Twilight's dash to the Dragon Realm was in its closing stages; the volcano was close by, but the dragons who attacked the village had seemingly disappeared. As she soared towards the mouth of the Realm, power levels slowly began to appear. One by one, readings from dragons on the ground, in the air, and inside the volcano started to appear. The purple alicorn figured the best course of action would be to dive straight into the palace and locate Spike, assuming that the aggressors wouldn't attack her, and certainly wouldn't attack inside the palace.
The Princess pointed herself at the mouth of the volcano, streamlined her body and pierced the air as she shot towards the palace. Several dragons turned their gazes towards the purple and pink streaks of light left behind from her dive, but none cared enough to let it distract them for more than a few seconds. Twilight gracefully swooped through the entrance of the palace and into the main hallway.
"Spike?" Twilight called. "Spike!" she yelled, hoping for a response.
A few moments of silence lingered before she heard the pattering of feet against the stone floors followed by the familiar ring of her assistant's voice, "Twilight!" he cried, bursting suddenly into view from an adjacent hall. "You're back!" he beamed, leaping towards his carer and embracing her with a loving hug.
Following him shortly after came the stomping of several large dragons. Twilight was caught somewhat off guard, "Who are these, Spike?" she pondered, staring up into the eyes of two large, rough-looking dragons.
"Oh, well I used the War Horn to call Captain Espoir, and these two big guys are two of his lackeys!" he beamed with excitement, "I told them to bring the King back to his throne, and guess what?" he grinned as more huge, stomping feet approached.
Twilight's eyes lit up as King Depaix appeared from around the corner, "Miss Sparkle," he acknowledged. "how did the talks go?"
The lit face immediately dropped. "That's what I came back to tell you. I didn't get much out of them, but they're creatures known as 'humans', not 'Heroes' like we were calling them. North-East of here is a village full of them, and three dragons from this Realm did attack them. You told me you didn't know where they lived..." Twilight pause, implying she wanted reaffirmation he was telling the truth about that.
"I told you we don't know the location of their settlement." King Depaix confirmed, somewhat offended by implied accusations to the contrary.
"I thought as much." Twilight nodded, "There are a small group of dragons in the Realm who are acting out of line, provoking the humans to attack."
"Who would be so stupid?" the King questioned, "Not only to provoke another species, but lead them to attack your own home? To have them mercilessly slaughter your own people?" he grunted angrily.
"I don't know," Twilight admitted, "but that's not the biggest thing we have to worry about right now, you see, because whilst Cadance and I were talking to their King, the dragons attacked again." she fearfully informed the King, "Their village is torched and lives have been lost. They're marching this way right now, and we can't stop them."
Depaix scowled in fury, "Then I'm afraid there's no other option. We must defend ourselves. This is war!" the King decreed, stomping off at a blinding pace down the hall and into the throne room. He immediately noticed the War Horn was missing from its holder. "Spike!" he called, turning around and heading back into the halls to confront him. "Where is the War Horn, Spike?"
Spike racked his brain, trying to remember where he placed it after sending Espoir and his men on their duties. "I-I... I don't know!" he panicked.
King Depaix did not appreciate the answer, "Without the War Horn, I can't prepare the Realm for war!" he bellowed. The King closed his eyes, took a breath and calmed himself down. "Right. If we can't inform the Realm of their attack, we'll have to defend the Kingdom ourselves." he declared, "We shall have to retrieve the Manifest Crystals."
Spike cocked his head, "But King, I sent the Captain to retrieve the Crystals from the Crystal Empire. He should be back shortly - he's been gone a while."
The King stared back at Spike in confusion. "The Crystals are in our armoury - Espoir knows that."
Twilight interrupted, "Cadance mentioned Manifest Crystals. The dragons who attacked the village were wearing them." she explained.
"Impossible!" the King snorted, putting the all-too-obvious picture together, yet still choosing to deny his own realisation. The ground trembled beneath their feet. The whole group were caught off guard by the intense rumbling coming from the volcano, but the King was too enraged to care. He turned to Espoir's two lackeys for an explanation. "You two, explain to me what Espoir is doing or I will have you banished from my Kingdom!" he roared.
The two dragons raised their guard, "Espoir isn't planning anything!" one of them argued.
The King snorted, "Balderdash!" he insisted. Suddenly, the attentions of the group were taken by the noise of fire, metal and screams. The humans were attacking. The King looked back at the lackeys, "You two, redeem yourselves immediately. Take up arms and defend our land!" he ordered. They immediately complied, rushing out of the palace to join the attack. Next, he turned to Twilight. "You ponies wield considerable power. Use it to fight the onslaught."
Twilight stepped back, considering the King's demands, "Look, I appreciate you need to defend yourselves, but getting myself involved could drag Equestria into this war and I don't think I can do that..." she said sheepishly.
The King bore his teeth, leaning his face into that of the Princess', "You made yourself a part of this war the moment you stepped on our soil. My Kingdom faces eradication and my people face death! If you wish for us to participate in any form of resolution between our two species, you'll do what is right and do what you can to stop this!" he bellowed.
Twilight, however, didn't back down from her beliefs, "No." she said, defiantly.
"Then consider yourself on their side of this conflict. Get out of my palace before I deal with you myself."
