> A Different Bridal Path
>  by Stainless Steel Fox
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Toast the Bride
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Twilight ran through the crystal caves under Canterlot, she mentally berated herself. Cadence’s heart-song about how she loved Shining Armour and might lose him to another was another poinard of failure through a heart that already felt like a pincushion. She was impressed that the half-starved alicorn could maintain a full vocal accompaniment while at a dead run; though she put that down to the power of the heart-song or innate alicorn vitality.

However, even wondering about that couldn’t distract her for long from the central cause of her heart-ache. She’d failed; her friends, her sister-in-law to be, her brother, Princess Celestia, indeed all of Equestria. She’d had one chance to stop this mess, and she’d blown it by running around like a mad-mare yelling ‘Cadence is evil!’

It was no wonder they’d all thought she was crazy. Hindsight in this case wasn’t just 20:20, it was using a magic mirror with a microscope attachment.  She could have gone to Celestia privately and told her of the things she’d observed calmly, like a rational mare. Now she thought about it, Cadence’s horn-glow was normally pink, the green aura the fake had displayed was a dead giveaway that she wasn’t the same pony. But who was the fake Cadence? She should have done some research into what spells could produce such a perfect duplicate…

She would have face-hooved if all her hooves hadn’t been otherwise occupied with running. “Cadence, do you know anything about the pony who replaced you?”

Moments later she knew quite a bit about the Changeling, Queen Chrysalis,  who had taken Cadence’s place; including the fact that they were capable of mind control, though that was because she and Cadence were facing three of her mind controlled minions.  She briefly considered manifesting a bouquet of flowers and throwing it to distract them (they were bridesmaids, after all), but letting them jump around in a cave filled with sharp crystal edges might get them hurt in their current state, so she simply hauled them off the ground with her telekinesis and used a sticking spell to fix them to the nearest flat wall.

“Let’s go!”

Cadence followed her, but gave a brief glance backwards. “Will they be okay?”

“The spell will only last a few minutes, less if they think to cast a counter-spell. Twinkleshine was at Celestia’s school with me, she can show the others how to do it. But by then we’ll be long gone. The last thing I want to do is get anyone else hurt through my mistakes.”

“What do you…” Cadence started to ask, but then they arrived at the rubble pile that lead up to the cavern entrance, and needed all their breath for climbing.

&&&

Twilight sighed with relief. They’d arrived just before Celestia finalised the vows, and pulled the big reveal. She felt some joy at being shown to be right, but mostly relief that now she could reconnect with her friends and mentor, not to mention her brother. She could set things right, she’d fixed her failure, at least as much as she could...

Chrysalis was boasting about how she was going to win anyway.  “Soon, my changeling army will break through. First, we take Canterlot. And then, all of Equestria!” 

“No. You won't. You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self, I can protect my subjects from you!”

That brought a smile to Twilight’s lips. Princess Celestia was going to finish the job and fix the whole mess. Her horn beam crashed against Chrysalis’s, and bore down… Wait, it was being pushed back? That was not how things were supposed to work! Princess Celestia was supposed to win! This just wasn’t fair!

Looking at Chrysalis’s smug face as she started to drive the Princess back, Twilight’s feelings of failure came back along with the same fury that had possessed her down in the Crystal Caverns when Chrysalis had taunted her, but increased tenfold. Unconsciously, she pawed at the ground. That bug was the cause of her friends abandoning her, her childhood friend being imprisoned and starved, her brother becoming a mind controlled slave, and the possible destruction of Canterlot, even Equestria if she could overpower Celestia. However, it was Twilight who’d failed to stop her in time…

Twilight barely noticed her coat turn white and her mane and tail burst into flames, not the red and yellow of rage, but a cold blue and purple to match her mood. Chrysalis would not win! Twilight would stop her, whatever it took! She put her glowing horn down and charged, just as she had Nightmare Moon so long ago.

Chrysalis clearly noticed her, but couldn’t really do anything about her. An attempt to move her head, presumably to target Twilight, had Celestia’s beam gain back several hooves of distance.  Green fire started to swirl around the changeling queen’s hooves, her legs tensing for a magically enhanced front kick, but she never got the chance. There was a white flash, and Twilight reappeared a few hooves from the Changeling Queen’s chest, still travelling at a full magically enhanced gallop.

Changelings weren’t true insects, or true anything, and the tegument on their torso area was hardened skin, not chitin. It still made for pretty tough armour, able to turn light blows or even sword slashes. The amount of magic Chrysalis was channelling through her body formed a natural structural integrity field, making her skin even tougher. There was very little that could harm it… Unfortunately, a piercing attack by a unicorn horn reinforced by the rage enhanced magic of one of the most powerful unicorns since Starswirl the Bearded was one of those things.

Chrysalis had just enough time for an almost comical look of surprise as the horn sunk in; then there was an intense explosion which sent her rag-dolling backwards. She sailed through the air and ended her trajectory by smashing against a pillar with a sickening crunch. She slid down, leaving a trail of green ichor on the white marble and flopped forward off it at the base. Of Twilight there was no sign.

Celestia’s beam turned the stonework molten where it touched the ground, an instant before it winked out. The rest of the chamber was silent as the ponies in it recovered from the sudden turn of events. Then the yelling began. There were screams, cries, Cadence rushing over to Shining Armour as he sagged to the ground, the green glow of Changeling mind control fading from his eyes. Various ponies started rushing around, trying to make sense of things. They weren’t having much luck.

“Silence!” Celestia’s command  voice cut through the hubbub. She continued more gently. “My little ponies, I know this has been a shock, but the best way to resolve it is to remain calm and help one another.  We must find Twilight, and prepare to face the army that that creature summoned. ”

Rainbow Dash shot across to hover in front of the fallen Chrysalis. “I bet she knows where Twilight is! Hey bozo! What did you do with Twilight?”

The crumpled figure of Chrysalis stirred, her wing buzzing spasmodically like a dying insect’s, and her eyes opened slowly. Her head rolled slightly as she looked towards the polychromatic Pegasus and a sneer grew on her face. She rasped, “What did _I_ do to _her_? She’s the one who punched her horn through my chest! Right into my primary philogastric sac too.”

“What the hey is a filly-ghastly whatever? WHERE IS SHE?” Rainbow got right into the Changeling Queen’s face as she finished the last word, and the creature gave a crackling chuckle. “You’re probably breathing her!” 

Rainbow reeled back in shock, and her distress seemed to energise Chrysalis. Her voice strengthened. “My philogastric sac is where I convert the love energy I drain into magic and store it. When she ruptured it, there was enough magic in it to empower an entire changeling army and duel Sun-butt over there to a standstill at the same time!”

Her eyes were having difficulty focussing on the Pegasus, but she continued her speech. “When your little purple pain in the posterior stuck her horn through it, I got hit by the backlash and got half fried, not to mention getting slammed into a pillar. She must have gotten the rest channelled right into her through her horn, and been instantly vapourised. She may have beaten me, but at least she didn’t get to enjoy her victory.”

Expressions of shock and horror were pretty much universal at Chrysalis’s callous assessment, and both Fluttershy and Rarity started crying, while Pinkie Pie just stood there, deflated. Rainbow simply got angry. “That’s horseapples! Twilight would never be defeated by some bunch of hooey hocus pocus! Call off your goons and bring Twilight back or I’ll…”

“Do what?” Chrysalis smirked, seeming to gain strength from her defiance. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m already done for. I can’t even feel or move my _own_ body, much less sense or control the hive. Just as well for you, if I could I’d tell them to tear this city to the ground just to see the looks on your stupid faces.” 

Her head sagged forward to view the ichor leaking from her wounds, and the hole in her chest. “It’s also just as well that I can’t feel anything, I suppose… this looks like it would _really_ hurt.”

Celestia had been listening to the dialogue with everyone else and was just as shocked, but she’d also been sending messages to the guards around Canterlot. She was surprised at some of the responses.

“Your changelings have stopped attacking and fled. Why?”

“Not my changelings any more, thanks to your precious protégé! I only ever allowed them enough power for the task at hand. I had no desire to risk creating a rival. Now I can no longer feed them, they’ve fled to conserve what power they have left. Curse them, and curse Twilight Sparkle!”

“You monster!” Rarity exclaimed, having finally pulled herself together enough to take part in the conversation. “Twilight was our best friend!”

Chrysalis’s response was odd, a rasping cackle that tapered off into a series of choking coughs. “Oh, that’s good, I thought the pink one was the comedian of your group. As far as Twilight was concerned, you’d all found a new pony to take her place. She still cared about you all for some reason, enough to do… this.”

Her head twitched towards the wound that marred her torso.

“I couldn’t tell what she was thinking; I’m an empath, not a telepath, or was. But I know what she was feeling. There was fury, yes, but under it a sense of loss, failure, and a desire for redemption, whatever the cost. Based on what she felt earlier during the rehearsal, it’s a pretty good guess that you were the ones she felt she’d failed. But we all know that’s not true.”

“Yeah, Twilight never failed us! She came back and kicked your butt!” Rainbow growled.

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” Sarcasm dripped from Chrysalis’s mouth, along with drooling strands of green ichor. “What I mean is that you were the ones that failed her. At least that part of my plan worked.”

She gave a choking cough, and spat out more luminous green ichor. 

“Oh yes, I knew about Twilight Sparkle, powerful mage, tireless researcher, Leader of the Elements of Harmony… and sun-butt’s favourite patsy for when she can’t be bothered to get off her cake stuffed rear and solve her own problems. Still, not the sort of pony whose attention I wanted to attract. 

“While I could fob off old Sunny over there with some general platitudes, and I had Shiney-boy over there so mind zapped he wouldn’t notice if I danced on the table without my disguise, from all accounts she actually had a functioning brain. Still, from how little Shiny talked about her, I figured they’d grown apart, and she’d only remember Cadence as the pony who foal-sat her a few times. I’d just pull the generic princess routine and everything would be fine.

“Then she comes up to me and does her little dance. Waving her flanks in my face, are you sure you should be baby-sitting foals, Cadence? She managed to completely throw me off for a second. I mean, what kind of pathetic shut-in has her foal-sitter as a best friend? I should have just brushed her off gently with some ‘Aren’t we a little old for that Twilight?’, but instead I froze up, and that blew it.”

Her eyes grew unfocussed. “I could sense I’d aroused her curiosity, and if she started investigating that would quickly become suspicion. I couldn’t possibly stand up to a detailed questioning about Cadence’s history, and that would have been it. It was too late to stop her, so I chose a different path, baiting her. Fortunately, you idiots made it pathetically easy.

“I could sense her following me around, so when around you, and away from sun-butt or anyone who’d notice I deliberately acted as unpleasant as possible. I monitored her emotions, as she got more and more frantic and none of you called me on it. I’m surprised she didn’t talk to you privately about it…”

Seeing the looks on the Element Bearers’ faces, she gave another hacking cackle.  “Oh my, she did! And you must have shut her down, this is too rich! You did most of my work for me!”

“I even let her see me zapping Shiny with a mind control spell, and it paid off. I could feel her frustration, her distress at being unable to do anything. Still, when she came into the rehearsal all ready to expose me, I was ready for a verbal duel, even using some of my hoarded power to influence you to my side. 

“But it turns out I didn’t need any of that. I cried a few crocodile tears and all of you immediately dropped her like a drained husk. I’ve never seen such a display of shallowness in all my years. It was glorious! Her ‘loyal’ friends, even her own brother abandoning her tore up her heart, but what finished it off was sun-butt telling her off.”

By this time the element bearers were a distraught and sobbing mess. They turned their focus towards Celestia, with shock and disbelieve written all over their faces. Celestia herself seemed to be at the edge of tearing up, already  expecting what Chrysalis would say next.

She couldn’t move her head anymore, but her eyes fixed on Celestia’s. “You took your most loyal subject, your treasured student, the pony who’d placed her life on the line for you again and again and protected Equestria from everything from your nutso sister to Discord, and during a time of crisis refused to listen to her, or indeed give her the level of attention you’d give some random guard warning you of a threat."

This finally broke Celestia's remaining composure. Her tears were now dripping onto the ground as she lowered her face into her left hoof. Muffled sobbing noises could be heard across the grand hall; the ancient ruler of the sun just as  devastated when she sent her sister away, a thousand years ago. 

Chrysalis in turn, only gave a small triumphant smirk.

“Love is sweet, but despair is spicy, and right then purple sparkle’s emotions were volcano hot sauce mixed with liquid rainbow! Then you left her there, lying on the steps sobbing what remained of her heart out. Then I made my first mistake. I had considered killing her and dumping her body in the caverns, but I was pleased that my plans had worked so well and decided she might be useful to me once I had taken control of Equestria.

“I cast her into the Crystal caverns alive, and taunted her using Cadence’s face. I should have just left her there, but it was so much fun to torment her, besides I owed her some payback for the way she'd almost wrecked my plans. I wanted to crush her utterly, ensure she was so wrecked that she wouldn't even consider returning. I even had some mind controlled ponies there to to keep her contained if she tried to escape. Clearly, that didn’t work out the way I planned…”

She looked down at her ruined body again. Her voice was weaker now.

“Still, I have at least some compensation. My killer went to her grave thinking she’d lost everything, and the rest of you will never be able to make it up to her, or escape the fact that if you’d been one whit more the ponies she’d believed you to be, she’d still be alive. She may have saved you from me, but she can’t save you from yourselves.” 

She managed a sneer. “Oh, and good luck against the next threat that comes along to _eat_ your precious little land. Without nerd-pony you can’t use the Elements to defend you. I hope it consumes you all and leaves nothing but ashes…”

Her eyes glazed over and she slumped down, her shredded wings giving one more spasm before falling silent. The entire hall remained that way for some time, except for the sobbing of ponies and a shuffling of hooves.
> Cold Restart
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight coughed and spluttered her way to consciousness. She was lying prone in a shallow pool of cold water which had started to rise to the level of her mouth and nose. She quickly scrambled to her hooves, and equally quickly regretted it. Her entire body was one big variety show of pain, though her legs and forehead were the highlights. She swayed, and carefully picked her way to the edge of the pool, which appeared to be at the bottom of a crater.

It was a newly created crater, from the look of it. Ripples and rills in the walls were still steaming, and rivulets of water trickled down and over them in a thousand tiny waterfalls. The sky overhead was slate grey with clouds no pegasus had placed there, and around the rim of the crater, just above her head, clumps of snow and ice only emphasised the fact that the air around her was very cold.

The cold air actually helped in a way, numbing some of the less intense pains in her body. She reached a small ledge in the crater wall that looked as if it would remain above water level for the moment and sagged down carefully onto it. The ground was cold under her barrel, but not as cold as she’d expected, and solid enough to support her without squelching.

She tried to take stock of things. There had been the wedding, and her rage, and the feeling of her horn sinking into… she retched, it had been like the rind of an orange, resisting for a moment before giving way and allowing her horn to drive into the softer parts underneath. Fortunately, between her eagerness to discover ‘Cadence’s’ secret and her race through the mines, she’d had nothing to eat recently, so there was nothing in her stomach to bring up.

The flash and power, so much power flooding into her horn it burned. She’d felt the need to escape, and instinctively formed a teleport spell matrix in her mind, just before it was overwhelmed by the tidal wave of magic. She hadn’t envisaged a destination, other than somewhere cold to leach away the heat. It was easy to deduce what had happened, the wave of energy had sunk into the matrix and empowered it, overpowered it, which meant she was lucky to be alive.

There were quite a few horror stories floating around about unstable teleport spells. Being turned inside out or reduced to a fine red mist were some of the _less_ gruesome ones. However, she’d apparently been flung many times her normal teleport range… she noticed the crater was asymmetric, with a shallower ‘tail’ heading off in one direction, so either with a significant north or southwards component, as without conscious effort the spell wouldn’t have adjusted for the velocity change due to the change in latitude.

It must have absorbed just enough magic to stop her from exploding outright, and the rest of the magical energy had coalesced within her and around her, being drawn away in the teleport. When she’d rematerialized, it had remained with her, forming both a shield and toughening her body so that when she hit she’d dug a furrow rather than simply smearing herself over the landscape. The corona effect releasing its stored energy would have been quite enough to blast the crater she now found herself in.

She shivered and instinctively tried to cast a warming charm. The pain in her forehead redoubled and she gasped, almost blacking out. It took a moment for her to recover, but when she did, she shifted position to look down at a pool of water that had formed in front of her. Lit by the grey sky above, it worked as a mirror, and showed her what she feared.

Her mane was frazzled and her face sooty, but it was her horn that took her attention, or what was left of it. The lower part was blackened and scarred, the purple velvet covering it showing missing patches, but the top half was gone, a cauterised scab covering it. The ache in her forehead redoubled at the sight, along with a renewed need to throw up.

Unicorn horns weren’t made of keratin or cartilage, they were a hollow spiral shell of magically conductive and hardened bone, the outer surface covered by a velvet left over from the growth process. The inner surface of the spiral was lined with honey-combing that added strength and supported the specialised nerve cells that converted the thaumic energy generated by the unicorn’s body into directed spell effects. Nerves came from them to join in a trunk that ran down the horn and terminated in the gap between the two frontal lobes, connecting deeply into the left and right brain. It even had its own dedicated blood supply, the corneal artery, running down the centre.

In short a unicorn horn was a precision instrument, a ganglion of the brain, and the top half of hers had been amputated, or more properly vapourised, by the massive overload. At least the damage had cauterised the stump, while horn injuries were vanishingly rare, it was entirely possible for a unicorn to bleed out from a damaged horn. What was left was undoubtedly suffering from massive mana burn, meaning attempting to form spells would be agonising and might cause further damage.

The only good news was that it could regenerate and grow back. Rest would heal the mana burn in days, up to a week, and the velvet that normally covered the horn was what built it in the first place. Unlike cervines, who had velvet that died and peeled off when their antlers matured, a unicorn’s velvet lasted as long as she did. But the process would take months, maybe a year, even in ideal conditions, which this was not, and it was uncertain if she’d ever regain her full power.

Twilight tore herself away from her realisation that she had no more magic than a donkey, to the more immediate realisation that she’d soon be a frozen dead donkey if she didn’t find shelter and warmth, then food in that order (she’d read plenty of survival guides). Considering the conditions, at least water wasn’t going to be a problem.

Slowly, she got up and forced her aching body to walk up the shallow gradient of her crash landing. The view wasn’t any better outside the hole than in, a vast snowy plane with a slate grey sky and dark mountains in the middle distance. The wind, which had been muted in the hollow, struck her with full force, and she shivered. She was somewhere in the northern wastes, she decided, which meant her landing furrow pointed due west.

Looking around, she spotted a set of smaller outcroppings of dark stone to the south west, sheltering a few low lying and scraggly evergreens that would only be called trees by the most sympathetic of arborists. The sharp edged forms suggested hard rock, which meant fissures that might do as shelter, and pine needles were edible, barely. She set herself to face it and started walking, trying to ignore the icy wind blowing across her body.

At least it numbed the aches of her body and head, but that only left a gap into which her thoughts tumbled. As she placed one hoof in front of another, she kept on cycling back to the events in the throne room. She’d charged at Chrysalis with rage in her heart, her strength and magic turned to one end, doing as much damage as possible. The shudder that ran through her had nothing to do with the wind. 

Twilight had never deliberately hurt another living being before now. Nightmare Moon had been a shadow cast over Luna’s mind, and Discord had simply been re-imprisoned. But what she’d done to Chrysalis had been personal, visceral, and now she was able to look back on it, horrifying. Considering the level of energy release, it was unlikely that Chrysalis had survived the blast. She prayed with all her heart that it hadn’t hurt anyone else. Fortunately, if her calculations were correct, her body would have blocked the blast wave towards the spectators.

Maybe her ruined horn was some sort of punishment for allowing herself to lose herself in that madness, as was her banishment. She didn’t even know if her actions had actually made a difference. With their queen destroyed, would the other changelings have fled, or just sought revenge? She could only hope that if they had, that Celestia, Luna and her friends would be equal to the task of fending them off.

Part of her wondered why she didn’t just lie down and let the cold claim her. She’d lost everything that mattered, even if she somehow returned to Canterlot, her friends had seen what she’d done, what she’d become. How could they ever look at her again without seeing the murderous figure who’d killed Chrysalis? As for Princess Celestia, considering her response to Twilight’s casting of the ‘Need-it-Want-it’ spell the last time Twilight went out of control…

No, better that she never returned than have her friends fear her, her mentor be forced to punish her for her crimes. It was not like getting back to Equestria looked to be on the cards in her near future anyway.

Still she kept walking. Even with everything, she didn’t want to die, and she didn’t want to just give up. The two times in her life she’d gotten to the point of giving up on something, some outside force had rescued her, the Rainboom when she was trying to hatch Spike’s egg, and Celestia sending her the Friendship letters during Discord’s attack. It would be too much to expect a third save. Besides, giving up was the easy route. She would survive, and find a way to make amends, or rather find a way to balance the scales.

At least with any luck, her friends and family were safe. That was worth everything that had happened to her and anything that would in the future. The upthrust rocks loomed in front of her, and as she searched for a cave, she composed a letter she’d probably never deliver.

