Cadance opened the door of her room to find herself in the darkness between the corners of the walls, she walked a few steps forward repeating to herself that speech that Princess Celestia ordered her to tell her people. One proposal, one loss.

His brow furrowed slightly as he felt a dipping sound in his ear, it was like a shriek of horror. Her hooves slowly advanced to outside her room, finding a Shining Armor facing her, stunned.

"Cadance" he called, she looked up at him softening her frown.

"What are you doing here?" the princess of love asked, looking at him intently.

He frowned as he let out a nervous chuckle. "I help Twilight make a shield with just a spell."

"Isn't Celestia supposed to have taught her last week how to do that?".

"Yeah..." he muttered, Cadance looked at him even more fixedly, through that sweat there was a secret. But he tried to calm her paranoia by smiling amicably. "We'd better go to the crystal fair, I can't wait to try a bite of strawberry shortcake Pinkie has prepared!

Shining Armor nodded as she followed behind her, Cadance walked excitedly through the event. Three days ago the princess of love had invited the Two Sisters and Twilight and included her friends to the big crystal fair, to continue to fill the crystal heart with love.

Twilight was the first pony to greet her at the entrance, Cadance galloped up to her quickly and bent her knees ready for the song.

"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake! " they said to each other, as they finished the dance. Cadance smiled sweetly as she hugged Twilight.

"I've missed you so much!" squealed Twilight, once they separated from the hug, another squeal came from the pony as she spotted her brother behind the princess. "Shining Armor!"

Again Cadance's ear warned her of an irritating sound, she brought her hoof up to him, stunned. Her eyes caught shadows in the corners, again drifting off into a darkness that ran through her memories.

"Cadance?" asked Twilight.

"Uhm, oh. The crystal fair!" she exclaimed, trotting to the outside of the crystal castle. But she kept her gaze confused. Shining Armor and Twilight bypassed the princess and made their way to the Two Sisters waiting in the crystal heart.

"I am so happy to see love growing again in the Crystal Empire" commented Princess Celestia, smiling. Cadance returned her smile with a hug.

"Duh, isn't it so obvious? Candy and cookies are supposed to be on the same plate!" the voice of the laughing element was distinguishable in the distance, Cadance broke away from Celestia with a raised eyebrow.

"Candy and cookies? That's a bad combination" Rainbowdash acknowledged, flying up to stand next to Princess Luna.

Luna frowned, as she looked at her sister. The pegasus tender stood next to Rarity, who was examining Twilight's dress. Cadance was surprised she hadn't seen it, she could have complimented her or said she looked great. But her mind was completely distracted with something she didn't know what.

"Are you all right, Cadence?" asked Shining Armor, her royal guard, in a whisper.

"Yes," she replied.

Crystallization had not yet taken place. Twilight's friends were preparing a big Crystal fair. Starting with Rarity, who exclusively prepared a spa, then Applejack and Rainbowdash who were melee fighting in a somewhat violent tournament, Cadance didn't think it was appropriate even though she agreed to do it. And finally there was Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, who had prepared a secretly not yet prepared show.

Cadance admired the little dragon who lay looking at his own statue, she smiled as she slowly approached towards him.

"Spike" Cadance announced, the baby dragon startled looking up at the princess, causing her to let out a playful giggle.

"Princess Cadance, I thought you'd be with Twilight" Spike muttered, Cadance arched an eyebrow.

"Uhm, I haven't seen Twilight since morning, I don't know where she's gone either" she exclaimed, looking at the baby dragon.

Spike shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, she had said they would spend the afternoon planning something, though she never wanted to tell me" he replied, Cadance was speechless, thinking about what the savior of the Crystal Empire had said. He opened his mouth again, blushing. "Have you seen R-Rarity?"

Cadance could notice a hint of the emotion when he uttered the name of the element of generosity, the baby dragon was literally in love with Rarity. Cadence smiled at the thought if it could be mutual someday.

"Sure, she's at the spa. Why don't you go help her and I'll go find Twilight while I'm at it?" suggested Cadance, Spike nodded excitedly as he ran towards the spa.

The princess of love smiled and waved to the crystal ponies as she embarked on a path to find Twilight. She didn't spot Shining Armor anywhere either, to which prompted her to frown.

Cadance took a breath and exhaled.

But thinking about the lie Twilight told her 'number one assistant' moved her too much, to the point of sobbing silently. Cadance's spirits were on the floor, lately she was feeling too sad and discouraged, the question was why she was like this.

She did not look away from Crystal's heart, contemplating.

Until she noticed a figure approaching it, slowly, it was covered by a thick and plain brown cloak. Cadance could not take his eyes off the figure, one of his wings stretched slowly, being attentive.

Suddenly, the figure grabbed Crystal's heart mercilessly, stuffing it into his cloak pocket. Cadance spread her wings and flapped up to the figure, she realized it was a unicorn with pink fur. The unicorn realized that the princess was approaching and began to run quickly.

Cadance did not have time to alert anyone about the thief. He put his wings to walk to that intruding unicorn, he could see that the curse of the Sombra King was approaching the Empire, the crystal ponies began to shriek in horror.

"Fear not, my ponies, I will go after the impostor!" warned Cadance, to his crystal ponies, trying not to remind them of the curse. Cadance's wings ached from the unicorn's swift speed, it seemed to use its own magic to run swiftly.

"Return it to!" she shouted, tearing his voice apart, Cadance's throat hurt, but it was nothing compared to what might come if the heart didn't stay in place.

The unicorn passed through the portal, one that protected the Crystal Empire, specially made by Celestia.

All of Cadance's hope crumbled right there, until her strength told her to follow the unicorn.

She passed through the portal.

Author's Note

One of the examples of this alternate universe is that Shining Armor and Cadance are not married, eventually we will see what happens later in Cadence Crystal.

Thanks for reading! See you in the next chapter!