Twilight stared into the eyes of King Depaix, frantically trying to figure out a way to resolve the conflict peacefully. Unfortunately, she couldn't muster up a resolution. "Fine." she agreed as a feeling of defeat swept over her. She turned to Spike and called him along, "Come on, Spike. We're done here."
"Twilight?" Spike cried. He'd never seen Twilight give up like this, but due to his unwavering loyalty he followed without further question. Though as they neared the doors of the palace to leave, Twilight was once again placed at the tip of a drawn sword. King Lydda had made his way through the hoards of dragons, over the top of the volcano and down into the palace entirely on his own.
"Miss Sparkle." he smirked confidently, "Nobody leaves until I get what I came here for..."
Cadance swooped over the forest with as much haste as she could muster, remembering she had someone on her back who'd never flown before. She kept a keen eye on her scouter, hoping to locate Princess Duciel before she reached the palace.
"What do you plan on doing?" Angelica politely asked the Princess.
"As long as the dragons have the Manifest Crystals on them, they'll be protected from magic and physical attacks - nobody will be able to touch them as long as they're wearing them. Our only hope is to remove the crystals, taking away their powers."
"And what about my father?" Angelica mentioned in a concerned manner.
"What about him? I'm not going to hurt him, if that's what you're worried about." Cadance replied.
Angelica shook her head, "I can't say I was worried about that. He carries the pride of our race on his shoulders. He avoids needless violence where possible, but this has escalated very quickly, and the longer it goes on, the more lives are at risk. To defend his citizens, my father will take on just about anyone. The last place you want to be is at the end of his sword." the blonde girl explained. Cadance glided silently, remembering how Twilight had stared down the sword of the King earlier. "He won't back down after that. Even if he doesn't kill you immediately, it's like his mark. He never draws his sword unless he intends to use it."
Cadance realised now that Twilight was in far more danger than she'd anticipated. The good news now was that Cadance had found Angelica; she hoped that returning her to King Lydda would be enough for him to spare Twilight. The pink pony tapped open communications on her scouter. "Twilight?" he called. "Twilight, are you there?"
No response.
"What is that?" Angelica asked.
"It's a little device I made for tracking ponies and giving a reading of their happiness in form of a number. It also lets you communicate with somepony who's wearing one. It only works over relatively short distances, though. We're not quite close enough to the Dragon Realm for us to warn Twilight."
"Twilight?" Angelica queried.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle. My sister-in-law, and the Princess of Friendship in Equestria. She's pretty handy when it comes to sorting out conflicts, and she's saved Equestria from some pretty powerful monsters before. She's pretty experienced with these kinds of situations."
"You think she'll be safe?" the human princess wondered.
"I know Twilight. She'll be fine. That said, it wouldn't hurt to give her a heads up."
The Princesses eventually passed close by the volcano, and it was at this point that the scouter beeped and showed Cadance a power level reading. "There's someone down there. Let's go check it out." Cadance said, swooping down to where the reading was coming from. As she dived, however, two more power levels appeared. "More?" she questioned, stopping short of her mark and fluttering down into cover behind the trees. She let Angelica off her back as she clopped lightly forward to investigate.
It didn't take long for her to notice the large, distinctive bodies of the three dragons who'd attacked the village earlier, merely dossing around, laughing and talking to each other about non-important stuff. They were right on the edge of the tree line, looking up towards the mouth of the volcano as if they were waiting for something... and then she saw it; the humans were already at the edge of the forest with King Lydda leading the way up the side, and the three dragons had the perfect vantage point for watching the battle unfold.
Cadance backed out immediately, rushing back as quietly as possible to Angelica. She ushered the human Princess onto her back and took off carefully and quietly. "The readings were coming from the dragons who attacked earlier. They're sitting watching your father lead his men up the mountain. We have to find Princes Duciel quickly." the pink pony Princess explained.
"What about the dragons? We should capture them." Angelica contested.
"With what? We don't stand a chance even with your crystal. They have three; we'd be outnumbered." Cadance said glumly, "I don't know what they're planning, but we don't have the resources to deal with them."
The Princess flew away from the dragons in search of Princess Duciel. The dragons from the Realm noticed Lydda and his men almost as soon as they'd broken the tree line. Climbing up the side of the volcano, the humans were met with a number of dragons, flying around, swooping down and attempting to scorch the soldiers. Angelica was distressed, watching the battle unfold. "Drop me down!" she demanded.
"What? No!" Cadance objected.
"I told you, drop me down!" she insisted.
"You'll get yourself killed!"
"Which is better than sitting up here watching them all die!" Angelica declared.
Cadance shook her head, "I can't let you do that. It's too dangerous to go down there. Returning you to your father alive might just be enough to end the fighting, but we also need to find Duciel and bring her back to King Depaix."
Angelica was still adamant about fighting, but gave up arguing as she could do little from so high above the ground. She instead watched painfully as her father fought through one dragon after another to get to the top of the volcano. Cadance's scouter, meanwhile, was being overrun with power levels, making it impossible to distinguish Princess Duciel from those locked in combat. After several minutes of hopeless searching, the pink pony princess caught a glimpse of Lydda arriving at the top of the volcano and racing inside.
"He's inside!" Cadance worried, frantically tapping away at her scouter in an attempt to talk to Twilight. Unfortunately, the scouter continually failed to connect to Twilight. "We've got no choice." Cadance fretted, "We're going to have to go in, too."