“Dear Princess Celestia.

Today I learned that feeling you’ve failed your friends can make you do things you wouldn’t normally think of. Things you know are wrong and horrible. Actions done in the heat of the moment will affect you for the rest of your life. The worst part is I know I’d do it again, to protect my friends, my brother and you. The hope that you all are safe is the only consolation.

My crimes may have forever alienated me from my friends, but I still care for them, and you, deeply. In honour of those feelings, I will find a way to carry on, to find some way to make recompense for my actions. I cannot go back, so I must go forward, and hope that in that unknown future I will find a way to make amends, both for my failure to stop the situation before it became critical, and my actions afterwards. Maybe one day I can even make peace with myself.  

Your ex-student,

Twilight Sparkle.”
> Sackcloth and ashes don't wear well, darling
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The apartments that the Bearers of the Elements had been assigned in Buckingham Palace had a common area that served as both dining and meeting room. After the disaster the previous day, and the aftermath, all any of them had been able to do was stagger back to their rooms and crawl into bed. Spike had ended up in Rarity's as Twilight's death had utterly destroyed the young drake. He wouldn't even look at Shining Armour, and had barely spoken to anyone until Rarity took charge of him, saying that he shouldn't be left alone, especially in the apartment he'd shared with Twilight.

There'd been no time for the histrionics she'd usually have engaged in. Spike had needed her, and she'd held him close while he cried, allowing herself a few quiet tears when he couldn't see them. Of course, she had cast a spell of fire resistance, both on herself and the bed clothes before getting in, a spell you pretty much had to know when you worked with cloth around a dragon. Now the five ponies and one dragon sat around the dining table, though none of them had touched the delicious selection of breakfast foods laid out before them.

Rarity looked around at the sleep-bagged eyes, gloomy expressions and Pinkie's ruler straight hair and sighed to herself. Someone had to do something, and it looked like she was the only someone she had available. She collected two delicately made croissants from the serving plate near her, and a butter knife which sliced far more butter than she'd normally allow herself from a block nearby. As she hoped, her activity spurred somepony into action.

"Rarity, how can you eat at a time like this?" Rainbow Dash growled, showing more animation than she had in the last hour.

"Breakfast time?" Rarity replied, spreading the butter on the neatly sliced pastries. "Because I don't want that evil bug pony to win."

"What the hay are ya on about, Rarity?" Applejack asked, frowning.

Rarity felt a slight amount of satisfaction at having a good lead in. "I feel terrible. I'm sure we all do. What happened at the Wedding yesterday was horrible, and that disgusting bug's vicious little diatribe only made things worse. She wanted to hurt us as much as possible, do whatever damage she could in the time she had left, and she did it with exquisite skill. But the part that hurts most, the part that's made us all shut ourselves away is that she had a point."

There were winces from around the table, and Spike even shrunk in on himself.

"I know I sometimes am a trifle melodramatic..." That actually got a few snorts what might have been laughter under other circumstances, "But yesterday really was 'the worst possible thing ever'. Twilight was right all along. Cadence, at least the one we met, was evil and when she came to us for help, we failed her. We _were_ all too caught up in the excitement to notice anything wrong, or listen to Twilight. Even after the Smartypants incident, where we promised we would listen to somepony's concerns, even if we thought they were..."

"Making a mountain out of a molehill?" Applejack offered. "'Scuse me Rarity, but is this supposed to be makin' us feel better? 'Cause I don't see how."

"Bear with me darling, I'm working on it. But we have to accept that there is a problem before we can do something about it, rather than staying silent and letting it fester."

Oddly enough Fluttershy spoke up, at least as much as Fluttershy ever did. "You mean like cleaning out a wound to allow it to heal?"

"Yes, exactly! The fact that we never got a chance to apologise to Twilight, to ask her to forgive us, only makes it worse. She saved all of us, despite the fact that she must have felt we hadn't lived up to our friendship, because whatever else, she was still our true friend, and wanted to protect us, and everyone else. And that's where we can start from. Twilight sacrificed herself to give us a chance to live on, and if we allow that vile insect's words to poison our minds and our lives, it makes everything Twilight did for us meaningless. I will _not_ wallow in misery and self pity. I will take the gift Twilight gave me, and I will make the most of it. Starting with this breakfast."

She paused and took a definite, if delicate bite of her croissant.

Applejack gave a deep sigh. "Well, when you put it like that, it seems downright disrespectful to be mopin'. But I figure it ain't that easy to up sticks and move on. I messed up awful bad, ignorin' Twi like I did. I'm supposed to be the Element of Honesty, I should have picked up that prissy prickly princess was a fake, and Twilight was true blue as always. But it was just so great to be invited to do the caterin' at this shindig, I weren't even thinkin' about it. 'Sides, I figured that Twi was getting possessive of Shining Armour, just like I said. Shucks, I know any mare who comes sniffin' around Big Mac is gonna have to get past me."

Rarity gave a rather wan smile. "So you made a mistake, but at least it was an _honest_ mistake. I think we all made the same one. None of us knew the real Cadence enough to have an opinion. I just thought she was being a demanding client, even the best of ponies can turn into a witch when it comes to the perfect dress, and that goes double for weddings."

Spike shifted in his seat, and Rarity heard him gulping back a lump in his throat. "But I did. Back when Princess Celestia was talking care of me, before I..." He choked on his words, but continued. "Cadence was around the palace all the time too. She was always nice to me, unlike some of the other nobles. Maybe if I'd stayed with Twilight more, met this one, I could have spotted she was fake too. But all I was interested in was goofing off and planning the bachelor party..."

He leaned into Rarity's side, and she could feel the wetness on her coat as his tears soaked into it. She put one foreleg around his shuddering shoulders. She wasn't alone, Rainbow Dash, who was sitting on the other side of Spike put a fore-hoof on his other shoulder.

"Hey Spike, I know what you're saying." The rainbow speedster's voice lacked it's usual cocky self assurance. "I was so busy getting ready to wow everypony with my Rainboom I didn't even meet Cadence till that rehearsal. I should have backed Twilight to the hilt, rather than siding with that cheap fake. Some Element of Loyalty I am!"

She slammed her free hoof into the table, and contrary to narrative expectation, didn't flip some plate of foodstuffs into the air to land on her in a humorous fashion.

"Or maybe it was your loyalty that caused you to act as you did." Rarity suggested. "After all, everyone else, even Princess Celestia seemed to think Twilight was just having one of her.... episodes. Who were you being loyal to? Cadence? Or the rest of us?"

Rainbow's brow furrowed in thought. "Maybe... but I still feel like horseapples over not doing anything afterwards. Even if Twi had been freaking out over nothing, I should have been there to catch her before she crashed."

"As do we all, darling." Rarity sighed. "But we can't turn back time. What you have to decide is what you are going to do from now on."

"I bet Twilight could have. She was the egghead incarnation of awesome. She'd find some time travel spell by that Starbeard character in an ancient scroll so she could zap herself back in time with some awesome special effects." Rainbow's voice took on some of it's old animation. 

Then she sagged back down. "But I guess since she isn't here, I've got to do what I can to see that what she fought for doesn't die. Maybe I wasn't loyal enough to her, but I can be loyal to the friendships she left behind. And buck any changelings that poke their bug-eyed faces into Ponyville to the badlands." 

"Um... Maybe not all changlings are like the Queen?" Fluttershy's voice was barely audible. She shrank in on herself as the others turned their attention to her. "or not... forget i said anything... meeep!"

Rarity said kindly. "It's alright, Fluttershy dear. If you have any ideas about them, it could help."

Fluttershy looked around the table, everyone except Rainbow and Spike looked sympathetic, and neither of them looked angry at her. "It sounded like she was controlling them. They left as soon as she couldn't any more. Maybe they're like grasshoppers and locusts."

"Huh, you think so?" Applejack asked, curiously.

"Whatya mean Flutters?" Rainbow added.

Fluttershy's voice gained confidence as she started talking about wildlife. "Grasshoppers normally live as individuals, coming together only to mate and lay eggs. But sometimes, when the population grows too large, they swarm and change into locusts, stripping all the food as they pass through an area.  Maybe for Changelings it's the appearance of a Queen that causes them to swarm. It would explain why nopony knows of them. 

"They might normally just live quietly among ponies, feeding off the ambient love, maybe even helping it along. After all, the happier ponies are, the better the feeding. The Queen's plan didn't really make sense, she was destroying the very thing she hoped to use, and it's a stupid parasite that destroys it's host. I think there was something wrong with her, something sick."

"Huh, well don't expect me to shed any tears for her." Rainbow harumphed with folded forelegs. "You really think that's how they work?"

"It's only a guess." Fluttershy's reply was timid. "But I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure that's what Twilight would do. Remember Zecora? It's just so terrible what happened, and there's nothing I can do to help!" She started sobbing. 

"You're helping just by being yourself dear." Rarity moved around the table to hug her, quickly followed by the others, even Pinkie, who'd been silent the whole time. There were more than a few tears from each of them, even Rainbow, her muttering of 'Still have sleep sand in my eyes.' fooling nopony.

It was Applejack that spoke as they separated, looking over at the silent pink pony. "If we're gonna do right by Twilight, we've gotta start somewhere. When my maw and paw passed on, I was just a little bit of a filly, younger than Apple Bloom, and it pretty much tore my heart out, just like right now. But Granny Smith was smart, she called in all our kinfolk and held a wake for them."

"Awake?" Rainbow asked. "I thought she needed her sleep."

"No, a wake, a party to celebrate their lives, who they were, what they meant to ponies. A chance to remember all the good times. It didn't take the pain away, but it helped some. I figure we need to hold one for Twilight, to remember all the good stuff about her. Pinkie, you reckon you could put together a shindig like that? For Twilight?"

"For Twilight?" Pinkie Pie looked back at her, then nodded. "I'm sorry I haven't been making everypony feel better. It's hard to put smiles on other ponies faces when you've got none to give. That Queen Crock-roach took them all. But I'll try, for Twilight. She'd want her party to be the bestest one in all Equestria."

As she thought about it, some measure of poofiness returned to her mane. "We've got to invite all of Twilight's friends and family, they've got to be feeling rotten too."

"I'm not sure we should have her big brother. He was awful mean to Twilight, worse than we were. I don't know if I could forgive Big Mac if'n he did that to me, at least not easily."

Rarity quickly responded. "Applejack! You heard the bug, she had him under her control. He must feel worse about what he said than anyone. The one I'm not sure I can face is Princess Celestia. She knew Cadence better than any of us, Twilight too. She even knew there was a threat, but she acted like Twilight was some naughty filly who needed to be sent to her room without supper. I've always looked up to her, now I don't know what to think."

"Well, after the way Twilight pulled her grits off the griddle and saved the day, she's gotta be feeling lower than a snake's belly in a diamond dog cave."

"Yeah, so she should too!"

Now it was Fluttershy reprimanding Rainbow, for a given, very mild value of reprimand. "Um, that isn't very nice. She did try to fight once the Queen revealed herself. Twilight wanted to protect her too. Twilight loved her like a second mother, and I think she would want us to forgive her mistakes, just as she'd forgive us."

"Okay, for Twilight." Rainbow finally allowed.

Rarity finished off her croissant and passed Spike one with a thick spread of strawberry jam and ruby dust. He set to it as the other ponies around the table started to eat too. It wasn't going to be easy; their group of friends had just had a pretty big hole bucked in it, but at least the remaining friendships were still strong. That was at least a starting place to begin the slow process of healing.
> Carry on Caribou
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trigger warning: Implied canibalism

Twilight Sparkle was worried. Since she was also cold, hungry and lost, that would have been the case anyway, but this new problem added extra intensity to the situation. She had successfully inhabited the cave she'd found for over a week, and managed to survive by her ingenuity, guts, and information from a number of wilderness survival books she'd read. The low growing fir trees she'd found in the lee of the outcrop her cave was a part of had helped too.

Two branches, thick with green needles, had been chewed off and served as an uncomfortable mattress and equally uncomfortable blanket. Needles from other branches had provided a food supply of sorts. They tasted terrible, but the survival guides were right that they did stay down and prevented hunger turning into outright starvation. A piled up ramp of snow had blocked most of the entrance; leaving only a hole big enough to get in and out of and preventing the almost constant wind from making the interior even colder. As for water, she had an unlimited supply of it, as long as she didn't mind it chilled.

By yesterday horn's mana burn had healed up and she was finally able to cast spells after a fashion. She could levitate a few pounds, create a small light and even trigger a spark. But she'd decided against trying to set up a fire. The resinous fir wood and needles burned easily enough; she had the singed mane to prove it. However, a fire would eat up the wood at a furious rate, and her supply was limited. A secondary concern was that using magic also took metabolic energy, even if it wasn't a direct conversion. Even with a diet of fir needles, she was mostly living off her body's reserves. She was hungry enough to eat fish, but she had no idea where to get some.

The limits of her food supply were the latest addition to her checklist of problems. Her relentlessly analytical mind could no more avoid analysing and measuring things then she could stop breathing, and it was quite clear after a week of consumption that the needles were not growing back as fast as she ate them. It might take as much as two months if she limited herself to two mouthfuls a day (plus or minus 8 days allowing for variation in the size of a mouthful), but she would eventually strip all the fir trees and her bedding bare.

The answer was clear, she had to move on in the hope of finding somewhere more hospitable. South was her best bet, and though the permanently overcast sky hadn't allowed her to check her initial guesses as to directions, a simple cantrip to find north had worked just as well. If so, she needed to do it as soon as possible, while she still had reserves to use. That was why she was sat in front of her cave first thing in the morning, weaving one edge of her blanket and mattress together to form a greatcoat/food supply/hermit crab shell to wear as she walked. 

The springy twigs twined together nicely with a little bit of precision telekinesis; something that she'd learned from watching Rarity and fortunately just within her current power limits. While barely possible, a warming charm would have required constant energy input to maintain it, energy she didn't have to spare. The last twigs entwined, she nosed it upright and backed into it, dropping a little to get fully under the cover of the dense needles. When she straightened up, the coat barely lifted off the ground, just as she'd planned. Recasting the direction finding cantrip, she turned herself round and started walking south.

She had little to do but think as she tramped along. She avoided thinking too deeply about her lost friends and family by concentrating on recalling her studies, creating and solving maths problems and trying to remember the order of books on the shelves of Golden Oaks library. She stayed on course by keeping a distant mountain due south ahead of her. It was the largest she could see in a range that spread to the southeast. As the day wore on, the protection of the branches and her own trapped body heat actually allowed her to feel slightly warmer, even if her fur was getting a coating of tree sap to match the Crusaders best efforts. 

The combination of warmth, internal distraction and external concentration was the reason she failed to notice that she had found some-pony, or rather some-pony had found her. Not that it was actually a pony.

"What do I find here, a walking fir tree?"

The rough voice jolted Twilight out of her attempt to solve Martingale's Third Theorem and look around. Then up. Standing in front and to the side of her was a giant caribou with a big grin on his muzzle. She stumbled back a few steps in surprise and not a little fear. Almost nothing was known about the reclusive caribou of the far north. Distantly related to the deer of warmer climes, there were rumours that they were savages, cannibals who ate their own dead, and did worse to anyone else who strayed across their path.

This particular specimen certainly looked shaggy enough for a savage, but the grin and the humour in his voice made some of the wilder tales she'd read seem unlikely. Her options were limited anyway. She needed no calculations to deduce that she couldn't outrun him, even if she discarded her 'coat', and even if she could, come nightfall without the protection it granted she would certainly freeze to death. There was no way she could overcome him physically, and magically she doubted he would be overawed by the few parlor tricks she was currently capable of.

That really left only one option, her preferred one under other circumstances. Extend the hoof of friendship and hope that it's magic worked even here. She pushed forward, sliding her head and shoulders out into the open and turning to face him.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle. Pleased to meet you."

He gave her an odd look. "Am not sure you are. Look more scared then pleased, ya?"

Twilight hung her head, ears folding flat. "I'm sorry, you're right. I don't know much about your kind, and you are rather intimidating."

That brought a laugh. "Ha! Olaf is no threat, not to pony or anyone else! So what is one horn pony doing in Wintergard?"

Twilight had not heard the name before, but the meaning was obvious. "Right now, trying to find somewhere to rest for the night and something to eat that isn't fir needles."

"That Olaf can help with. But must be paid for."

That brought back her worries. "How? I don't have anything."

"Do not worry, little pony. Just tell Olaf story or how you are here, tell Olaf's clan too. Other stories too, if you have them. Good story helps keep spirit warm when fire runs low, feeds spirit when body is hungry, gives new ways to see when things look hopeless." 

"I can do that." Twilight gave a relieved sigh, if there was one thing she did still have, it was an abundance of stories. While a lot of her reading was non-fiction, she'd worked her way through many genres of fiction as well. Daring Doo was only the tip of the iceberg... She shivered as the cold wind gusted around her exposed head. Icebergs were the last thing she wanted to think about.

The caribou turned away, and she saw for the first time that he had several bundles of wood laid across his back, bound up with some material she didn't recognise. "Come! We must go before night comes."

She followed him as he started striding southwest, having to push herself to keep up with his longer stride. He was carrying a heavy looking bundle strapped to his back, but it didn't seem to slow him down. Her own burden of branches was making it harder to keep up, thougn the exertion was making her warm enough to sweat. After a few minutes she was panting, her throat burning from the cold air. "Wa... wait!"

He turned round. "What is problem?"

"I... can't keep... up. Can you walk more slowly?"

He shook his head, antlers swinging back and forth. "Can, but then not get to home before nightfall. We not want to be walking at night. Get too cold, lose way, die."  

Twilight hung her head. "Then you'll have to leave me. I'm walking as fast as I can."

Olaf examined her, tilting his head slightly. "If night too cold for caribou, far too cold for pony, and no time to build shelter. No worry. I carry you instead."

"You'll whaaa... oof!" Twilight found herself slung across the Olaf's shoulders, in front of the bundle. He'd ducked his head and scooped her up with his antlers with surprising speed, tilting them back to roll her off onto his back. He wasted no time in setting off at his former pace. The swaying motion made Twilight slightly ill at first, but she quickly adjusted. The fir branches had wrapped around her, and underneath it she could feel the shaggy carpet of the caribou's coat, making her almost comfortable. 

The bundle she was pressed against was made of some sort of thick cloth she didn't recognise, but the contents quickly identified themselves from the smell. Fish, and quite a lot of them since the bundle was bigger than she was. Her curiosity bump started twinging. "You have fish? Where did you get them?"

"From water, ya!" The caribou gave a short laugh at his quip. "Is big salt water two days walk away. We trade crystal berries found in hills around big mountain to Yaks for nets. Fish is good food. Even pony can eat fish."

Twilight's mind worked on the information. She'd read of the isolated country of Yakyakistan, to the far north of Vanhoover, which was to the west, if the way he'd pointed with his antlers meant anything. So that would make the mountain range to the south west  the Yaket range and the bigger mountain directly south was Mount Everhoof. That made the 'big salt water' to the north the fabled Boreal Ocean. A few brave explorers from Trottingham had sailed up the Northern channel from the Celestial ocean and explored the eastern end of it, but most of it was uncharted territory.

It amazed her how much comfort she derived from knowing where she was, even if it was far beyond anywhere ponykind had travelled. Though that did invite the question.... "How do you even know about ponies?"

"One horn pony like you, Northen Star. Was old pony when I was calf. Taught many things. Helped with horn. Was good friend to caribou. Became part of clan."

That explained a lot. Northern Star had been a famous explorer, a real life Daring Doo (though technically so was Daring Doo). His journals of his explorations of the lands north of Equestria were the only reason that anypony knew anything about Yakyakistan. He claimed to have climbed Mount Everhoof, using an air bubble charm to supply him with oxygen. He'd been one of the explorers to sail the Boreal sea, and even ventured into Bugbear country.

Twilight had read some of his journals, as well as many scholarly articles derived from them. Though she remembered something about the records of his final explorations being banned from publication as being too shocking for public consumption by the Canterlot College of Arts, his sponsor. Rather than appeal to Princess Celestia, he'd resigned his post and headed back out into the Northern wastes. He'd never been heard of again.

Her stomach Interrupted her musings with a growl. She bit a mouthful of needles of her cover and chewed them slowly as the caribou chuckled. "Big sound from little pony belly. You look forward to eating with clan, I think? Is hokay, we have plenty fish."

Twilight said nothing, for her mouth was full. Then she swallowed, and she spoke. "Thank you again for offering your hospitality."

The caribou gave only an amused grunt in return and plodded on. The sky was starting to darken when they came over a low rise and down into a frozen vale where a large field of boulders were scattered like foal's toys below a rocky cliff. In the lee of the cliff was a small forest, mixing in with the boulder field, and in front of that were a scattering of cylindrical objects with light spilling from small holes in the cone shaped tops. A couple of caribou were moving around between them.

As they got closer, she could see what obviously had to be dwellings more clearly. They were made of the same heavy looking fabric that the bundle next to her was, mostly patches stitched together with some sort of thick cord. The edges of the rectangle curved in oddly. She was sure she'd seen the shape somewhere before... her heart suddenly gave a thump and began to race as she remembered where she'd seen it, in a book on ancient griffon culture. Those were _hides_, the skin of once living creatures. 

