternly, "What he's going to do isn't the question right now - the dragons have the Manifest Crystals; he and his men are marching into a trap - the question we need to be asking ourselves is what are we going to do to stop this from happening?" the alicorn asked. Angelica took deep breaths to calm herself, shutting her eyes tight. Her mind raced, remembering the events leading to this point and fearing the events that were about to unfold. She reached a hand down the front of her dress, pulling out a necklace. Attached to the end was a blue crystal just a little smaller than her hand. "Where did you get that?" Cadance queried.
"Princess Duciel gave it to me. She wanted to use the Manifest Crystals to defend her Realm from us. She gave me this one in case I needed to defend our village." the blonde-haired Princess explained.
"That's three for the dragons, one for us." Cadance mumbled to herself, "There may be hope yet." she smiled. "And Duciel - she seems to have went missing, too - do you know where she is?"
Angelica nodded, "She's on her way back to the Realm. She's probably already back there by now." she frowned.
"What's wrong?" Cadance questioned.
"Our last conversation..." Angelica recalled, painfully, "We're two hearts of the same colour on different sides of a conflict." she grit her teeth, "We both knew this would end in a bloody battle. We spent last night looking up into the night sky. We wished on a shooting star that this could all be over so we could be friends without having to sneak off." the Princess sobbed, "Now we might never see each other again."
Cadance approached Angelica and stroked the human Princess with the side of her head. "There's still time. It's not too late, trust me." she smiled, hoping to elicit a positive response from the cute blonde-haired girl. Angelica attempted a smile back. Cadance turned away and hunkered down. "Jump on," she proposed, "We'll find Princess Duciel, stop the fight, and have this all sorted by sun down. Okay?"
"How?" Angelica wondered.
"In Equestria, I'm known as the Princess of Love. That's got to stand for something, right?" Cadance grinned. "I've got a plan. We're going to be alright." she reaffirmed.