More than just her heart had jumoed because Olaf glanced back. "What is wrong?"

Twilight for once was lost for an answer. Half remembered horror stories she'd pooh pooed about caribou suddenly seemed a lot less silly. To get a hide you had to remove the skin from a creature, not a pleasant concept. What else did they do with the rest of it? Was Olaf's whole friendly attitude just a pretense to bring back some additional tent making material? 

"The... your dwellings... where did the covering come from?"

"Ah, it from ancestors. Ancestors are with us, ancestors protect us even after spirits go beyond."

"Other caribou?" Twilight asked, feeling equal parts shocked and relieved.

"Yes. Northern Star tell of how ponies treat dead. Bury them in ground, wing ponies burn them to ash with thunderbolts. Is sad, is nothing left. Is wasteful too. When caribou die, spirit is freed to travel long path to beyond, but body is left as gift to family, to clan. Comes from clan in first place so only fair. Hide and sinews make yurts to keep us warm, bags to carry things. Bones make tools, frames. Meat is smoked and saved for deep dark of winter. When food runs out, gift of ancestors keep calves and elders alike alive."

So the rumours were true, after a fashion. If Nothern Star reported this, no wonder his final journals were banned. Twilight knew she should be horrified, but the matter of fact way Olaf talked about it... It made sense from a practical point of view. These caribou lived on the very edge. They could not afford to waste anything - she was close enough to smell the fires buring inside the yurts, and they were not wood - even their own waste. Necessity had clearly become custom and eventually ritual.  At least they only used what was left behind. Considering her own actions, she was the last pony with moral grounds to act the high horse. 

Olaf stopped in front of the largest yurt and knelt down to let her off. She was glad to do so, as she now knew what the bundle she'd been resting against was made of. Acceptance did not equal comfort. She extracted herself from her fir overcoat and shivered as the true chill of the evening air finally reached her. Another caribou came up beside them, looking curiously at her before going in through the entrance, simply an unlaced seam in the side of the yurt.

"This is meeting hall. Only most honoured of ancestors part of it. Most of clan here. You greet, you tell story. Hokay?"

Twilight braced herself. "Okay."

They entered together. Several dozen caribou were resting around the edges of the interior, chatting and drinking from deep clay bowls. A fire of peat and droppings burned brightly in the centre, a hide bag suspended over it acting as a cauldron. It felt almost sauna-like compared to outside, and the air hung heavy with the scent of peat and musk. Shaggy pelts scattered around the edge acted as seating/bedding, and the fur lining continued up the walls in the form of the tawny hides of past caribou. 

As she'd expected, there was also another, smaller pelt among the ones on the far side of the yurt, one in royal blue with a pair of symbols on it. They showed the northern constellation called the Princess's Mane overlaid on an aurora; the star that formed to point of the horn, the pole star, was larger and depicted with four points where the others were simple circles and lines.

There were cheers and greetings as Olaf entered and not a few cries of surprise and curiosity when they saw his companion.

"I, Olaf, have returned! I bring food..." He pulled on a tie and hauled the massive bundle off his back and down onto the floor beside him. "... and a lost pony. At least, lost until found by me!"

All eyes turned to Twilight, and she felt a twinge of anxiety. She pushed it down. Friendship had worked so far, so it was only sensible to continue it. She gave a weary smile and bowed her head. "Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle."

Her stomach gave it's own introduction with a loud gurgle, which caused an uproar of laughter from the listening caribou, partly from the noise, partly from her expression of embarrasment.

An elderly female, with a necklace of bone pieces and stones, motioned to her to come over as the laughter died down. "I am Arga, Elder of the clan. It sounds like you have great hunger. Come, share our food, and share your tale."

Twilight smiled again, more freely this time as her heart eased. She was in the company of huge cannibal caribou who just about out-everythinged her, and for the first time in weeks she felt safe.
> The sun cries for me...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia sat in her chambers, re-reading Twilight's friendship letters, a pot of tea and a box of tissues close to hoof. There were times when she cursed her immortality, yet another pony had been taken from her by the march of time and her own mistakes. The light of the afternoon sun shone in through the balcony window, but the warmth it brought didn't ease the cold in her soul.

First Sunset Shimmer, now Twilight, gone because she'd made a mistake in how she'd handled, no, how she'd treated them. The very wording was a giveaway, you handled objects, you treated ponies. She'd turned Twilight's desperate attempt to warn her into a lesson, to teach her and guide her towards what she might have become. Well, it had been a lesson, but Twilight wasn't the one who'd learned it. 

Alicorn memory was near eidetic, it had to be to store and organise centuries of memories, so she could still remember Chrysalis's words. 

You took your most loyal subject, your treasured student, the pony who’d placed her life on the line for you again and again and protected Equestria from everything from your nutso sister to Discord, and during a time of crisis refused to listen to her, or indeed give her the level of attention you’d give some random guard warning you of a threat.

The dying Chrysalis had obviously been doing her best to do the most emotional damage she could in the time she had left, since physical damage had been beyond her. If only her vitriol hadn't been so accurate. While under normal circumstances Celestia had long trained herself to avoid second guessing herself, or dwelling on past errors, she couldn't help come up with a dozen ways she could have handled the situation better.

Yes, she'd believed that Twilight's outburst was simply due to the stress of the situation and the worry that Cadence was somehow taking her brother from her, magnified by her tendency to overthink something and extrapolate it into a disaster, but she already knew of Twilight's tendency to do exactly that, and should have been there to calm her down, not shut her off. She looked down at the friendship letter in front of her, one that hadn't been sent by Twilight.

"Dear Princess Celestia, 
We're writin' to you because today we all learned a little somethin' about friendship.  We learned that you should take your friends' worries seriously. Even if you don't think that she has anything to worry about."

Just because she'd been certain that Twilight's claims had been false, didn't mean she should have dismissed her so quickly. She should have taken charge and talked her down, even cast a detection spell to prove that Shining Armour wasn't mind controlled. If she'd taken Twilight seriously, she might have uncovered Chrysalis in the process of demonstrating that her fears were groundless. Then she might have been able to defeat the creature before she consumed enough love energy to fight against Celestia and win.

Tears stained the paper and she gave an unprincessly snuffle as she levitated a tissue to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. Despite everything, rejection by her family and friends, dismissal by a princess who had once again demonstrated that there was no fool like an old fool, Twilight had found a way to win through and save everybody, except herself. Chrysalis had been right, in her own twisted way. Twilight had been a far better friend to them, that they had to her.

If only time travel spells allowed you to change the past, rather than just visit it, she would have gladly used one to change fate's design, but that was beyond even alicorn magic. However, there were things she could do, if not for Twilight, then to honour her memory. First of all was to get herself cleaned up and provide the Equestria Twilight had saved with the ruler it needed. She cast a cosmetic charm to wipe away the signs of her sorrow, and placed the letters in a small chest with Twilight's cutie mark on it.

She trotted over to her desk to examine with distaste the reports that had piled up on it. The aftermath of the attack had added to her workload, with everything from road repairs where the changelings had for some reason dive bombed their way in, to complaints from the usual 'noble-ponies' about why this had been allowed to happen. There was one report from a Moondancer on possible spells to detect disguised changelings, but without a changeling to test it on, there was only so much she could do.

Celestia remembered the unicorn as an alumnus from her school, mostly because she was one of the ponies Twilight had mentioned discussing magical theory with. It had been her hope that those friends would generate the spark of friendship within her student. She blinked away more tears, everything seemed to remind her of Twilight, and what she'd lost. She got hold of her emotions and set to work on dealing with the rest of the papers, starting with a thank you note to Moondancer and some suggestions on possible further lines of enquiry. 

This was important work, she told herself, and doing it would help bring stability back to Canterlot and Equestria after the shock of the invasion. Luna would awake in a few hours for the changeover from day to night, and she needed to be ready. She almost managed to lose herself in the paperwork and forget her grief. Almost.
> ... Yeti still live.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight punched the whalebone needle through the hide she was sewing, and drew the sinew cord through to draw it together with the other piece. In the weeks since she'd first met the caribou, they'd given her shelter and food, and she'd done her best to find ways to repay them. Repairing and crafting things with her telekinesis was helping to restore some fraction of her horns dexterity and strength, and gave superior results compared to even experienced craft caribou who had to do it by mouth and hoof. The materials no longer felt 'creepy' as they had at first, and concentrating on the task with no outside distractions was relaxing and peaceful.

Of course, that was not the only thing that she'd found to do, and some were anything but peaceful. Several caribou calves came scrambling over to the corner of the yurt where she was working. They were led by Jens, Olaf's son, who shared his father's enthusiasm, if not yet his size or impressive antlers.

"Tell us another story Twilight!"

She smiled at the eager faces as she continued to sew. "Have you done your chores?"

There were eager affirmations by the group; Hilda and Arne, Jens' two closest friends and with him the local equivalent of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Twilight nodded in approval. 

"Very well, what shall it be? One of Northern Star's adventures? Or a friendship tale from Ponyville?" 

She glanced over at the source of at least some of her stories.  A pelt on the Wall of Honoured Elders wasn't the only thing Northern Star had left behind. His cold weather gear and saddlebags had survived, as had the anti-wear and anti-damage enchantments. These had not only prevented the ravages of time, but also stopped the extremely practical caribou from taking them to pieces to use elsewhere. She'd found a far greater treasure in one of the saddle bags. A mage-locked brass-bound box, and inside a complete set of Northern Star's journals, the originals as far as she could tell. 

They had been full of side notes and personal thoughts on everything from dangerous animals to medicinal plants to ancient legends and stories of the far north, not to mention dozens of practical survival tricks and spells that had never made it into the public version. However, it was the stories of his expeditions that the calves were interested in. They confirmed her previous belief that he'd been a real life version of Daring Doo, though he'd focused on knowledge rather than treasure, and his opposition had mostly been nature, either in the form of inhosptable climates or intractable flora and fauna.

"Ohhh! A Northern Star adventure!" Hilda exclaimed, bouncing on her hooves.

"Very well." She continued to run the seam automatically and turned her attention to the book she had to hoof, opening it with gentle touches of telekinesis. "I traveled to the great snow plains below the southern slopes of mount Everhoof  to investigate the truth of tales I had found common to all the northern tribes, that of a great crystal city of ponies that had once existed there, but had vanished in a single day. Whether this was simply a memory of the time of the three tribes, and the elusive ancient pony homeland, or something more I did not know, but I was eager to find out.

"The journey was long and arduous. The trail from the borders of Yakyakistan to the Northern Waste is known to hold many perils from hidden crevasses to yeti lairs. The truth of this I can personally attest to, as while traveling I was set upon by one such yeti. I was trotting through a shallow pass when it leaped upon me from a hidden ledge. Fortunately, I slipped upon a patch of ice at that exact moment, bringing me to my knees, and the beast overshot his mark. It landed heavily, but rolled to it's feet with far greater speed than expected from a creature of it's bulk.

"The yeti is a creature of fearsome aspect, a monstrous chimera of great ape and hunting cat, four times the size of a pony. It's thick white fur grant it both insulation and concealment in equal measure, and it's sense of smell and hearing are keen, to better detect it's usual prey, the small creatures that burrow under the snows. It's hind-legs have wide cat-like paws with claws that afford it excellent purchase upon the snow covered rocks and dirt, while it's fore-legs terminate in clawed digits, like a dragon, equally adept at burrowing for it's prey, or slashing said prey to ribbons when it finds it.

"A lone pony, even the most doughty warrior or cunning combat mage would be hard pressed to fight it alone, and I account myself neither. To try and outrun it would be like trying to outrun an avalanche, and equally futile. I was struggling to my hooves, and had seconds before it recovered it's wits and sprung upon me, so where main strength and speed would fail me, I substituted guile. I drew one of my emergency flares from my saddlebags, levitating it to point at the yeti's face and pulled the cord. 

"The flash blinded it, and the detonation of the flare on the bridge of it's nose both deafened it and filled it's sensitive nostrils with acrid black powder smoke. The yeti was greatly discommoded, rolling around on the snowy ground with yowls and screeches of anguish. Assured that it would not soon recover it's senses, or hunt pony any time soon, I quitted the pass with all the haste I could muster.

"My travails were not limited to avoiding being food for some other creature, I had my own provisions to worry about. Even with the expansion charms on my trusty saddlebags, I was hard pressed to carry enough food, and supplemented my diet with the remarkably tasty crystal berries that grow on hardy bushes in the more sheltered and hidden places of the area. Fortunately my food locating spell proved equal to the task of finding them.

"I searched the region for many days and nights without any sign of the remains of a city or any other structure, but my search was not without result. While looking for a cave to spend the night in, I came upon a marvelous discovery, the entrance to a series of deep caverns with walls of crystal, similar to the ones below the city of Canterlot, but far more beautiful. Light, either fed from the surface through crystal veins or generated within the crystals themselves, lit the caverns with a soft lambent glow. What is more, they showed signs of having been mined and enlarged, tool marks and regular cuts, though unlike Canterlot's caverns, I could find no trace of the tools or carts that would have been used to bring the mined crystals to the surface..."

Twilight suddenly realised the entranced calves had been joined by another caribou, who was standing behind them and listening with amusement to her tale. "Elder Arga! What can I do for you?"

"Be at peace, young Twilight. It is well that you have studied the knowledge left by Northern Star, as that wisdom may be needed. We will be sending an expedition to the south to gather more of the crystal berries for trading and to stock up for winter. Tell me, the locating spell you read about, can you cast it?"

Twilight thought carefully. Northern Star had included details of the spell in his journals, so she understood it well enough. In principle it was similar to Rarity's gem finding spell, which she'd also studied. While the spell matrix was fairly complex for someone not cutie-mark attuned to it, it required very little power, a definite plus. It was so frustrating, her considerable magical reserves had replenished themselves, her skills and knowledge were intact, but her crippled horn only allowed her to release a trickle of the power she had stored within. However, this was well within her ability.

"Yes, I'm certain I can."

Arga smiled in that way that made her look like a caribou version of Zecora. "Very well. Will you go with the expedition and help them to find the berries? The groves are frequently hidden, and the shifting snows prevent the gatherers from marking their locations."

Twilight nodded eagerly. "Of course I will! After the kindness you've shown me, it's the least I can do."

The three calves broke into the short silence that followed with eager cries. "Can we come too?" "We're old enough!" "We can help get into the tight places."

Arga gave an indulgent chuckle. "Indeed, I was going to ask you to help this year. As you say, you may be able to reach places that full grown caribou can not."

"Yay!" "We'll bring back so many berries the whole clan will be able to eat them for a moon!" "We're going on an adventure!"

"I'll get ready..." Twilight started to pull Northern Star's parka towards her with a hoof, her telekinesis was still not up to lifting something that heavy, only to be stopped by Arga.

"The expedition leaves tomorrow. Finish your story and rest well tonight, for you have a long journey ahead of you."

At the word 'story' the three calves turned their attention back to Twilight. Jens looked at her pleadingly. "Please, continue telling us about the crystal caverns?"

Twilight smiled and picked up the book. "Where were we... While looking for a cave to spend the night in, I came upon a marvelous discovery, the entrance to a series of deep caverns with walls of crystal..." 

&&&

As the caribou stripped the crystal berries from the latest bushes she'd found, Twilight spoke to Eikar, the leader of the gathering party. "I'll go on ahead, see if there are any more bushes across the other side of the glacier."

"Ja, you do that." Eikar replied. "See if you can find the other group. Tindra said she was taking the young ones to search the cliffs at the top end."

Twilight nodded in acknowledgement, then strode off confidently. The parka and snow boots kept her comfortable and dry even in the chill wind and snow flurries, a further enchantment, and the snow goggles protected her eyes. The trek to the southern slopes of Mount Everhoof had given her practice in traveling this wilderness, and she'd matched the pace of the caribou party which was admittedly slightly slower due to the calves traveling along with them. The exercise had put her in the best shape she'd been in her life, a far cry from the starving wreck Olaf had rescued all those weeks ago.

It had been a long journey, several days of working their way around the western side of the mountain range to the southern foothills. The party had been made up of a half dozen adult caribou with Eikar, an older male, leading, as well as Twilight and the three calves. Twilight had carried her share of the supplies in her expanded saddlebags, and would be filling them with berries for the trip back. They'd rested overnight in snow houses that the caribou had built along their usual routes, all the caribou and Twilight together in a big furry puddle. 

It made sense, despite the protection of the packed snow block walls, mutual body heat removed the need for fires or large amounts of coverings. However, it had been a bit of a culture shock for Twilight. Though it did explain why the caribou were so social and welcoming, even to a stranger. Even for a caribou, cold was a killer. They needed to be able to live in close proximity, to huddle together in the worst of winter. Under those circumstances, being accepting and easy to get along with was a survival trait.  

She left the more certain footing of the snow covered dirt for a sweeping slope of windblown snowfield, with patches of pale blue and green peeking through. She could feel the compacted ice lying under the thin snow layer through her hoof boots. According to Northern Star's notes he'd named this Frostfield glacier.  As she crossed the deeper snow layers she watched the ground carefully for the flatter lines in the snow that would indicate a covered crevasse, mindful of the warnings from Northern Star's journal. When deep snow compacted and split, it formed a sheer sided crack, sometimes with a meltwater stream at the bottom. Snow drifts and accumulated ice sometimes blew out over the crack, forming a snow bridge that concealed it. 

She was almost across, and preparing to cast the locator spell when she heard yells from up towards the head of the glacier. She squinted and could just make out three small figures racing down the snowy slope at great speed, followed at some distance by a larger white one. As they got closer, she identified the three smaller figures as the Jens, Hilda and Arne and the larger one as a yeti from the descriptions. She turned around and ran back to intercept the calves. As she approached she called out.

"Where's Tindra?"

Jens had the most puff left and answered. "Left behind! We went on ahead... found a cave..."

Twilight could fill in the gaps. She pointed her horn back towards the valley where Eikar and the other caribou were. "Go! That way! Eikar's there."

She cut across to place herself between the calves and the oncoming yeti. It looked every bit as scary as Northern Star's description, but it was less scary than a hydra. She could feel the fear, but overlaying it was determination as ice cold and hard as the glacier she stood on. She'd failed those who depended on her once. Never again. Without her full magic there was no way to fight it, and she could see from it's long loping gait that out-running it was as futile as trying to outrun an avalanche, so she'd have to do as Northern Star did and outwit it. Unfortunately, the saddle bags no longer contained any emergency flares. Fortunately, she had other options. 

She focused what magic she could through her damaged horn and formed a spell matrix, little more than a cantrip. She had to place it very precisely, or she was doomed. The yeti was no more than three or four body lengths away, having headed towards the stationary meal over ones it had to chase, when she released the spell. A bright flash burst right over the yeti's muzzle, blinding even snow glare adapted eyes. It howled and lost it's footing tumbling forward, and she stepped to one side as it slid past her.

She followed up the attack by casting another cantrip on it's face, which was now covered by its forepaws as it rolled around on the snow. She'd learned this one from her brother as a filly, but she'd never actually used it except in practice. A greenish cloud of smoke engulfed the yeti's muzzle, and even from where she stood, Twilight could detect the stink of rotten eggs and worst. The yeti with it's sensitive nose would be far worse off. There was no way it was going to be able to track any-pony by scent any time soon.  She made another mark on her mental checklist. Calves safe... check! Yeti's ability to track disabled... check! Escape from yeti... 

She considered following the calves. She would probably have enough of a head start to get back to the caribou before it caught up, but that would lead it on to them. While she was sure a half dozen adult caribou could defeat the yeti, it was certain someone would get hurt, and she'd prefer that didn't happen, not even to the yeti. Leading it off elsewhere then losing it would be preferable. She still wouldn't be able to outrun it, but running might not be needed if she did this right.

She saw the yeti was starting to recover it's feet, and dashed off down the slope of the glacier. As she did, she formatted a third cantrip; like the stink bomb spell it was something her brother had taught her as a filly. She cast it on her body and sprang forward, tucking in her hooves as her belly suddenly became almost frictionless. She body-slid away down the slope of the glacier, picking up speed rapidly. She risked a glance over her shoulder and saw the yeti give chase, even make up some ground in the first few seconds, but even it's ground eating stride couldn't match her once she got up to speed.

She flew down the open upper part of the glacier, picking up speed on the steeper slope, and swept into the lower part which had humps, snow drifts and moraines which she had to guide her way through, shifting her body weight to steer. The snow was wetter here, and her task was made more difficult by the tumbled stones and other debris that had been carried down to the base of the glacier and stuck up at odd angles, turning it into a slalom course where a single wrong move would result in a penalty of pain.

Finally Twilight slowed to a stop as the snow became soft enough to bog her down. She dismissed the Grease spell and stood up, listening carefully for any sound of the yeti. She sighed with relief when all she could hear was silence, other than the eerie cry of some circling bird of prey. Now all she had to do was circle around the base of the glacier and climb back up to find the party of caribou. She winced as she looked at the distance she'd have to climb, and sighed.

"Oh well, the longest journey begins with a single ste.......eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!"

As she started to walk the snow gave way under her and she fell through the surface crust. She had just enough time to realise this must be an ice crevasse before she plunged into a wash of freezing water at the bottom. She was swept away by the strong current of the melt water torrent that didn't so much flow as pummel it's way along the bottom of the crevasse. Twilight tried to swim, or even grab something to stop herself but the current was too strong, and any projections had been worn or washed away.

At least her head was above water, the waterproof saddle bags were acting as floats, and the charms on her parka were preventing the freezing water from making her more than just cold. She wasn't completely safe though, other debris was falling into the stream and being washed along with her. She spun and tumbled in the flow, and the last thing she saw before darkness claimed her was a log being swept towards her head. She felt a sharp blow and nothing more.
> Bride and Gloom
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I don't know if I can do this."

Shining Armour, Captain of the Royal Guard, was staring at his reflection in the mirror. His full dress uniform was immaculate, his mane perfectly groomed, but the face above it had changed, lines around the eyes and muzzle that hadn't been there before that day, the humour absent.

A pink glow of magic adjusted the way the blue sash hung from his shoulder as Princess Cadence, the real one, stepped up beside him. "Shiny, darling, this ceremony is to honour Twilight. What will it look like if you aren't there?"

"I don't deserve to be there, not after the last thing I said to her. The last words she heard from me were that I didn't want her around." His head drooped as he gave a deep sigh.

"But she came anyway." Cadence said, leaning in to nuzzle his neck "I was with her, remember? The only thing she was interested in was getting to the wedding to stop it, stop Chrysalis from harming you or anyone else. If she blamed anypony for what happened, it was herself."

"That doesn't make me feel any better. She was my LSBFF, and she loved you almost as much as she did me. She wouldn't have tried to push us apart unless she was certain something was wrong. Why didn't I listen to her?"

"Well? Why didn't you listen to her?" Cadence asked, in a gentle tone that robbed the words of any accusation.

Shining Armour sighed. "Because... I thought she was just having one of her episodes. You know how she used to turn some small problem into  a world shaking disaster. Normally I'd talk her down, or double team with Spike to calm her, but instead I snapped at her."

"You were under stress, you had no idea that Chrysalis had replaced me, and I'm sure the mind control spell she was using on you made you even less tolerant of anything coming between you and your beloved."

"I'd love to blame that insect for me losing my temper, but no, that was all me, I'm afraid. Keeping up the shield and organising the defence... When Twilight started insulting you, I mean the fake you, not that I knew she was fake..." He trailed off, trying to back his train of thought out of the verbal sidings he'd ended up in.

"I understand. And so would she." Cadence hugged him with one wing. "You didn't mean what you said. A simple apology would have fixed things."

"I wanted to, I felt bad afterwards, I even went looking for her." His expression turned into a scowl. "I met up with fake-you instead. The last thing I remember clearly was asking her if she'd seen Twilight, and if she wanted to come help fix the misunderstanding. I think that's when she turned the mind control thing up to full-on zombie mode. Then it was all a big green cloud up until the big reveal. I never got to apologise, or even say goodbye."

Cadence squeezed him with her wing. "If you feel you have to do some sort of penance, going to the ceremony is a good start. Your parents will need you, now more than ever, and maybe it will allow you to start to say goodbye."

The white stallion sighed again and leaned into his beloveds wing hug. "You're right. How did someone so young and beautiful get so wise?"

"I think it's part and parcel of the whole alicorn thing." Cadence quipped. "Wings, horn and wisdom of the ages at no extra cost."

The chuckle her comment triggered was a weak thing, barely able to escape Shining Armour's lips, but it was the first one he'd uttered since before the scene in at the rehersal. He glanced at himself in the mirror again, and told his reflection to pony up and support Cadence and his parents. Then he turned away and made his way with Cadence to the door of their suite.

&&&

The weather was perfect, but that wasn't exactly a surprise when you had pegasi working the clouds. The plaza in front of the public address balcony of Buckingham Palace was packed with ponies, both Canterlot natives and a large proportion of Ponyville. However, the Princesses were not up on the balcony, but standing on a raised platform next to a large plinth of polished black and white flecked grey marble in the centre of the plaza. A white cloth covered the object on the plinth, and the top of the plinth itself.

The only other ponies on the platform were the Elements, Twilight Sparkles parents and Shining Armour. Spike was there too, perched on Raritys back as he had on Twilights. The rest of the Ponyville Apples had reserved spaces at the foot of the platform, and they were riding herd on the other two Crusaders, though for one they didn't need much watching, as the three of them were unusually solemn. There was a low murmuring from the crowd, which fell away to silence as Celestia stepped forward.

"My little ponies, we are here today to remember Twilight Sparkle, magical prodigy, faithful student and loving friend to many here today. Everyone who knew her could testify to her courage, dedication and her love for her friends and family. From the time I took her under my wing as my personal student, I watched her blossom from an eager to please, shy young filly into a strong, capable young mare who possessed an unshakable determination to improve herself and do what was right.

"She saved Equestria from many terrible disasters, none more so than the recent invasion attempt by Queen Chrysalis and her changeling horde. She brought together a unique group of ponies, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and with their aid stopped Nightmare Moon from bringing eternal night and restored my dear sister Princess Luna to us. She also lead them in the fight against Discord, who would have plunged Equestria into an endless reign of chaos and disharmony.

"Both these events are commemorated by stained glass windows in the throne room of Buckingham palace, and a third has been commisioned for her actions at the recent royal wedding. Chrysalis had imprisoned the true Princess Cadence in the crystal caverns below Canterlot and taken her place, deceiving every-pony with her disguise. Only Twilight realised there was something wrong. She found the real Cadence and brought her back, then when Chrysalis revealed herself and started her attack on both Canterlot and myself, struck the creature down with her horn, tragically losing her life in the process.

"It is that last event which brings us out here, as I, in consultation with my sister and niece, have decided that she should have a memorial beyond the windows that record her triumphs. We wish to honour the pony who was so dear to all our hearts, and ensure that her memory endures for as long as Canterlot stands."

Her horn glowed brightly, and a matching golden glow enveloped the cover on the plinth. It was pulled away to reveal Twilight Sparkle, three times life size and sitting couchant upon the plinth. Her horn was surrounded with a purple aura, and a similar aura surrounded the floating book with a golden unicorn head embossed on the cover that she was reading intently, a happy smile on her face. The scene was so real, it seemed as if any second she would look up from her book in surprise at why there were so many ponies clustered around her.

However, her body was made of coloured marble, custom grown by a master rock farmer, and her eyes were pearl and amethyst. The book was also marble and gold, cleverly supported by the translucent purple crystal that served as an aura. On the plinth itself, the same words were engraved and inlaid with gold on all four sides along with a pair of dates. 


Twilight Sparkle 
Courageous and True
Faithful Student
Loving Friend


Shining Armour was openly crying, tears streaming down his face, and he wasn't the only one. Spike was sobbing as were most of the Elements, and even Celestia was blinking away her watering eyes. After a moment he and his parents moved to step down off the platform, carrying a wreath in their combined magic. They laid it at the foot of the plinth, and a number of other tributes followed it.

It was as the royal party was returning to the place that a pegasus in the armour of a Royal Guard swept down from the skies to land, galloping the rest of the distance to prostrate himself in front of them, ignoring the raised spears of the honour guard that bracketed him as he approached.

"News from Northern Equestria, your highnesses!"

Celestia looked surprised. "What could be so urgent..."

"I am simply to tell you that it has returned."

Celestia gasped, an uncharacteristic look of shock on he face.

"No, not now... Cadence, Shining Armour, come with Luna and I, we have to deal with this immmediately! Twi..."

She stopped in mid-sentence, looking back at the assembled ponies, and her expression made her look every day of her age.
> Kingdom of the Crystal Heart
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight came awake slowly. There was a vague ache in her temple where the branch had hit, but on the other hoof there was a lack of being thrown about by a rampaging torrent, so on the whole her situation had improved. She could feel that she was lying on something cold and solid, which meant she was no longer wearing her parka. Her fur and mane were saturated, which only made both the air and the surface under her feel colder. The air smelled of stone and ice, and she could hear the rushing, burbling sound of running water, which echoed slightly. Having exhausted her other senses, she opened her eyes, to find a set of eyes looking back at her. 

"Ahhh!" 

She started at the shock of finding someone there. The light blue earth pony had a black mane, tied back with a band, and his face showed an expression of surprise which quickly turned to worry. "Are you okay?"

"I... I think so, I'm sorry, I didn't expect to see anyone here... wherever here is." 

She looked around as she rolled over to get her legs under her. It was a cavern, as she'd guessed from the echo. There were fantastic pillars and clusters of crystal, seemingly illuminating the cavern, but much of the rest of the walls were made of stone, with stalactites and stalagmites that suggested sedimentary rock. Some distance behind her a rushing stream cut it's way down through the cavern, one of several, and all of them ultimately fell into the chasm that spanned much of the central length. Closer by was a pile of gear, her saddlebags and cold weather gear. 

She might be cold, and a little disoriented, but she quickly realised something. "You... you saved my life! Thank you!"

Her savior rubbed the back of his neck with a hoof while looking embarrassed, but his widening smile showed he appreciated her gratitude. He actually turned away for a second and she heard a shivering, chattering sound. He must be cold and trying not to show it, not surprising if his fur was still wet. He finally turned back and spoke.

"It's okay, I saw you floating down that river and saw you were about to go over the edge. Any pony would have done the same thing."

"But you were the one who did." Twilight replied, casting a small spell to remove the water from her fur; it sprang about an inch off her coat in all directions then drained away. She started moving over to her gear. "May I know who you are?"

"Tho... For... ward... yes, that's me, Forward Ho." He made another chattering sound that sounded almost like hissing. "I'm sorry, I can't help that..."

"You must be freezing, diving into the water after me." She offered him the parka, which had dried quickly once removed from the water thanks to the charms on it. "I'm Twilight. Twilight Sparkle."

As soon as she said it she winced internally. This was a the first pony she'd met since the Royal Wedding. He might know what she'd done, and might well not be as accepting as the caribou. Fortunately he didn't seem to react, other than putting his hoof up to stop her.

"It's alright, you need it more than me. How did you end up in the water in the first place?"

She felt slightly guilty as she donned her parka, but grateful to him all the same. Of course, she realised, he had earth-pony resilience to help him resist the cold. "I was attacked by a yeti up on Frost Field Glacier. I managed to get away but in the process I fell into a snow covered crevasse. The stream at the bottom carried me away, I hit my head and woke up here."

"Is that how you damaged your horn?" 

She did her best not to wince at the blunt question. He was an earth-pony, she thought, he couldn't know how sore a subject that might be. "No, that was earlier on. How far have I come?"

To his credit, he must have been perceptive enough to pick up her discomfort, as he looked away, embarrassed. "Sorry. These caverns run under the middle of the frozen north, so, quite a way, I guess. Are you feeling better?" 

"Much better, thank you." She felt warmed by his concern, and he seemed pleased at her recovery, his movements more energetic. 

She noticed the earthenware pot on his flank. "I'm guessing from your name and cutie-mark you're an explorer, maybe an archeologist? Northern Star's journals mention caverns like this in relation to a lost crystal city of ponies. I guess that's why you're here."

"Uh, yes, yes I am." he smiled nervously.

He must think I'm after the same thing, she thought. "Oh, don't worry, I'm not an archeologist myself, I just read a lot. In fact I can lend you Northern Star's journals if that will help. It's the least I can do for you. I'd love to hear all about what you've discovered so far."

He shied slightly at that. Stupid Twilight! She berated herself, of course he's not going to want to talk about his exploration if he's trying to keep his priority on any discoveries. "Or not. Um... you must be hungry. I have some supplies I can share."

"I'm okay, but feel free to eat something yourself."

Twilight frowned, she wanted to do _something_ to thank him. She decided to try another of Northern Star's spells from before he got his fancy cold weather gear. She had plenty of magic, even if she could only funnel a trickle through her broken horn. Fortunately the spell she had in mind was only a short step above a cantrip power wise, though quite complex from a casting point of view. It should be just within her current ability. Her horn glowed and a purple glow surrounded Forward Ho, who flinched and gave a yelp. A thin sheen of water, much less than the amount that came off her, sprang away from his coat.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to startle you, it's just a thank you, I dried you off and applied an Endure Elements spell. It's not quite as effective as this parka, but it should keep you warmer than you would be with bare fur. I'm surprised you weren't as saturated as I was, but I guess I was in the water for longer."

"I... Thank you. I do feel warmer."

"It's the least I can do." Twilight wondered what to do next. Meeting Forward Ho had opened up new possibilities. If he'd come here from Equestria, that meant Equestria was reachable from here. If she could trek back, maybe to one of the northern settlements like Rainbow Falls, she could get in touch with her friends, even Celestia, and access her Royal stipend. From there she could get the train back home to Ponyville or Canterlot... Her train of thought was brought to a halt by the washed away bridge of fear.

How would they react, what would they say, what would she say? She was still a killer, even if it was for a good reason. It was her fault that Chrysalis had even gotten as far as she had, because Twilight had failed to warn every-pony. Would they be willing to accept her back? She desperately hoped so, but she still couldn't shake the fear that they might reject her. Even if they did want her back, what would become of her? With her ruined horn, she could no longer be Celestia's student. While it was growing back, she'd almost certainly never regain her former channeling capacity.

Maybe Ponyville would let her keep being librarian, if her friends still wanted to _be_ her friends. If not she knew she could find a home with the caribou. For that matter she should let them know she was safe...

"What's wrong?" The concerned words shook her out of her daze. Forward Ho was looking at her with a worried expression. 

"Sorry, I was thinking about what I was going to do next. It's... complicated." She had a sudden thought. "Have you heard any news from Canterlot?"

He looked stunned, then quickly answered, "No! I mean no, I haven't been there in a long time. Did something happen?"

"If you call an invasion 'something', then yes. These insect-like creatures called Changelings attacked the city. Their queen was a shape-shifter and replaced Princess Cadence. She stole love from Cadence's fiancee - they use love as food you see, and to fuel their magic - and became powerful enough to take on Princess Celestia."

"What happened to her?"

"Don't worry, Princess Celestia is alright! At least I'm pretty sure she is, the sun's been rising and setting normally. I... stopped Chrysalis. That was how my horn got damaged. In the process I got teleported far away, to the north of Mount Everhoof, the region the caribou call Wintergard. Don't believe the rumours, they're friendly. They took me in, and it was while we were out on a berry gathering expedition that I met up with the yeti."

Twilight gave a mental sigh of relief. She'd avoided talking about anything too painful or personal, while still giving a reasonably accurate report. Forward Ho still looked a bit poleaxed though. "I guess this is a lot to take in. Maybe we should go to your camp, or somewhere we can rest... that is if you don't mind."

"Uhh, that is, I don't really have a camp."

Twilight frowned in puzzlement. "But then where are your supplies?"

"I live off the land." He gave a weak grin.

"You rely on forage, up here? Even caribou have to work at finding enough forage to support themselves. You must be really good at adventuring! Hmmm...  do your earth-pony magic powers include terravoyance?" 

Seeing his confused look she explained, "It's actually a name I made up for the ability, a sixth sense relating to things of the earth. You know instinctively where north is, the lay of the land, the direction to the nearest food and water sources, as an archeologist maybe walk over a dig site and know where to dig to find the buried artifacts. I have a spell that can detect nearby food, well, crystal berries, but something like that would be far more useful. You know there are still some idiots in Canterlot who don't believe earth-ponies have any magic beyond brute strength and toughness...."

She stopped herself and let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, I'm babbling aren't I? It's just so good to see another pony, especially a fellow scientist. I'll shut up and let you speak."

That actually raised a smile from her companion. "No, it's okay, go on. You clearly love what you're talking about, and it's good to see a friendly face after being on my own."

At that point, Twilight's stomach made it's opinion known with a loud rumble. Twilight blushed. "Um... If it's alright with you, can we just rest right here? I do need to eat."

At his nod, she moved to an alcove in the wall framed by spectacular stalagmites and settled down, lying slightly sideways to put the edge of the parka between her and the cold stone floor. She unsealed one of her saddlebags and drew out a couple of circular flat cakes of dark green material. Forward Ho settled himself down beside her and gave them a curious look. 

"Pressed lichen." Twilight took a bite and chewed it blissfully. After she swallowed she added, "The caribou make it as trail rations. They cultivate it in sheets on sheltered rocks and trees even in winter, then peel it up and press it flat for easy storage. Sometimes they even put in berries or nuts to add flavour, but it's good on its own too. Are you sure you don't want some?"

"No, I'm fine, really."

Twilight polished off the first cake, then looked at the second one longingly before putting it back and bringing out a canteen. Washing down the food, she offered it to Forward Ho, who took it in a hoof and put it to his lips. Twilight saw him swallow, but it felt like he'd barely drunk anything when he hoofed it back. They shared a long companionable silence.

"I really do want to thank you." Twilight finally said. "You rescued me, and you've been nothing but kind and caring since. Would you like to be friends?"

That got the biggest smile she'd seen yet, and another shiver. "Yes! Yes, I would love to be your friend. It's not something I've really ever had before."

His expression fell, as if he'd said more than he'd meant to, and she placed a hoof on his shoulder to reassure him. 

"Oh, don't worry, I was like that once. I was more interested in books than friends when I... lived in Canterlot. I guess you're like I was, totally focused on your work, having colleagues rather than friends?"

"Not quite." Forward Ho was clearly having difficulty talking about it, picking his words carefully. "I was always interested in friendship, but none of my fellows were. We were part of a team, I guess, and that was something. As for our... boss... she was the one focused on the job. She wouldn't have understood my desire to do something different."

"Goodness, I had no idea that archeological research could be so cut-throat." Twilight felt a distinct twinge at Forward's description. 

'Did Spike ever feel that way about me when I got too deep in my studies?' she asked herself. She resolved to apologise to Spike for that if she ever saw him again. "I understand why you decided to go off exploring on your own."

"Recent events made me realise I just couldn't live like that anymore. I set off to look for something better, something more. But I needed some time to clear my head, to figure out what to do next."

"So you came here." Twilight finished off. "I'm glad you did. Though I'm sorry if I disturbed you."

"No! No, I'm very happy to be disturbed, I mean I'm glad you're here, not that I'm happy you were attacked by a yeti or anything, I mean... I don't know what I mean, so I'll just shut up."

Twilight actually giggled at his flustered reaction. "Well I know what you mean, and I'm grateful."

They fell into silence again as Twilight returned to the question that Foreward's presence brought up. If she had a chance to return to Equestria, should she? Would she? She yawned as she suddenly felt the day's exertions catch up with her.  It was something she'd decide on tomorrow. The light from the crystal pillars was fading; the daylight must be waning above, so she cast heating and glow-light spells on a stalagtite overhead. She felt a twinge in her truncated horn, even as the stone spire started to radiate warmth and a soft glow. She'd pushed her magic, or at least her horn, as far as possible today.

"Do you mind if we rest here? I feel exhausted. Tomorrow I should really get up out of these caves and try and find my caribou friends. They must be worried about me. I can lend you those journals to read if you're not ready to go to sleep yet."

"That would be fine." Foreward Ho settled down beside her, not resting against her but close by. Twilight levitated the journal that had Northern Stars entries on the stories he'd found about the crystal city out of her saddle bag and over to him. Then she rested her head on her forehooves and fell asleep without noticing.

&&&

Twilight was galloping through the empty hallways of Buckingham palace, which seemed to lead back on themselves in ways that shouldn't have been possible in any well thought out universe. She had to find her friends... there, the doors to the throne room! She slammed the doors open with her telekinesis and ran in. They were all there, Spike, the girls, Cadence and Shining Armour, even Celestia and Luna. She pelted headlong up the hallway carpet to reach them and cried out, "I'm back! Oh my goodness, I'm so glad to see you all!"

They all turned to look at her, and Celestia frowned, staring at her sternly. "Who are you?"

"It's me, Twilight Sparkle! Surely you remember me!"

"A straight haired Pinkie Pie retorted, "Twilight is dead. She died killing the changeling queen. And don't call me Shirley."

"No, I wasn't killed, I was just teleported away!" Twilight's joy at seeing them all again was quickly turning into shock and fear at their reaction. "But now I'm back! Just look at me, it's really me!"

"It certainly looks like her." Rarity said, suddenly in  front of her and using a hoof to hold Twilight's chin as she moved her head side to side for examination.

"But it can't be her!" Rainbow yelled, flying in to displace Rarity and staring at her face to face. "Who are you? Are you a spy?"

"The answer is obvious." Luna declaimed. "She has the appearance of Twilight, but can not be her. So she must be a changeling!"

"A changeling!" "Changeling!" "No good dirty changeling!" The others started taking up the chant, crowding around her, jostling and shaking her from side to side. Twilight found herself both in the middle of the crowd and observing it from outside. To her horror, she saw green flames start to lick around her hooves and travel up her legs, burning away the purple fur to reveal spindly black legs full of holes. Even before the transformation completed she knew that the shape revealed was going to be Queen Chrysalis. She struggleed and tried to escape the press of bodies, tossing and turning, then everything vanished in a flare of green flame. 

Twilight came awake with a jolt, opening her eyes to the fading flickers of her glow-light spell an afterimage of green flame. However, the shaking hadn't stopped, the ground beneath her was shuddering as if there was a heard of pie crazed buffalo charging down on them. She stumbled to her hooves, looking around frantically for the buffalo. Forward Ho was already awake and hoof stepping in worry.

"We have to get out of here!" he exclaimed. "There's some sort of earthquake, the roof could come down!"

She didn't waste time agreeing with him, just started trotting out of the alcove. Then she turned and scooped up the journal left on the rocks behind her with her magic, dropping it back in her saddle bags. "Which way is out?"

"Follow me!" Forward Ho cantered forward into the darkness sure-hoofedly, almost as if he could see the way ahead. Twilight didn't have his earth pony knack or muscle memory, so she lit her horn up to provide light for them both. They ran along the length of the cavern, the chasm yawning on one side of them, and the floor under-hoof rising up in a shallow slope. As they got further up, there were fewer crystals embedded in the stone walls, and more gaps where crystals once were.

At the top end of the cavern, the ground and stalagmites were coated in a layer of windblown snow, including one array of stalagtites that loomed in the darkness like the bared teeth of some great dragon. Forward Ho angled across to the wall of the cavern, and into a wide gap which turned out to be a tunnel leading upwards. Twilight scrambled after him, her hooves barely getting a grip on the snow covered rock under-hoof, but she managed to keep up more or less. 

She popped out into the open to find herself lying beside Forward on a snow covered plain, dimly lit by the grey vestiges of pre-dawn light filtering through the solid cloud cover and flurries of snow. However, Twilight didn't have the focus to be aware of it as the shaking had stopped, to be replaced by a twisting, wrenching sensation inside her, as if someone was wringing her insides like a used dish rag. It was accompanied by a twinging sensation in her horn, and the taste of tin in her mouth, signs of a powerful release of magical energy. She started retching, but the sensation only lasted a moment, and as it died away, the darkness was banished by a bright light.

She pulled herself up and turned to the light, and at first it was as if Celestia had dropped the sun on the plain in front of them, a great half dome of golden light that covered a sixty degree arc of vision, and blew away clouds in a wide ring around it. Then it faded to translucence; within she could see the suggestion of fields and around the centre, blocky regular shapes with a larger spire towering above them in the centre. The dome faded until it vanished into the darkness again, but the structures seemed to remain, and after a moment some of them started showing the twinkle of lights inside, though the central spire remained a dark outline.

"What was that?" Forward Ho was shaking his head as if to clear it.

"Not an earthquake, that's for sure. Did you see? The shaking hadn't knocked the snow off the stalagmites we passed. I think the sensations were our internal magic reacting to a massive magical effect." Twilight considered the feeling she'd had, her mind working furiously through everything she knew about magical theory. 

"It's almost like when I first learned to teleport, I felt as if I'd been dragged tail first through a crack in the universe. But this wasn't a linear pull... more like space and time twisting... or untwisting! That's it! Somehow that city was twisted out of normal space and time until just now! The shaking was it trying to push it's way back in, and when it was in place, it twisted into place like a nut on a bolt. We were caught by the edge effect, and felt the dimensional torsion as a torque effect on our astral patterns!"

Twilight finished off her explanation with a happy smile, excited to have worked out the reason for the effect. Forward Ho looked at her quizzically. "Okay, if you say so."

"I'd have thought you'd be more excited." Twilight said, looking slightly puzzled herself.

"Why?"

"Don't you see? That's it! The Crystal City of the legends. The one you were trying to find evidence for!"

"Oh... Oh! You think that's really it?" Forward Ho asked, wide eyed. "I didn't see what was inside the light clearly."

"I definitely saw buildings that had a crystaline look to them, and better yet, it's inhabited! You can see the lights. We should go and look. Just think, a city lost for a thousand years! There must be so much we can learn, ponies to talk to about what happened, maybe even books!"

Forward actually backed away at that. "Uh... I don't know if I can meet a lot of new ponies all at once. I... haven't had the best luck with that."

Twilight reached forward with a hoof and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "There was a time I felt something similar, not being sure how to handle meeting new ponies. But I had a good friend beside me, and you do too. Together we'll find out about the city and what happened to it, and when you get back to Equestria, you'll be so famous for discovering it that you can tell that bad boss of yours to go take a hike."

Forward still looked uncertain, but he saw the determination in her eyes and straightened up. "You're going to see it?"

Twilight nodded, taking her hoof off his shoulder. He stared at her for a moment, then gave a sigh of acceptance.

"Then I guess that makes two of us." With that, they started trotting towards the distant lights, together.
> It's dangerous to go alone...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The three Princesses and one Captain of the Royal Guard sat around a circular table in one of the private meeting rooms of Buckingham Place. Celestia and Luna's expressions were guarded, Cadence and Shining Armours' enquiring. Celestia placed a short stack of parchment on the circular table in front of them.

"The report from the Guard outpost at Rainbow Falls is clear enough. Earlier this morning there was a great light in the northern wastes that appeared and slowly faded over a period of minutes. A patrol was sent out at first light to see if they could find the cause, and reported seeing a city made of crystal at the furthest point of their circuit, surrounded by a circle of snow free plains and hills. Even the cloud cover seemed to break in a circle around it. 

"However, before they could approach it, they were then driven back by a snow storm, one that seemed to come up out of nowhere. They barely managed to make their way back to base, and these were veteran guards, experienced in the sort of wild storms the Northern wastes create. They immediately returned to report it, and the post commander, Lieutenant Storm Break, sent his fastest pegasus courier with the report. There's been a standing order to do so for centuries, against this very situation."

Shining Armour examined the papers. "Storm Break is a good officer, if he says it happened, it happened. But what is this crystal city, and is it a threat to Equestria? Clearly you have something in mind for us, that's why we're here."

Celestia sighed. "It is called the Crystal Empire, and it could possibly be the greatest threat Equestria has had to face, or the greatest blessing."

Her horn glowed, and a crystal floated up to hover in the middle of the table. It flared and a three dimensional illusion covered the tabletop, showing a city with wide green fields and houses made of crystal. Crystal paved roads surrounded it in a star shape, and at the centre was a towering spire of crystal resting on three flying buttresses, and looking like a rocketship from a pulp science fiction magazine. 

"Even Luna and I have limited knowledge of it; when it existed it kept itself isolated, but we do know it contained a powerful magic. That was why a thousand years ago, King Sombra, a unicorn whose heart was as black as night, usurped the throne..."

The green fields turned yellow and black, spiky pillars of crystal sprouted up, finally encrusting the crystal castle and turning it's clean, soaring lines into something  jagged and twisted. Over it floated the head of a grey furred unicorn with a night black mane and eyes of green with crimson irises. He wore a ornate black headpiece, adorned with curved spikes that mirrored the sinister looking crimson horn that curved up from his forehead, and plate armour complete with a cloak as red as his eyes.

The image changed to show him standing on a balcony of the transformed castle, an aura of purple flame streaming back from his eyes as a chain gang of earth ponies trudged along below. A pair of silhouettes appeared, backed by Celestia and Luna's cutie marks and fired a beam of energy down upon him. It stripped away his armour and headpiece, and started to turn his body to streamers of shadow before he vanished in it's glare. There was a final image of his screaming face being cast into a deep icy chasm that slammed shut.

"Luna and I ultimately overthrew him, turning him to shadow, and banishing him to the ice of the arctic north, but not before he cast a curse on the Empire, one that caused it to vanish into thin air."

The image of the city flared and vanished, leaving only the crystal floating there.

Luna spoke up. "When it was in it's full glory, the magic of the Empire did cast an aura of hope and love that was reflected across all of Equestria. If it was turned to hatred and fear... Sombra may have been freed as well, though if so he will still be very weak. Some-pony has to go to the Crystal Empire, help the ponies there and bring them hope, restore their feelings of love and joy before Sombra regains his powers. The Empire's magic is powerful, it can not fall again."

Cadence spoke for the first time. "And you think Shiny and I can do the job?"

Celestia looked towards her sister, then nodded as some unseen communication  passed between the two of them. "That is our hope. The crystal necklace you once encountered may have been an artifact created by the ponies of the Crystal Empire. You proved to be able to wield it more effectively than the one who was wearing it. Your ability to evoke and restore love may well prove vital to restoring the Empire, while  Shining Armour can shield a city. If Sombra attacks, that combination may be the only thing that can hold him off."

"Very well, I'll do it." Cadence stated seriously. "I hope I can live up to your expectations. Shiny?"

Meanwhile, Shining Armour was re-examining the reports and thinking ahead to the practical side of things. "If that snowstorm wasn't a co-incidence, it might be that something or some-pony is already trying to keep ponies away from the Empire. So going there by flying chariot is out. But we can take the northern railway route to Rainbow Falls and stop here, at this coaling station."

He pointed to a printed map that had several marks and notes written on it in ink.

"If the distances are correct, that puts us within walking distance of the Empire's borders. We'll need full cold weather gear and a compass, food and water supplies in insulated saddle bags, some guards to help me protect Cadence... oh, and a train."

Cadence giggled. "I guess that's a yes then?"

"Huh?" Shining Armour looked up from his notes. "Oh, yes, of course. We need to be going as soon as possible. It might be best to get the patrol from Rainbow Falls to meet us there. They can act as our guard detail and the train can go on to Rainbow Falls with replacements."

He thought for a second. "There is one other thing. I think we should take the Bearers and Spike with us."

"Why is that?" Celestia asked.

"Well, Spike will give us a way to contact you instantly, and Twilight's friends..." there was a slight catch in his voice as he said that, "... are all very resourceful ponies. Also, going on an important mission like this may help them to feel better. I'd ask for the Elements too, just in case they had to deal with Sombra directly, but without Twily, they aren't any use."

"Not quite true." Both Cadence and Shining gave Celestia a querying glance. "Even alone, each Element is the manifestation of a facet of Harmony, and as such they have a certain amount of power in the hooves of their Bearer. I agree that giving the six of them something important to do may help them with their grief."

"Just like you are with us, auntie?" Cadence interjected. Celestia nodded in acknowledgement, the slightest hint of a rueful smile  at being caught out. "What about the Elements?"

Celestia looked over at her sister again and once again they seemed to come to some sort of agreement without speaking. "Very well. Better to have them available at need."

She picked up a quill and paper, and wrote a short note, then touched her horn to the bottom, causing a glowing golden seal in the shape of her cutie mark to emboss itself into the parchment. She levitated it and the quill over to Luna, who glanced at it, then countersigned it. She dipped her horn and placed her own seal, a glowing white crescent moon on a black shield, beside Celestia's.

Luna levitated it to Shining Armour. "This should help you to get things arranged. Authorisation to requisition guards and supplies as needed, backed by the full power of the Diarchy. Any-pony trying to be obstructive can explain themselves to us personally."

That last word was said in a tone that indicated any-pony who did was not going to enjoy themselves.

Celestia nodded in agreement. "I will retrieve the Elements, and go inform the Bearers and Spike that they may still be needed."

"Then we'll be off." Shining Armour said, getting up and offering Cadence a hoof.

After they'd left, Luna turned to her sister. "Are you sure you don't want me to go as well, my sister?"

Celestia shook her head. "No, I need you here. Ponies are still scared of some sort of retaliation or attack by the Changelings. They need reassurance, to know a Princess is watching over them at all times. I can not do that alone. Shining Armour and Cadence will have Spike, if they do need us, they can send word immediately."

"Ah, with both of us here, we can use a Solar or Lunar teleport at need, I see."

As the two of them got up to leave, Luna said, "I found your willingness to let the Bearers and Elements go... interesting."

"You disapprove?" Celestia glanced at her sister in surprise.

"Oh no, on the contrary. No-pony should have to face such a challenge alone. For a matter of such importance, we should not allow success to hang on a single thread or even two, however strong."

Celestia's expression darkened. "You're thinking of how I'd have handled it if Twilight was still alive?"

"Indeed." Luna placed a comforting hoof on Celestia's shoulder. "I know you loved her like a daughter, but you did sometimes make every task you gave her a test."

"You knew of my hopes for her, that she could succeed where Sunset Shimmer and so many others had failed." The white alicorn looked away. "She was so close, if anything her one remaining flaw was her over-reliance on me, on authority in general. But perhaps that is my fault, I kept her close, let her rely on me; I wanted to avoid the mistakes I made with Sunset and ended up making all new ones. The fact that she lacked confidence in making her own decisions isn't the only reason she got flustered so easily, but it contributed. And so did my tendency, as you said, to make everything a test.  It didn't help that day that I dismissed her worries so easily..."

"You couldn't have known." Luna's tone was sympathetic as she reassured her sister.

"I should have at least given her attention, even if it was only to prove her fears were groundless!" Celestia's voice was slightly raised, a sign of the depth of her feelings. "My being proved wrong might have helped her to see that I could be fallible, and that she could disagree with me and still make the right decisions without needing me to hold her hoof."

Luna stepped in and hugged her sister. 

"I don't think it is as big a problem as you imagine. I knew her less well than you, but I accounted her a friend, and a stalwart companion. When we first met, and I was lost in the madness of the Nightmare, she faced me fearlessly, even put her horn down and charged to trick me into charging her and moving away from the Elements. When next we met, on Nightmare Night, she was the one pony that extended a hoof of friendship to me from the start, while others still feared me as Nightmare Moon. 

"She was an exceptional pony, as you said in your eulogy, both courageous and open-hearted. When it came to the important things, when the safety of her friends, or you, or all of Equestria was on the line, she made the right decisions and didn't second guess herself. She believed it was necessary to stop Chrysalis and save you, and she was willing to pay the price. Do not grieve for her, she would not have wanted that."

Celestia leaned into the hug. "I try sister, but it's sometimes so hard..."

The two of them shared the moment, not as rulers, but as two sisters giving and receiving comfort. Then Celestia released the hug. 

"The fact remains that I failed to give Twilight the support she needed and it cost us both dearly. I may be a foolish old mare, but I will not make that mistake again. Shining and Cadence will have every scrap of assistance I can send them. And if Twilight were going, I would ensure she had whatever she felt she needed, and to Tartarus with any test!"

"Well said sister! On that note, you have Elements to retrieve, and I have the duties of the Night Court to prepare for." Luna paused and added, "And as for what I said about no-pony facing a challenge alone, that applies to you too, my sister. Know that I am always here for you."

"thank you Luna." Celestia left the room, with a slightly lighter step.
 
> Lost in a Good Book
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight forged forward through the pre-dawn light, Forward Ho beside (well a little bit behind) her. Even with her cold weather gear, the air was chilling, and the wind that had started rising as they approached the mysterious city wasn't making things any better. The snow on the ground reflected well enough that it was like being in moonlight, so she didn't need to form a horn light. It was just as well, she'd seen yesterday that overuse of her damaged horn could still cause mana-burn, so she was saving it for when they really needed it.

Part of her felt guilty at haring off on this expedition rather than working out the fastest route back to the caribou who were probably worried about her, but she told that part of herself that this city had a fifty percent chance of being in the right direction, and hopefully they might find additional supplies or equipment that might make the journey easier. The part that was wondering about heading in the opposite direction, back to Equestria, she kept quiet. 

It took an hour of trotting to reach the border of the reappeared city, which was easily distinguished by a boundary where the snow simply stopped. On the far side was a darker surface which when examined up close looked like grass. She came to a stop and examined it, and held out a hoof to stop Forward as he came up beside her. "This is odd."

"What is?" Forward asked. "Maybe the land wasn't frozen over when it disappeared."

"Not that, you feel the wind? And the snow it's starting to blow up? Which reminds me, how is the Endure Elements spell I put on you holding up?"

"I'm okay, and yes, what about it?"

"Can't you see? Nothing's been blown over the boundary." Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof. "If there's some sort of invisible magical barrier there, I don't know what it will do when we cross it."

Forward looked around, "So we should find some sort of gateway?"

"Yes, but where would we find one?"

"How about over there." He pointed to their left and Twilight squinted in that direction. There was some sort of blocky shape barely visible in the poor light and rising flurries of snow, several hundred pony-lengths away. She could only just see it even after it was pointed out to her. 

"Huh. Good eye. I'm amazed you could see it in this light." She started towards it.

"I've always had good low light vision."

As they reached the structure, which turned out to be two pillars of crystal, the projections above and below the three kite shaped diamonds that were strung between the pillars started to glow, lighting the area with a soft white light. The pillars reflected a burgundy red, and the gems purple and blue. 

"Fascinating! Some sort of automatically reacting path lighting system." Twilight examined the lit gems and the area beyond the pillars. "Well, there's definitely a road leading from here. And there's writing on the end, it's in an ancient earth-pony script... 'Welcome... to.. Crystal... Empire. May... our... heart... protect... you.' Odd, that's definitely the singular form, shouldn't it be 'hearts'?"

Forward looked down at the angular, runic script, made of lines with one side bowed out. "You can read that?"

Twilight blushed. "I read a lot of old books. I can decipher most pre-classical and even pre-Founding scripts. Did you know the shapes of the letters come from the fact that they were originally made by pressing a hoof tip into wax or clay? It even informs the capital letter forms of the modern equestrian alphabet... Of course you do! You're the archeologist. You probably deciphered it before I did, but didn't need to show it off."

She looked downcast, and Forward Ho, who'd looked worried for a second, smiled at her reassuringly. "It's okay. Of course I could read it, I was just surprised you could. But don't feel ashamed about wanting to demonstrate your knowledge. You love learning and sharing what you know, and stifling that is the last thing I'd want to do."

Twilight felt a wave of affection towards her new friend for his attitude. He really was a nice guy, as wall as brave, and smart, and he wasn't put off or scared off by her being , as Rainbow put it, 'an egg head' and wanting to share it. He was quite good looking too... She blushed, where had that come from? 

She gathered her scattered thoughts and focused on the task ahead. "Um... yes, well, we should be getting on!"

She stepped between the pillars and noticed a change in the air as soon as she reached the other side. It was still, for one thing, and much warmer than the air beyond the gateway. It probably wasn't any hotter than the air on a spring night in Ponyville, but after the cold outside, it was almost like a blast furnace. She took a deep breath and could smell the sweetness of morning dew on grass. A change in the quality of light made her look up, and for the first time in weeks she could see glowing stars in the night sky, though they were fading against the coming dawn.

She turned back to Forward, who was still standing there with a dazed expression on his face. "It's safe!"

"Oh, yes!" He stepped through, but still seemed a little distracted. Twilight wondered if she'd embarrassed him with her embarrassment, a sort of mutually assured embarrassment, and decided to apologise just in case. "I'm sorry if I seemed a little shocked back there. I didn't expect any-pony to encourage my tendency to lecture. I know my friends, my old friends, told me I sometimes overdo it."

He actually chuckled. "It's okay, really. It's what makes you, you."

They carried on down the road in a companionable silence. The city grew larger and more distinct as the sky grew lighter, and by the time they reached the outskirts, well spaced out buildings the right size for individual dwellings, the sky had changed to a deep blue, and the few remaining clouds were lit with the golden light of dawn. Twilight examined the buildings closely, walls, roofs, balconies, everything was made of opaque blue or red crystal, and the way it was faceted suggested they had been cut or carved from solid blocks rather than built. The doors and windows were the only conventional things about them. 

They were set on wide, crystal surfaced boulevards or in pleasant, neatly trimmed lawns and occasional raised flower beds lined the pavement. There were also small fields of cultivated crystal berry bushes at certain points on the outskirts, and she saw a field were dwarf sheep with shining purple and blue wool grazed. She called out to them, but they seemed more interested in the grass beneath their hooves. She ot the feeling that they weren't more than animal level intelligence from the way they acted.

The one thing she didn't see were inhabitants. There must be some, the lights they'd seen in the night showed that some-pony lived here, but if so they weren't showing themselves. Of course it was pretty early, and they might be skittish around strangers. After all, look how Ponyville had reacted to Zecora. It seemed the only thing to do was to head towards the central crystal spire, which was now revealed to be a beautiful palace, set in a wide plaza.

"I don't like this...." Forward Ho broke the silence. "There's something... wrong about this place."

"But it looks so beautiful." Twilight replied, gesturing around her.

Forward actually shivered, despite the fact that it had warmed up to a point where Twilight was considering removing her parka. "There's a feeling of fear hanging over this place, fear and loss."

"I admit  the silence is a little spooky, but I think you're overstating it. I don't feel anything." Twilight gestured ahead to the palace. "We'll go there. If it's inhabited, there should be guards we can talk to, see if we can get an audience with whoever rules this city. If not, we can look around and see if we can find out anything."

She started forward, and Forward followed, still glancing from side to side nervously. They were almost at the plaza, in a more built up area of streets solidly lined with houses when they saw their first pony, a male earth-pony with pale blue fur and a diamond cutie-mark. He was trotting across the street, head and ears down; his dark blue mane hung limply and he had a haunted expression on his face. Twilight squeed and galloped forward, then came to a screeching halt near him.

"Good morning sir. I hope we aren't interrupting anything, but we are strangers to this city and I'm wondering if we could ask you a few questions?"

He looked up with weary eyes. "I can't be of much help. I... can't seem to remember anything."

Twilight wasn't going to give up that easily. "Is this the Crystal Empire?"

"It was. But I can't remember anything from before Sombra took over." He shuddered. "And I don't want to remember what happened after that." 

"Sombra?" Twilight asked. "Who is that? Your king?"

"Pray you'll never find out." The pony bustled off and into a building, closing the door behind him.

"Well that was less helpful that I'd hoped." Twilight sighed as she looked at the closed door. "If this Sombra is some sort of ruler, maybe he's at the palace."

"Um, Twilight, you heard what the guy said. Did you feel... see the fear in his eyes? This Sombra does not sound friendly. Maybe we shouldn't go to there."

"Well, I guess we can try talking to some other ponies first. If we can find some."

"How about over there?" Forward pointed to what looked like an outdoor cafe, with two female earth ponies sitting at one of the tables. Like the guy they'd talked to before, their ears were down and their expressions were gloomy. They were mechanically spooning some sort of food into their mouths from steaming bowls. Twilight walked over to them. "Pardon me ladies, but what is that you're eating?"

One of them looked up incuriously. "Crystal grain porridge. It's tasty, I think."

"So... How do we order some? We're new here and don't have any local currency."

"I... don't know. I must have gotten it from somewhere. Maybe someone inside knows." She returned to eating the porridge as if that answered everything.

Twilight turned to the other mare. "I'm surprised you're taking this so calmly. We have to be the first outsiders here in a long time. You're entire city has been gone for centuries."

"Has it? I don't remember. I don't remember you, but then I don't remember her either." She pointed to the mare across from her.

"Well, is there anyone who does remember?" 

"I don't know." The ponies brow furrowed. "I feel like there's something missing, something important. But I can't remember what it is."

As she spoke, she glanced towards the palace, or rather the base of the palace. For the first time her voice was raised from it's low hopeless tone to actual emotion. "Everything looks right, but it doesn't feel right."

"Is this because of Sombra?"

Both ponies winced at the name. "Please don't say that name! Bad things happened to all of us because of him. Don't make us remember that time..."

"Okay, I'm sorry." Twilight backed up a step. "Is there anywhere I could find out information? Anywhere at all."

"You could try the library."

"You have a library?" Twilight bounced up and down on her hooves. "Where is it?"

"... I don't remember."

Twilight stopped bouncing and sagged. "Of course. Thank you anyway."

As she walked back to Forward Ho, she said, "It seems like all the ponies here have some sort of amnesia. It's more than that though, it's as if their curiosity, their will, their joy has been taken away."

"I noticed it too. Whatever this Sombra is, they fear him greatly. Maybe he had something to do with it." Forward Ho shrugged. 

"You think he put a curse or spell on every-pony that made them like this?" Twilight mused. "Then maybe we can help break it. You're a skilled archeologist, experienced in uncovering ancient mysteries, and I'm really good at research, and highly knowledgeable about magic. Together we should be able to work out something, if it can be worked out."

Forward Ho straightened up as he sensed her determination. "So, what do we do first?"

"Look for this library, or failing that, some-pony who can tell us where it is."

&&&

After a number of frustrating conversations that confirmed that the ponies of the Crystal Empire had the collective enthusiasm and joie de vivre of a stunned haddock, the two explorers finally arrived at a large crystal building with two carved griffon statues guarding a wide set of stairs. If that wasn't a dead giveaway, the carving of an open book on the lintel over the double doors and the word 'Crystal Empire Library' in the same old earth-pony script they'd found on the pillars clinched the deal.

Twilight did a happy little hoofy dance, her hooves tip tapping on the crystal flagstones. Her cold weather gear, including her hoof boots, had finally gone back in her saddle bags. "Ohhhh! This is so exciting! A whole library of knowledge, lost for a thousand years! No, focus, Twilight, we're not here for fun, we need history books, information about the Crystal Empire, information about this Sombra."

She hoofed it up the stairs and in through the double doors, to come to a stop at the threshold as she looked around in wonder, her eyes sparkling. There were multiple floors, lined with rows of bookshelves, reached by stairs leading up and down from the foyer. The smell of ink and paper carefully preserved was omnipresent. There didn't seem to be a front desk, or a card catalogue, but there was an old mare with an open scroll cutie-mark wearing pince-nez glasses and her hair tied up in a bun.

"Can I help you?"

"Oh, I do hope so!" Twilight exclaimed. "We need to find history books, recent history if possible, rulers and important events."

"Yes, of course..." The mare rubbed her chin with her hoof as she pondered. "History books... ah, yes..."

Twilight's ears perked up. "You know where they are?"

"I... can't seem to remember." Twilight's ears went back down. "I'm not even sure I actually work here."

"That's alright ma'am."Twilight sighed. "You don't mind if we look for ourselves?"

"Please, go ahead. I hope you find what you're looking for." The mare wandered off.

Twilight turned to Forward, who'd watched the whole conversation with a bemused expression, and said. "Okay, no problem, we'll do this systematically. You check all the books on the left, I'll check the ones on the right. The History section should be labelled, or if nothing else the titles of the books should give us a clue."

She galloped off to the nearest book case, while Forward went to the right. Twilight spent the next couple of hours winnowing through the books she found at a great rate, forcing herself not to sit down and start reading some of the more interesting titles. Stories, botany, geography, she worked through them all until she found... 

"Ha! 'A history of the Crystal Empire', this should help! Forward? I've got something!"

She picked up the book and trotted down to the lowest level, where there was a long table, suitable for reading. She sat on her haunches and started reading, so engrossed that she didn't notice Forward hadn't answered her call. It wasn't until she smelled something hot and savory that she came out of her reading trance. Her stomach growled in response. She looked up to see Forward there, with a tray containing a bowl and mug balanced on his back. "Oh, Forward, where have you been?"

"You were going through you side of the library far more quickly than I was mine, and I realised you hadn't eaten since you woke up, so I want back to that cafe and got you some food. Crystal grain porridge with crystal berry jam, and crystal berry leaf tea. You know, I'm starting to see a theme here." He grinned as he slid the tray onto the table next to her.

"And they just gave it to you?" Twilight picked up the mug and tried the tea. It was refreshing, with a fruity flavour. 

"Yes. I just asked for some simple food. It was like they were going through the motions, but didn't know why." 

Twilight took a mouthful of porridge, then did the frantic puffing and blowing that everyone who takes a mouthful of hot food did. 

"Mmmm..." She swallowed, "It's good. Didn't you get any for yourself?"

"Oh, uh, I already ate. Didn't know if I could balance everything, yes, didn't want to risk it."

Twilight had another mouthful of the porridge, blowing on it this time, then spoke. "Well, I found a history book, one of the few I could find. It's like some-pony removed them. I know how the Crystal Empire started at least. Back during the time of the three tribes, there was a group of earth-ponies, miners mostly, who discovered how to focus earth pony magic through the crystals they'd mined to do things no other earth pony could, even emulate some aspects of unicorn magic. Not wanting the unicorns to try and take it away from them, they kept the secret even from the other earth pony clans. 

"When Fumblewinter came, they retreated into their mines, using their magic focused through the crystals to provide heat and light to grow crops. While they were there, the most skilled crystal mage, an earth pony called Amore, discovered an exceptionally pure crystal. She used all her skill to craft it into a great crystal heart, generating enough power to sustain the entire cave system by itself. Apparently, the thaumic feedback from the Crystal Heart transformed Amore into an alicorn, and she became their defacto ruler. 

"It was just as well they had the Heart, as they found something terrible when they dug down further. They called it the Umbrum, a living shadow, or race of shadow creatures, the book isn't clear, but with the magic of the Crystal Heart and Amore's powers they sealed off the way down so that it could never escape. However, they no longer felt safe in their caverns and decided to return to the surface. With the Crystal Heart, they could push back the cold and live safely."

"They emerged after the Exodus to Equestria, and decided to take ownership of the abandoned land. They used the Heart and their crystal magic to create this city and shield it from the cold. They salvaged things left behind, both from earth pony and unicorn settlements, and even bred new species of plants adapted to flourish under the Crystal Heart. It was placed in the plaza at the centre of the city, and the Crystal Palace raised over it acted as an giant projector, spreading the power of the heart far and wide. The whole network of roads forms a giant magic circle, amplifying the effect. It also explains that inscription between the pillars, it was referring to the Crystal Heart.

"There's references to the influence of the Heart changing them, so they were almost a new race, the crystal ponies. While they weren't hostile to Equestria, they were pretty much self sufficient, so they didn't have much interaction. Princess Amore ruled, and the order of Crystal Mages and Crystal Guard served her and the ponies of the Empire. There's also mention of a Crystal Fayre, an event that they held regularly, with a very detailed description of what was involved, but it doesn't say why. Someone removed the last page!"

She huffed, furious at such desecration. "It also doesn't say what happened here. There's no mention of a Sombra, and the Crystal Heart is not in it's normal place under the palace. It must be somewhere near, that's probably all that's keeping the weather shield up, but where I don't know. If my old friends were here, I'd get them to arrange a Crystal Fayre, see if that would break whatever effect is sucking away the crystal ponies' spirits. But without the Crystal Heart in it's proper place, I don't know how much good it will do."

"At least you know what questions to ask now." Forward said. "Eat up, you need your strength."

Twilight set to the cooling porridge with a will, thinking how thoughtful Forward was. Like Spike, he was taking care of her when she got so lost in her research that she forgot the more mundane things in life. He and Spike would probably be great friends... She put that thought away, she still wasn't ready to deal with the emotional fallout of returning to Equestria. She had to return at some point, now she knew it was possible, even if it meant taking whatever lumps came with her actions at the wedding.

"A bit for your thoughts?" Forward asked.

"I don't think they're worth even that much." Twilight sighed. Best burn that bridge went she came to it, there was a more immediate problem. 

"You shouldn't be eating in the library." It was the old mare. Not the problem Twilight had been thinking of, but maybe...  

"I'm sorry, we missed breakfast. I've kept it well away from the books. I'm a librarian myself, part time. You wouldn't happen to know where the Crystal Heart is?"

"The Crystal Heart? The Crystal Heart!" The old mare's coat suddenly glowed and took on a crystaline sheen, and she perked up. "Of course, the Crystal Heart takes the hope and joy of the crystal ponies and uses it to protect the Empire... or did until King Sombra stole it. He said he's hidden it away where we'd never see it again."

Her coat went dull again and the animation went out of her.

"Then we'll just have to prove him wrong!" Twilight declaimed. "If we restored the Heart, would it help you remember who you are?"

"Maybe. For a moment I remembered good things, things from before Sombra. I can't remember them any more, but I remember remembering them... I'm sorry, it's gone. " She paused for a moment, and Twilight waited to see if she'd remember anything else. "I'll just take that bowl and mug away, shall I?"

As she shuffled off, Twilight mused. "If only we had more information on this Sombra, and what he did, maybe we could deduce what he did with the Heart."

"It's a pity you don't have a magic spell that would find the information for you." Forward Ho said.

"Yes, it's... Wait a second, that's it! Forward, you're a genius!" Twilight turned and hugged him. Then she dashed off after the mare, leaving him standing there, dazed. He was still there in a semi-trance when she came back with a sheaf of paper along with a quill and ink bottle a couple of minutes later. 

"Normally, creating a new spell takes months of careful work and arithmantic equations to develop, and even then it can be iffy. That's why it's always a good idea to go see if someone else already wrote a spell that does what you want. But, I know Northern Star's food finding spell, and I've studied my friend Rarity's gem finding spell."

She started writing on a sheet of paper, covering it with complex equations and strings of runes. "If I perform a thaumic deconvolution with the reified arithmantic decompositions of the two spells as factors, I should be able to reduce them to a set of comonalities that will describe a generalised finding spell. Then - and this is the clever bit! - I use Haycart's method to describe the contents of a book as a physical space that can be searched. By including a Haymiltonian transformation to define the terms we're searching for in a Haycartesian co-ordinate system, we should be able use the spell to search for any book with references to what we want."

Her quill scribbled frantically over the sheets of paper, which were quickly filled, and sometimes crumpled and tossed aside as she muttered to herself in the arcane jargon of thaumo-babble. Few other unicorns could have done it, but this was the pony who could build a stable dimensional portal out of a box of scraps and the arcane equivalent of a cell phone. Her horn might be damaged, but her knowledge was intact and proved equal to the task. After a solid hour and a half of figuring, she triumphantly held up a single sheet of paper.

"Ha! This should do it..." She dropped the paper and pressed a hoof to her forehead at the base of her horn. " Ahhh! Horncramp!"

"Are you hurt?" Forward Ho asked in a worried tone.

"It's okay, it's not mana-burn, telekinesis uses very little power, at least when moving a quill." Twilight had her eyes closed and both hooves to her head. She continued quietly. "Directing all that fine movement caused feedback in my horn. It's analogous to stressing a muscle, hence the term 'cramp'. It wouldn't normally be a problem, but I guess my cornual dexterity hasn't fully recovered either. I just need to rest it for a moment."

After she'd rested, and the two of them had cleared up the waste paper, she finally stood ready to cast the spell. Her horn sparked as she formed the spell matrix, but she cast it successfully. There was no reaction from the shelves around them, but at the far end of the basement floor, half hidden in what looked at first to be an ornamental alcove, she saw a halo surrounding a flat object. She trotted up to it and examined the back of the alcove, which held a mosaic of a snowflake design crafted from gems. 

The glow was showing like an x-ray view from behind the mosaic, so there had to be some sort of secret door or comparment, but determined prodding by both Twilight and Forward failed to reveal any gems which pushed in or panels with cracks around the edge. Finally Twilight, more in desperation than anything else, cast a spell at it, a simple magic detection spell that would show the absence or presence of magic, and give some idea of it's nature. The aura she saw in return showed abjuration magic, a ward, but of a pattern she'd never seen before. However, as soon as the magic hit the mosaic, it sparkled, and the entire alcove rotated through half a circle, spinning them round with it. 

The room it revealed was not huge, but it had once been lined with walls of books, a private library of some sort. However, the only thing left on the shelves were burned out covers and ashes. Someone had systematically looted the place of over half the books, from the number of empty spaces, and destroyed everything else. The smell of charred wood and burned paper filled their nostrils. Standing in the middle of the room was a crudely shaped statue of a unicorn pony, made of faceted dark crystal and rearing on it's hind hooves as if in mid-stomp. 

Twilight stood horrified at the desecration. Some of the covers or spines had survived, enough to tell that this was a library of magic books, particularly magic relating to crystals. Was this some remnant of the Crystal mages? The thought of all that priceless knowledge destroyed almost made her weep. "No! This is horrible...Who would do such a thing?! Our last chance to finds out what happened, gone!"

"Um... If all the books were destroyed, why did you get a response to your spell?"

Twilight stopped bemoaning the loss to ask herself the same question. She cast the search spell again, and one particular book glowed, beneath the hooves of the statue. It looked like all the others, just a battered, scorched set of covers with some pitiful scraps of charred paper between them, and it's title was 'Lives of Crystal Mages Past Volume 4'. But when she picked it up, it didn't feel destroyed. The pages started to flutter and reform, and the appearance of damage fell away as she watched. It turned itself back to the now undamaged dedication page, which read, 'Travellers from the outside world, this book was meant for you. Read on and be enlightened.'

Twilight didn't need any further invitation and turned the page. As soon as she did, the book glowed and she felt herself being pulled towards it. Before she could react she was dragged into the book; she felt Forward grabbing onto her rear hooves and trying to pull her back out. All that happened for his pains was that he was dragged in after her.

They untangled themselves, and picked themselves off the floor; they were still in the same room, or appeared to be. But now it was restored to it's full glory, filled with intact books. A bench at the far end held a number of crystals and gem cutters tools. More importantly there was an elderly crystal pony standing there watching them with a surprised, yet clearly joyful expression on his face. 

His light blue coat shone as if it were made of polished crystal, as the old mare's had when she remembered the Crystal Heart. His mane and spade beard were white, and cutie mark was of a quill with a gemstone nib. At first glance he looked like a unicorn pony. The horn on his head was not a spiral of alicorn, but a spike of milky crystal, held in place by a gleaming, platinum diadem.

"Greetings, travellers from beyond the Empire. I am Garnet Nib, archivist for and last member of the Order of Crystal Mages. Or rather, an echo of who I once was. I placed this impression of myself and what knowledge I could inside this book to aid those who could one day free the Crystal Empire from it's curse and destroy King Sombra once and for all. If you are here, you may be those ponies."

"I hope so." Twilight said. "Since we arrived, we've been trying to find out what happened here, and how we could help."

The old pony smiled knowingly. "While I exist within this book, my mortal self arranged that I would have a certain amount of awareness of what occured outside. I might not have been the most powerful of the order, but I knew a lot about scrying techniques, and bound certain gems on the cover to crystals set around the Empire. Rest awhile, and I will tell you of our plight."

The two ponies sat back upon padded stools that had suddenly appeared from nowhere beneath them and listened.
> Secrets (and a changeling) are Revealed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Garnet Nib spoke in a kindly voice. "First, what are your names, and what do you already know of our empire?"

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this is my friend, Forward Ho." Twilight indicated the earth pony beside her. "As to what we know, very little. The Crystal Empire has been gone a thousand years from the perspective of the ouside world. Even the myths of it's existence are vague and fragmented."

A dark expression crossed the elderly pony's face for a moment. "A thousand years? Then Sombra truly made good his threat. He claimed that even if he was defeated, his power would take the Empire with him, and only return it when he was able to return and restore his rule."

Twilight's ears pricked up. "You can tell us about Sombra?"

Garnet Nib waved a hoof. "In time. I must understand what knowledge you already have before I know what more to tell you."

"We found an old history book that explained how it was founded. You had Princess Amore, an alicorn to rule you, and the Crystal Heart to protect the city from the frozen north outside. The librarian mentioned that the Crystal Heart was powered by the hope and joy of the Crystal ponies. I can only assume that that was the reason for the Crystal Fayre you held regularly, to top up the Heart's power. But the Heart doesn't seem to be there anymore. I think it's supposed to be at the base of the central spire."

"A masterly summation. And you are correct in your assumption." The old pony seemed pleased. "You would not find out anything more, not if you searched the library end to end. The theft of the Heart and the rise of Sombra are too recent, at least from our perspective. So then, let me start with Sombra."

His crystal horn glowed, and another crystal appeared, a long shard, floating in mid-air. It was similar to the one Celestia had used to show Cadence and Shining Armour her tale. It showed a projected image of a grey furred unicorn foal being found by a crystal pony in armour in a snow field.

"He was found as a unicorn foal on the borders of the Empire. He was brought to the city and placed in the care of two ponies who had already fostered a unicorn foal who had lost her parents."

"I didn't notice any unicorns when we walked around the city, or pegasi for that matter." Twilight interjected as a domestic scene played. 

"There never were many, but always a few. Though we may have come from earth-pony stock, even in the era of the three tribes there were dalliances between the different races. Occasionally those descended of those dalliances would produce a pegasus or unicorn. We did our best to treat them as we would any other crystal pony, we had no wish to reprise the great folly of the three tribes that lead to the endless winter. When Sombra took over, however, he did not want any other unicorns who might challenge him or pegasi to take swift warning of what he'd done to Equestria. He used his powers to seek them out and cripple or kill them as the mood took him.

"His Crystalling showed no indication of what he would become, I believe that at that time, he did not have the darkness within him, only the urge to seek it out, so that even the Crystal Heart could not detect it." 

"Crystalling? Oh yes, the ceremony the book spoke of where each newborn is presented to the Crystal Heart." Twilight nodded in understanding as the image shifted to the foal placing his hoof on the Crystal Heart while his foster-parents and others looked on, and an alicorn with a crystaline snowflake cutie-mark placed a glowing crystal into the Heart. 

"Indeed. We Crystal Mages were the servants and protectors of the Empire, advisors to the Princess, but also teachers and healers. We trained up those ponies found to have the talent for magic, both crystal and unicorn. Sombra turned out to be a prodigy in both, able to focus his power through his own horn or a crystal with equal facility. Even as a colt he was absorbing material that most ponies would not learn until they were marked adults. As one of his main teachers, I was proud of his progress. Even the Princess took note."

The foal, older now, but still without a cutie-mark, is shown growing a crystal pillar into a house, his forehead encircled by a diadem with a glowing gem that sat beneath his horn. As the alicorn from before and a salt and pepper maned Garnet Nib watch, he lifts a chunk of crystal several times his own size with his horn's telekinetic grasp.

"But as he grew to adulthood, while he grew in skill and power, he also grew distant and cold. He started exploring the lands beyond the city boundary, searching for something, knowledge of the world beyond our borders, he said. He found something else, whether it was what he was actually looking for or an unhappy accident I don't know, though I suspect the former. He started avoiding the Crystal Heart or using crystal magic, and even the Crystal Fayre, saying he was too busy studying."

The scene shown is one of celebration, pavilions and streamers lining the streets, as the ponies party and the Crystal Heart shines, but Sombra is shown in the foreground, a grey cloak wrapped around him, walking away from the party and a worried looking group that includes the Princess and Garnet Nib.

"One day things came to a head. The Crystal Heart vanished from it's podium in the middle of the night, and we could no longer sense it. The Princess, the Order, all the ponies of the Empire searched for it frantically, but we could not find it, though it had to be somewhere in the Empire, as the weather shield was still up. With the Heart gone, all crystal magic was weakened, and the Princess with her close connection to it was particularly hard hit. Then my fellow Crystal Mages started disappearing. The first few vanished tracelessly, but the cause was soon discovered."

The scene changed to one of battle, Sombra with his eyes glowing green with red irises and bleeding shadow versus multiple crystal ponies, both Crystal Mages and guards in ornate armour, effortlessly dodging their or simply evading them by turning to a black mist as they passed through him. He was wearing his red cloak, steel armour and crimson horn headpiece, and was striking back with blasts of sickly looking black magic shot through with purple and green, or showers of shards of dark crystal that smashed through armour and shielding spells.

"Sombra was found attacking Ruby Rose, one of the most skilled combat mages, by Healing Gem, a healer as you might guess. Healing Gem barely got away, but she managed to warn the Princess. Princess Amore gathered the remaining Crystal Mages and hunted down Sombra. He'd abandoned his normal garb and created armour for himself, and a curved horn of dark crimson crystal that fitted over his own. He wielded a magic we'd only heard of in legends, dark magic, umbral magic. He dueled us effortlessly, taking pleasure in taunting us over our impotence, and stating he'd found his true purpose." 

The crystal showed a cloaked unicorn Sombra in a dark cavern, black mist swirling up around him and flowing into him. As it enveloped him completely, a pair of glowing green eyes with red pupils shone out through it, and an evil grin of pearly white fangs.

"In his journeys he had found where the Umbrum lay sealed, and somehow connected with them. He had been created by the Umbrum, left at the borders for us to find so he could infiltrate us and destroy us from within. He had sealed the Heart away where no crystal pony could ever reach it, and with the Heart sealed away, he would take over the Crystal Empire. He would enslave its ponies and use them to dig deep and break the seal that held the rest of the Umbrum, then with the full power of the Umbrum free, infect the remaining crystal ponies with it and subjugate the entire world.  Princess Amore, being who she was, tried to reason with him, to get him to turn away from the darkness, but he turned her to crystal and shattered her to dust."

Twilight gasped in shock as the scene played out in front of her. "That's horrible!"

"It was indeed," Garnet Nib agreed sadly. The images the gem was projecting vanished, and the gem stopped glowing.

"I knew then our cause was lost, at least in opposing him directly. We would need the power of the Crystal Heart to face him, and if what he said was true, there was no way to get it, not for any-pony in the Empire. Princess Amore herself had discovered when she first faced the Umbrum that Crystal magic which runs on joy and hope, and Umbral magic which runs on fear and hatred, are directly opposed. No crystal pony could use Umbral magic, and no Umbrum could use Crystal magic. 

"I deduced that this was the reason Sombra was born a regular unicorn. He could wield both kinds of magic, though not at the same time. It explained why he'd stopped using crystal magic, as he'd rediscovered his Umbral connection, it had become harder for him to use the other, so to speak. That meant he had hidden the Crystal Heart away using Umbral magic; it would require Umbral magic to retrieve it, so no Crystal pony would ever be able to do it.

"I fled, and got several trusted ponies, pegasi and crystal both to go for help, warn Equestria. They were the only ones to escape before he sealed the city. While we had little contact with Equestria, I knew of the friendship the Diarchs had with Princess Amore and the royal artifacts they wielded, the Elements of Harmony. Absent the Crystal Heart, they were the only thing that might defeat him. Also the Princess of the Night might be able to manipulate dark magic and counter Sombra's seal. However, I did not know when they might come or even if. So I created a backup plan."

"The book!" Twilight exclaimed. 

"Indeed. I was sure Sombra would leave no trace of the Crystal Mages or our magic where some future adventurer might find it and use it to oppose him. So I created this pocket dimension within a book and copied everything from the magic library into it; I also linked my own soul to it, to leave an image, some-pony to explain to the future discoverer what they had to do. I then put a crystal shield spell over it and an illusion over that to make it look damaged, and placed it on the floor.

"Then as I'd expected, Sombra came. I defied him, told him that the Princesses of Equestria would defeat him, and that's when he claimed that even if he was defeated, he'd take the Empire with him. We fought, briefly and I lost. I remember him hitting me with a spell, and then there was only... this." He gestured around the room, and Twilight shuddered, recognising what the 'crystal statue' in the real room actually was. "I sensed him despoiling the library; but, as I'd hoped, he didn't bother with a book he thought already destroyed. 

"Unopposed, he enslaved the rest of the ponies, set them to digging out the depths of the caverns." He grimaced. "I could sense what was happening, feel as the joy and laughter of the citizens was replaced by anger and fear, mostly fear, which only fed his power. I prayed that my messengers had reached the Diarchs and ultimately my prayers were answered. I sensed their approach, the power of the artifacts they wielded, and the great battle that happened when they challenged him."

Garnet Nib shook his head. "They weakened and imprisoned him, reduced him to his dark mist form, but they did not destroy him. The sealing of the Empire explains why they didn't do more. Now he is free once more. Already, I feel traces of his power swirling and collecting around the boundary. I believe he has awakened the remnants of the Windigo magic that once encompassed this land to raise a snow storm, isolate the Empire from outside help. Though it would take weeks to arrive from Equestria even if they knew about it."

"So we're all there is." Twilight said, half in thought. "Clearly you need another non-crystal pony to search for the Heart, and learn enough Umbral magic to break the seal on it. I was Princess Celestia's personal student..." she suddenly realised what she'd said and glanced worriedly at Forward, who was staring at her in shock. "Sorry, I shouldn't have kept it secret from you, but there were reasons I didn't want to go into too much detail."

She turned back to Garnet Nib. "I was above average in power and well versed in many areas of magic. I still have my knowledge, and large thaumic reservoir but my horn is damaged, and I can only cast low power spells. Forward might be a better choice, if Crystal magic is derived from earth pony magic. Though that begs several questions, how much time do we have? If Crystal ponies can't use Umbral magic, how can you know it, or show it to us to teach us? And isn't it dangerous? It could corrupt us, as it did Sombra, and we might misuse it."

"I do not worry on that last score," Garnet Nib stated approvingly. "Part of the enchantment I wove around the book was a complex detection spell. If you had not both had hearts that would resist using such magic for evil or self serving purposes, the book would not have revealed itself to you. The fact that you would worry about that is evidence that you wouldn't misuse it. And while it's true that my real life self couldn't use Umbral magic, I tweaked the reality within these pages so I could. I had plenty of chances to sense it's use and get a feel for how it worked, far more than I ever wanted, thanks to my scrying."

He appeared to come to a decision. "I will train you both. Time within this book does not necessarily flow at the same rate as outside, so I can provide you with days of training and still return you to the hour when you left. For you, Miss Twilight, I can craft a crystal horn to fit over your own; once you have been trained, you should be able to supplement your own horn and regain your full casting power. Master Forward, I can do the same for you. Though you will have to decide whether you use that form or your true one."

Forward looked stricken, then stuttered. "Uh, I don't know what you're talking about! I'm just a plain old earth pony, nope, nothing strange about me." 

Twilight turned to look at him, eyes wide, a horrible suspicion forming. What's more, she saw his glance towards her, the guilty look that flashed across his face. It was impossible! How could any of them find her here? Her mind flashed back over some of the things he'd said, how he'd acted and her suspicion grew. "No..."

"You did not know?" Garnet Nib asked, curiously. "I sensed his true nature when he first arrived."

"No she didn't! I'd finally found a friend, a real friend of my own, and now you've ruined it!" Forward's voice was bitter and harsh. 

That confirmed Twilight's suspicion. "You! You're a changeling!"

"Well it sure took you long enough!" A new voice entered the conversation, one Twilight had been certain she'd never hear again. She whirled to face the newcomer, tall, black and insectoid.

"Chrysalis!" Twilight hissed and her horn lit up with a blasting spell, just before she dropped to the floor, spell dissipating. She had two hooves clutched to her forhead as a spike of pain lanced through it.

"Put it away Purplesmart! You'd be better off attacking me with a butter knife right now. In fact you wouldn't, since I'm not really here in the first place. I'm like old and beardy here, an echo of myself. The only reason I can manifest like this is because  this place transforms ideas into something almost real."

"And who's idea were you? Forward's, if that is his real name." Twilight spat, levering herself back up as the pain subsided.

"I believe it's Thorax. And no, the head I hitched a ride in was yours. The last thing I remember in my own body was you punching that horn through my philogastric sack. Thanks for that," she said sarcastically. "It felt like some-ling had stuck a hose in through my ovipositor and had pumped in a million gallons of molten metal. Next thing I knew, I was watching from inside your head as you trudged through the frozen north."

"That's ridiculous, I would have noticed you!"

"Awareness isn't the same as volition. Heh, I must be rifling your memories for that little tidbit. I was a totally passive observer, and you were so wrapped up in your little internal dialogue of self loathing that I doubt I could have made myself heard if I jumped up and down on your cerebellum, blowing a trumpet and waving a flag. I didn't start to gain a desire to do something until you met up with Thorax the Friendly Changeling over there."

She glanced at Forward, who was simply standing there, frozen. 

"I figured out who he was in short order, no drone can hide their true nature from their Queen for long. Though I was undecided for a bit if he was nervous because he was a changeling afraid of being found out, or just a pathetic shut-in of a scholar who was for the first time in his life talking to a female who wasn't his mother. I felt the need to tell you, but I still couldn't make myself heard clearly, even when you fell asleep." 

"You! That was why I had a nightmare that I was turning into a changeling!"

"I guess so. Though I'd obviously consider it an improvement." Chrysalis gave an evil smirk. "Then you came here, and I finally found a way to make myself known to you, though it still took some time."

"That still doesn't explain how you ended up in my head in the first place!"

The changeling queen shrugged, an interesting action in a quadruped. "I don't know, it's not changeling magic. Controlling some-pony's mind, yes, even reading my subjects' thoughts. But actually ending up in some-pony elses head? You're the supposed magical super-genius, you tell me!"

The posing of an intellectual puzzle banked Twilight's fires of fury for the moment as she pondered the question. "Hmm... It could be something like the imprinting of a photograph, or rather the shadow left behind after a really bright flash of light. The blast of magic acted like the light, shining through you and my brain acted as the imprinting surface. Or it could be a case of thaumic entanglement. You processed the magic from the love you collected, so in a sense it was a part of you, and when such a massive amount was transferred to me so rapidly it sucked a part of you with it... Wait, stop it! I'm supposed to be mad at you, and him! Why did you feel the need to appear now anyway?"

Chrysalis actually looked thoughtful, and puzzled. "I don't know! It should be for revenge, revealing that your so-called friend was lying to you. I should be declaring my eternal vengeance on you, complete with evil villain laugh, but the spark just isn't there. I know I'm supposed to be a vengeful sort, ready to risk everything to spite an enemy, but I don't feel it anymore. All I have is a desire to make snarky remarks. To be honest, that's about all the vengeance I could enact, that and singing annoying songs in the back of your head while you're trying to concentrate."

Twilight brightened at a sudden thought. "Maybe you're made up more of Chrysalis's memories rather than her personality. That would mean you're basically a part of me, a part of my internal dialogue, but drawing on the imprinted memories. Which means I'm in control of you. Well, we can test it. What were your plans for after the invasion? Because I've thought a lot about this while I was traveling, and invading a country openly, generating fear and hatred when you invaded it to collect love, that's sock on horn level stupid."   

Chrysalis frowned. "The invasion was a back up plan for if my cover was blown. The original plan was to continue to play Cadence, sucking up all that delicious love, until I had enough to challenge sun-butt outright, and moon-flanks too. Replace all the most beloved leaders and dignitaries in Canterlot with my drones and feed forever! 

"But even if I had to do it by force, I'd come up with a little variation on the standard larvae maturation pod. It's normally used to feed and care for a larva, as well as imprint knowledge and training on it. The variant was designed to hold a pony, keeping them alive and locked in a dream state where they'd be surrounded by all the things they loved most. Not able to remember how they got there, or what had happened, just an endless blissed out daze. I even had a tweak for sun-butt's pod and the spare's so they'd be just aware enough to continue raising the sun and moon." 

"Each one would cost a lot of energy to create, and some to power it, but love derived magic is very potent. It would return the investment within weeks and power itself for as long as the pony lived. Once I had a few working, I would have the power to make more and more. Obviously I'd keep the foals separate in farms until they grew up and had foals of their own, then pop the new adults in pods. It would have taken longer, but I'd still ultimately have enough power to defeat any foe."

"That's vile!" Thorax finally spoke, disgust in his voice. "You'd turn those ponies into domestic animals! You never told any-ling that!"

"Your job was not to critique my plans. Your job was to obey without question." Chrysalis retorted.

Twilight spoke up. "Well, it seems that I was right about being in control of you. So be quiet, I've got my own corn to pick with him."

She turned back to face Forward/Thorax. "So, all that time you were lying to me. No wonder you saved me, every time you were nice to me, you got a free meal in return. That explains why I never saw you eating... Of course! When I woke up, that green flash I saw wasn't some left-over of my dream, it was you disguising yourself! How could I have been so oblivious!"

"Natural talent?" Chrysalis interjected. "Not to mention you did his his work for him, creating his cover story."

"Be quiet you!" Twilight glowered, first at Chrysalis and then her original target. It was a very versatile glower. "So? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Um... I'm sorry?" Thorax sighed and his body flashed with green flame. Twilight hadn't had a good look at any other changeling than Chrysalis, but he was quite different, insect-like but smaller and more compact, as a regular pony compared to Princess Celestia. He was slightly smaller than she was, with a curved horn, pupilless blue eyes and a pair of shiny insectile wings which seemed far better maintained than the tattered ones on Chrysalis's back.

He seemed to sag under her glare. "I didn't exactly lie. The back story you came up with for my pony form was better than anything I could have come up with, so I just went with it. Everything I said about wanting to make friends, and the one I was working with not being interested, and our boss being focused on work, all that was true! I was just talking about being part of the Changeling hive, and Queen Chrysalis was the one who was utterly focused on gaining as much love as she could, by taking it."

"Of course!" Chrysalis sneered. "If I'd had any idea that Thorax was having such deviant notions, he'd have been severely punished."

"From the moment I first split my egg in the nursery hive, all I've wanted is a friend, someone I could share my feelings with, but being raised by an evil queen, I had to hide it all deep. Fortunately she never used her mind-link spell to do anything to me other than give orders and take the love I collected. Then I took part in the attack on Canterlot. I didn't want to, but disobedience wasn't something I even really understood at that point. I'd been brought up to obey Chrysalis without question.

"Then, just when we were beginning the attack, her presence vanished. Even when she wasn't using her magic to talk to us, she kept us linked so she could collect the love we obtained and feed back magic to sustain us. I was on my own for the first time in my life, and I decided I just couldn't do it anymore. I saw ponies protect one another, felt their friendships and love and I wanted that for my own, not by taking what was meant for some-pony else, but having some-pony feel that for me. 

"I fled, and ended up in the caves where we met. I wanted somewhere away from any-pony where I could work out what to do. I wanted to make friends, but I wasn't even sure how to start! Then I saw you... and you're wrong about one thing, I saved you because it was the right thing to do, at least that's what I'd come to realise in Canterlot. I was hungry, yes, but I would still have saved you even if it hadn't gained me anything."

Thorax looked right at her and she flinched, causing him to wince. "Then you talked to me, felt gratitude and even friendship for me! Not for someone else, where I was only collecting the love felt for someone else, but directly at me for my actions. It was amazing, so rich and sustaining... for the first time ever, I didn't feel hungry."

"That's impossible!" Chrysalis burst out. "Changelings are always hungry, we can never have enough love!"

Thorax shrugged his shoulders. "Well I did. I didn't need to feed on Twilight's emotions, but I wanted to stay with her. She'd freely offered me her friendship, and I wanted to prove I was worthy of it, help her however I could, try to learn how to be a friend in return."

"And yet you kept...." Twilight swept a hoof in his direction, indicating his body, "... this from me."

"Probably because he was scared of you reacting, well, exactly like you did react when you found out!" Chrysalis crowed. "It's not like you weren't keeping secrets from him too, Miss 'Celestia's faithful student', or the fact you killed me. Ha! It's almost worth dying for! Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic and student of friendship in all it's forms, a hypocrite!"

"I am not!" Twilight huffed. "It's not the same thing... why won't you stay quiet?"

Chrysalis was encased in green fire which faded away to leave a duplicate of Twilight. 

"Maybe because I'm a part of you that's telling you stuff you don't want to hear, but need to listen to!" Chrysalis replied in Twilight's voice. "You know, there's a sure-fire way to tell if Thorax over there is telling the truth, at least I suspect there is. If you absorbed all that changeling magic, you should have a bit left in you. You could use my mind-link spell on him. Even that stump you've got on your forehead should be able to cast it."

Twilight shied away from that a bit. Ever since the want-it-need-it spell she'd been leary of using mind magic. "You mentioned it earlier, I wondered why you needed it. I would have thought that the changelings would have some sort of hive mind anyway."

Chrysalis changed back. "Ha! No, only I can do it. I made sure none of my subjects could. Everything passed through me. I gave the orders, I collected and converted the love they gathered to energy, and I decided how much of that energy to dole out to each of them, just enough for their tasks."

"But why?" Twilight asked in a puzzled tone. "It's clear they can convert love to magic to sustain themselves on their own, Thorax is proof of that."

The changeling queen sneered. "Control, you silly pony! Every changeling is indoctrinated from hatching that all love comes to me and that I provide them with their food. Preventing them from converting the love they collect by themselves keeps their philogastric sacs atrophied and weak. I don't know what would happen if a drone had all the energy it wanted, and I didn't want to find out."

"You really are a truly horrible person." Twilight exclaimed.

"Was, Purplesmart, past tense. You made sure of that."

Twilight shuddered, remembering all too clearly the feeling of her horn sinking into Chrysalis's body. She spoke softly as she teared up. "Maybe it takes one to know one..."

Suddenly Thorax spoke, but softly. "i don't mind."

Twilight and Chrysalis both looked at him, Twilight wiping her face with a fore-leg. He shrank under their combined gazes for a moment, then stood tall and looked directly at Twilight. "I don't mind. I know you probably don't believe me, I don't know if I would in your place, but I want to prove what I said was true. Twilight, I trust you to use it on me. You are a good pony, an amazing pony, and when you defeated Chrysalis you didn't just save your kingdom, you saved the changelings as well. Even the fact that you feel guilty about it proves it.

"I can see now how evil Chrysalis was, how she treated us barely any better than the ponies we were supposed to feed on, now I have something to compare it against. I want our friendship back, because it made me feel more complete than I ever have. And maybe having a friend who knows everything that's happened to you and still thinks you are a good pony will help you feel less guilty! So... cast the spell. I don't want to hide anything anymore."

He was clearly nervous as Twilight examined him, but he stood tall, ready for... Should she do it? Could she do it? The answer to the second question was quickly answered as she 'remembered' the spell matrix she'd need to form. It was weird, twisted in ways that the matrix of a unicorn spell never was, but it had it's own internal logic, and a kind of uncanny beauty to the way it flowed organically rather than built up the way normal spells did. A part of her was geeking out about learning a brand new kind of magic, but she quashed it with difficulty.

Depending on how much she 'pushed' it, the spell could do anything from brush lightly against his mind, sensing only his strongest emotions, or it could drive deep and rip out his deepest thoughts and memories. A pony might have resisted, but a changeling, at least one born of Chrysalis's line, effectively had no protection. Thorax looked like he was waiting for his own execution, but he almost seemed eager too, and it was that which decided her. "Very well."

Twilight reached inside herself, looking for traces of the magic which 'felt' like the forms the spell matrix evoked, and found it, a faint thing compared to her own magic reserves, but clearly present. She constructed, or rather grew an instance of the spell matrix in her damaged horn, drawing on skills she didn't remember learning. She could feel the pressure against her horn, a trace of magic allowing her to sense and target the awareness she now knew to be Thorax, and focused on it, releasing the spell.

Emotions fed back into her across the connection and she gasped and staggered, the dominant one completely familiar to her, the sensation of loss, loss of something utterly valuable. She'd felt the exact same emotion at the wedding rehersal, when her friends had supported 'Cadence' over her. With it was a desperate need to regain what was lost, and the glimmer of a hope that it might be recovered. She managed to damp the flow, focus it into something she could manage, and explored in more detail.

It didn't take long to discover that everything Thorax had  said was true. It wasn't surprising, it was like being back inside her own head when she'd first arrived in the north. The emotions she was feeling from Thorax were tempered by her own, guilt over how she'd treated him. He honestly wanted a friend, and thought he'd found it in Twilight, until she'd turned on him. She was no better than Ponyville when they'd shunned Zecora, no, worse because he'd done everything in his power to demonstrate his good will. It might be understandable how she'd reacted, but knowing the truth, that didn't make it okay.

She withdrew and closed the link, hanging her head. She took a deep breath, and looked up. "I'm sorry. You've been nothing but good and kind to me, and I threw that back in your face just because of what you are. Can you forgive me?"

"Yes, of course!" Despite the ending of the spell, she could almost feel his emotions change, the flickering of hope she'd sensed bursting into flame. "Can you forgive me for hiding who I was?"

"Yes, Chrysalis was right." the relief almost made her chuckle. "Boy, that's something I never thought I'd say!"

"Hey!" Chrysalis exclaimed.

"Here I am, hoping my friends won't reject me for st... killing Chrysalis, and I yet reject some-pony... some-ling? for far less, something he has no control over. Hypocrisy, in other words. For someone who's new to friendship, you're currently doing a lot better than me."

Twilight sighed, doing a breathing exercise Cadence had taught her. "I forgive you. And to prove I mean it..."

She steppped forward, steeling herself as she moved right up to him. Then she leaned forward to pull him into a hug with one fore-leg. She was surprised to discover changeling hide felt like warm book covers. She felt him stiffen, then relax as her emotions flowed over him. It was almost as if she could feel his relief, and joy at feeling her friendship once again. Actually, that was exactly what it was.

"Well this is disgustingly sappy, and not in a way I can eat, if I could eat." Chrysalis snarked. "You two can go get a room, or whatever. I'm out of here."

"Wait!" Twilight released the hug partially to look at her. "I can still feel Thorax's emotions, I think. What's gone wrong?"

Chrysalis gave a short bark of laughter. "Ha! Nothing's gone wrong, once you've linked to a changeling,even if the link isn't active, you still get some feedback. How do you think I monitored my entire brood? It'll fade in time, I guess. Have fun!"

She smirked and vanished in a burst of green flame, as Twilight growled out, "Chrysaaalis!"

After a few futile mental efforts to root her back out, Twilight gave another sigh and stepped back, turning towards Garnet Nib, who'd been silent the whole time. "I'm sorry about that. I hope you're still willing to teach us what we need to know."

The elderly crystal pony smiled another Zecora smile. "You needed to resolve that before I could teach you anything. Besides, I think you've learned an important lesson already."

Twilight was surprised to find Thorax stepping up beside her. He spoke in a far more decisive tone than she'd ever heard him use before. "I want to train too. I may not be a magical prodigy like Twilight, I'm just an ordinary changeling drone, but I want to help however I can."

"Very well." Garnet nodded. "Then let us begin. Even with the temporal compression within this book, our time is not unlimited."

His gemstone horn glowed, and the crystal shard reappeared and blazed with light.
> Have fun storming the castle!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Within the ruined library room, an open book lay on the floor. Suddenly the pages started to glow, and after a few seconds first one figure, then another were somehow ejected from the interior. They expanded as they rose, then dropped to land on the floor beside it. Twilight Sparkle rubbed her rump with a fore-hoof as she rose, noting Thorax had used his wings to slow his fall and land far more gracefully. After effective days of close proximity, his insectile base form seemed normal, even natural. His legs were far less hole filled than Queen Chrysalis' and his wings positively shimmered with iridescence.

Twilight had undergone some changes too. The conical, polished sheath of purple crystal on her forehead was the most noticeable. It encased her own damaged horn; it was held in place by the interior surface that actually keyed into the spiral curves of the original horn,  and braced with a plain platinum headband. Thorax wore a platinum diadem with a green beryl inset in the middle, so it rested below his own curved horn.  Thorax had proved less adept in their training than Twilight, but he'd learned at least the basics of crystal magic, and could focus it through the gemstone. Even with the Crystal Heart missing, the city acted as a storage battery and amplifier for crystal magic that could be tapped through the gem.

Twilight, however had soaked up knowledge like a sponge, her cutie-mark talent for magic of all kinds coming into it's own. Many of the basics of focusing and casting were the same, and she'd learned to focus both Crystal and her own unicorn magic through her augmented horn, the remains of the ganglion inside directing and shaping the spell matrix while the magically conductive crystal carried the majority of the power flow. The result was a bit less flexible, compared to her original horn, but a huge improvement on what she had before. She also had some new spells and tactics developed in consultation with Garnet Nib after watching Sombra's rampage.

They both wore saddlebags, Twilight still wore Northern Star's while Thorax had a pair loaned to him by Garnet, and it was from her saddlebags that Twilight drew a checklist.

"Okay, we have a plan. Step one, get the crystal ponies to start preparing a Crystal Fayre. Step two, find the Crystal Heart. Step three, return it to the plinth in the plaza under the palace. Step four, use it to fully awaken the hearts of the Crystal ponies, and re-empower it. Step five, use the power to destroy Sombra."

"So, any idea on how we go about step one?" Thorax asked. "Those ponies didn't seem like they remembered their past, or had the willpower to do anything about it if they did."

"That I've got covered." Twilight grinned. They stepped into the alcove, and she turned to the crystal form of Garnet Nib, caught in mid-rear; her face became more solemn, and she dipped her head. "Thank you for all your help, we won't fail you."

Her horn glowed, an aura forming within the purple crystal rather than over it's surface, and the book floated up to be placed in the crystal form's outstretched fore-hooves. Then Thorax triggered the mechanism that rotated the alcove, and they emerged into the library proper. The light shining through the windows was at the same angle as when they'd left, but according to Garnet Nib, one full day had passed outside while they'd trained. When Twilight went to the table they'd been using, she saw the history book had been removed, as had the left over paper. 

"Looks like the librarian was doing her job. Thorax, maybe you'd better put on your Forward Ho disguise for the moment. The crystal ponies maybe half aware at the moment, but black, spiky and curve horned might give them some bad flashbacks."

It took her a few moments to retrieve the book again, and send the disguised Thorax to ask the librarian for more paper. She started consulting the book and writing out lists, using the fountain pen from her saddle bags. She remembered how she'd geeked out when she'd been given the wondrous device, a quill that carried it's own ink reservoir! It was a Crystal Empire invention that hadn't made it to Equestria before Sombra's rule; it wasn't invented by Garnet Nib, but in his younger days, he'd developed a way to grow nibs that were pretty much indestructible from gemstone.

She turned back to her lists as Thorax returned with a tall stack of paper. Feeling Thorax's curiosity, she stated, "They don't need to remember how to put on a Crystal Fayre if I give them detailed instructions. As for the motivation... well, I hope I can inspire them."

Having made her lists, she placed a stack of paper alongside them and lit up her horn, playing a cone of light over the lists then projecting it at the stack. Sheets of paper started flying off the top to stack themselves in smaller piles, now covered with writing. 

"I love this duplication spell Garnet showed me!" Twilight said gleefully as the piles finished stacking themselves. She loaded them into Thorax's saddlebags, and they set off upstairs to the front desk, where the elderly mare was.

"Ah, yes, you were looking for history books. Did you find them?" she asked.

"Oh yes, we found what we needed." Twilight replied. "We are going to recover the Crystal Heart, and restore the Crystal Empire to it's former glory!"

"The Crystal Heart? The Crystal Heart!" The mare was once again infused with an internal glow. "You know where it is?"

"We believe so, and we will return it to it's proper place. But we need your help, and that of the other crystal ponies." She lifted the stack of paper out of 'Forward Ho's' saddlebags. "You need to prepare a Crystal Fayre, the best Crystal Fayre ever!"

The mare's eyes widened with realisation. "Of course, the Crystal Heart takes the hope and joy of the crystal ponies and uses it to protect the Empire... I have the strangest feeling of deja vu. But what about King Sombra?"

"We will deal with 'King' Sombra. With the Crystal Heart in place, we will be able to face him and finish him once and for all." She tapped her new horn.

"A crystal mage?" The mare looked puzzled. "But you weren't one when I saw you last. I'm remembering more and more, how long is it since I last met you? It seems like only a day."

"It is, but we had some special help. You just need to worry about distributing these instruction sheets to the other crystal ponies, and telling them that the if they can put on the Crystal Fayre, we will provide the Heart as the centrepiece. Hopefully, the very act of putting on the Fayre should awaken some memories of their lives before Sombra. As you said yourself, it's the joy and happiness of the crystal ponies that will empower the Heart and give the power to defeat Sombra."

The old mare looked at the stacks of papers with a frown. "I hope you didn't get any ink on the books.... Ha! I am a librarian!"

"Not just a librarian, the librarian. So go forth and spread the knowledge, the Crystal Heart will be restored!"

They left the old mare, still shining with new purpose, locking the library and putting up a 'closed' sign as they headed out into the city.

Once they were safely out of earshot, Thorax said, "So, step two. We still have no idea where Sombra hid the Heart."

Twilight turned down one of the main boulevards leading towards the heart of the city. "Actually, I have an idea about that. We know where he didn't hide it. Garnet's scrying abilities have checked the city and the fields surrounding it. Either he hid it somewhere outside the barrier, or he hid it in the one place Garnet couldn't sense properly, the palace itself. Of the two, the palace should be our first stop. First, because it was the centre of Sombra's power. Considering how terrified they are of him, Sombra would have counted on the fact that no-pony would dare come near the place. Second, if I were an evil tyrant, I'd want to keep the only thing that could hurt me somewhere where I could keep a close eye on it."

"So, to the palace?" Thorax asked.

"To the palace." Twilight responded. They reached it in moments. The plaza underneath the main body of the soaring crystal tower was of deep purple crystal, with a white snowflake design in the centre, and narrow lines leading out to the throughfares and roads radiating outwards. Twilight could feel the presence of crystal magic in her horn and the back of her teeth. Suddenly the pattern of crystal roads made sense to her.

"Oh my gosh! It's like the whole city is one gigantic magic circle for focusing all the power of the Empire into this one spot! No wonder the Heart was so powerful."

Thorax trotted over to one of the supporting buttresses, which had a set of stairs and a double door. He climbed up and pulled on one of the rings set into it. Twilight gasped and her horn's aura surrounded him, pulling him away. "Careful! We don't know what sort of traps Sombra had set up!"

Thorax pointed to the door, one side partly ajar. "It looks okay to me."

Twilight lowered him down and went to examine the door herself. Several diagnostic and scrying spells revealed no cunning traps or devious curses, it wasn't even locked. "Huh, maybe he did believe fear was enough to keep ponies from entering."

They went inside and climbed up to the main castle floors, still spotless and fully furnished. Twilight pulled a map from her saddlebags, and examined it closely. "Continuing the logic, the most likely place he'd conceal the Heart, or at least the way to get it, is near the throne room. But where is that? This place is a maze!"

Thorax stepped up beside her, flaring up with green fire to return to normal. "Can I look? Compared to the Changeling Hive, it can't be that bad. At least this place won't change shape as we go."

With Thorax leading, it only took moments to find the throne room. It looked majestic and stately, in blue and white crystal, but to ponies trained to sense it, there was an evil aura that permeated the place.

Twilight gritted her teeth. "Umbral magic, just like Garnet showed us. Can you feel it?"

Thorax nodded. "Yeah, like something is off. But it doesn't look like the sort of place you'd find an evil dictator."

"No. Maybe when they banished him, the Princesses wiped away the changes he'd made." Twilight stepped forward, casting more diagnostic spells. "But traces are everywhere, I can't seem to localise..."

Her eyes lighted on the throne, or rather the giant crystal that formed the head rest. The shape looked familiar. "A crystal shard? It couldn't be that easy!"

"What? What have you found?"

"Nothing yet, stand back. Maybe it wasn't the Princesses who wiped away his changes..." She stepped forward, eyes narrowing. "We could look forever and not find anything, we were looking in the wrong castle!"

She grimaced with effort and concentrated on some of her least pleasant memories, when it looked like the Elements had been shattered forever, when she despaired of ever getting her friends back to normal after Discord messed with their minds, when she was left crying in the throne room of another palace, thinking her friends had abandoned her... Her horn aura darkened, and started to bubble with purple welts, edged with green as she drew on the ambient magic within the throne room. Purple flames seemed to flare and blaze from the edges of her closed eyes.

The magic she was calling on bucked and writhed in her horn's grasp, like some slime covered snake (she knew real snakes weren't slimy, but the metaphor held), but she managed to focus it after a fashion and spray it at the crystal shard. It absorbed the black beam of energy, then darkened and cast a shadow without any light source. It spread like oil over the floor of the throne room, turning it dark and cracked, and in the middle a wide shaft was revealed, with crudely cut stairs leading down in a spiral.

"A pathway hidden in a shadow dimension, as close as a shadow, but just as untouchable without umbral magic." Twilight shook away the remains of the vile stuff from her horn. "He may have been utterly evil, but he was certainly ingenious."

Thorax stepped forward, only for Twilight to reach out and hold a fore-leg in front of him. "Careful, if I were an evil dictator, I'd set things up so something bad would happen if anyone but me stood on those stairs. I did wonder why he went out of his way to remove all the pegasi, when he must have known the word had gotten out."

"So you want to fly down?" Thorax asked. "I'm sure I can do it, but I'm not sure I can carry you all that way... not that I'm saying you're fat or anything!" 

The last part was a hurried add-on. Twilight giggled as she sensed his sudden worry that he'd said something wrong. "It's okay, now I have my full casting power back, I have another way to fly..."

She stepped back and drew a vial of shining dust from her saddlebags, which she opened and threw into the air as her horn lit up. Threads of metallic blue magic flowed from her horn, surrounding her and the falling powder and lifting her into the air. They thickened and solidified into a cocoon-like structure that enclosed her completely, then vanished with a flash. Twilight remained floating in mid-air, supported by a double set set of diaphanous dragonfly wings that thrummed as they moved.

"Beautiful..." Thorax murmured, then caught himself. "I mean, a beautiful bit of spell-casting."

Twilight dropped down. She could feel his admiration, and was there something more? No, it must be the lingering traces of crystal magic feeding back into the link.

"Like them? I learned the basic spell ages ago when my friends and I needed to go to Cloudsdale. The original spell produced butterfly wings, pretty but fragile and not capable of any great speed or maneouvrability. It was also really hard to cast. So I put my head together with Garnet Nib and we came up with a version that mixed crystal magic into the matrix. These wings are made of crystal sheets, far more robust then gossamer and morning dew, and so capable of far more speed and agility. To be honest, I was rather inspired by your wings."

"They're nothing much."

"They're a lot less ragged and far more shiny than Chrysalis's." 

Thorax looked over his shoulder and his surprise was obvious, both over the link and in his expression. "They weren't like that before!"

"Maybe it's a side effect of obtaining love freely." Twilight mused, then stuttered. "I... I mean love in the sense of friendship of course."

She galloped to the edge of the shaft and dived into it, cheeks red. She hoped he didn't misconstrue what she'd said. Thorax followed her, the pair of them lighting up their horns as they descended into the depths. The spirals continued down and around, a stairway with equal disregard for stair rails or health and safety regulations. Twilight slowed herself as the bottom came into sight, and slowly lowered herself to barely above the floor of the pit. More diagnostic spells and she landed, somewhat gingerly. 

She looked around as Thorax landed beside her. "Now where is... aha!"

She trotted over to the arched door in one wall, and once again cast her scrying spell. "Umbral magic... yes, but nothing that seems like a trigger..."

She stepped to the side and grasped the ring that formed the handle with her telekinesis, then jumped back with a squeak as the door shot sideways. "Okay, so that's not it..."

Thorax pointed to the top of the arch, where another crystal shard was embedded, "Maybe that's how it works?"

"Great! More of Sombra's trickery. Well, I have a few tricks myself..." She once again drew in the surrounding shadow magic and blasted the gem with it. The door swung open, light shining from within.

Twilight ran forward and found herself in the halls of a different palace, one she knew intimately. "I'm back in Canterlot?"

A feeling of joy overwhelmed her, drowning out a small voice that said something was wrong. She could find Princess Celestia, find her friends and family, she was home! She galloped headlong down the corridors, not noticing the absence of guards or the normal traffic that she'd expect in the busy castle. She found the throne room easily, and there they were, Celestia on her throne, Luna at her side, her friends arrayed to either side in a half circle, along with Spike, Cadence and Shining Armour.

She came to a halt in front of them, eyes tearing up. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you all again."

"Wish we could say the same thing, egghead!" Rainbow Dash sneered.

"Yes indeed. You really should have known better than to return after what you did." Rarity declared. Fluttershy squeaked agreement then hid behind the others, cowering.

Appleack glared at her. "You've got got more brass than Big Mac's collar, showin' up here after the way you acted, murdering that pony in front of Apple Bloom and the other young'uns."

"But... but... I did it to save Princess Celestia from being overpowered by Chrysalis!" Twilight stammered.

"Ha, she said 'Butt!' Maybe that's what she is!" Pinkie Pie giggled, but with an edge that Twilight had never heard before. "Yeah, she's a big bu-utt!"

"The idea that my sister would need your help is ridiculous, bordering on treasonous!" Luna declaimed in a voice just shy of full Royal Canterlot.

Twilight turned to Shining Armour and Cadence. "Cadence, you know what Chrysalis was capable of! Please tell them, I didn't have any other choice!"

"When I was your foal-sitter, didn't I teach you there was always a choice? I wanted Chrysalis stopped, but I wouldn't have gone as far as you did. I always worried about what sort of pony you'd turn into with your anti-social ways, but even I never imagined I'd raised a killer!"

Shining Armour stepped in front of Cadence, and raised a shield. "You should leave. You've brought nothing but disgrace to our family, and I'm ashamed to have ever had you as a sister."

"Spike, please tell me you don't feel that way?" Spike just backed away, hiding behind Cadence's legs with a look of fear in his eyes.

"No..." Twilight felt her heart shatter all over again. "Please, Princess Celestia, make them understand! You were being overwhelmed, I just meant to distract her. I never imagined I'd kill her!"

Celestia stepped off her throne and walked down towards Twilight. The purple unicorn looked up with hope in her eyes, only to feel her heart freeze as she saw nothing but wrath in her mentors eyes. "You foalish pony! I needed no help! I was just letting her think she'd won to take the fight out of her when I finally defeated her! You've always been grandstanding foal who had to be the centre of attention! Well no more! You are hereby stripped of all ranks and titles, your name and likeness will be expunged from every record, including those windows in the Hall of Heroes, and you are banished from Equestria forever!"

Twilight crumpled to the floor, sobbing bitterly.

"Oh, and Twilight." Twilight looked up in hope as her mentor spoke again. "You've demonstrated that you can't be trusted with that horn of yours, so it will have to be removed."

Twilight's shock turned to horror as Celestia's own horn glowed and the golden aura resolved into a giant pair of golden shears.

"Okay, okay, that's enough!" A new voice broke in behind her, Chrysalis's voice. 

"Leave now insect, or I will destroy you!" thundered Celestia, the shears dissipating as her horn turned towards the newcomer.

"Sure because when Twilight does it, it's murder, but it's okay for you to do it. Nice logic there sun-butt!"

Twilight pushed herself to her hooves and scrambled away, watching the showdown. Queen Chrysalis was there, standing tall and proud, facing Celestia with a smirk.

"I am Celestia, Princess Of Equestria, the Unconquered Sun! I hold the high, middle and low justice! And I condemn you to death!"

A mighty blaze of golden energy as thick as a tree trunk blasted from Celestia's horn and engulfed the changeling queen. But when it vanished, she was still standing there. Chrysalis sneered. "Looks like you missed a spot or too, sunny flanks!"

"how...?" Twilight asked.

"Because I'm not really here, but then neither is she. Wake up, purplesmart! I admit that as mental manipulation goes, this whole 'draw the subject into a dream forged from their worst fears' go, this is not bad for an amateur, but old black and smokey is up against a professional now. I am Queen Chrysalis and I invented mental manipulation."

"This is a dream?" Twilight asked, hope starting to bloom. 

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "She can be taught! Remember the Crystal Empire? Thorax? That conveniently opening door? What do you think is more likely, that it somehow teleported you to bizarro Canterlot, or that it's a trap designed to read your worst fears and destroy you with them? Though it's not like it even got that right..."

A spear of black crystal rose emerged from the floor and punched through Chrysalis's body. She looked down with a disgusted expression. "What is it with you ponies and sticking sharp and pointy things through me?"

She started to dissipate into a smoky blur. "Looks like Sombra's mind trick managed to figure out a way to kick me out of the dream. It's up to you now purplesmart...."

Twilight looked around her with new eyes, the lack of details now clear, the mere suggestions of Canterlot towers beyond the windows and the wooden way her friends were moving. Her crystal dragonfly wings had gone, as had her saddlebags. Celestia resummoned the shears. "Now, you will submit!"

"I don't think so." Her memories had fully returned, and she knew dream Chrysalis had been right. This was nothing more than a nightmare dream state. As long as you didn't know that, you'd end up passively accepting what happened, which allowed your fears to take control, and in this case, Sombra's magic to take control of her fears. Now that she was aware, she suddenly realised how over the top everything was. "Celestia might be unhappy with me for killing Chrysalis, but she would never try to cut off my horn."

Time to turn the tables. If this was her dream, then she could decide what happened. Pinkie suddenly vibrated and squeaked "Twitchy tail!"

A second later, an anvil came through the roof, landing on Celestia. It was followed by a grand piano and a giant fish. Celestia pulled herself out from under the mess, comically flattened. When she popped back into shape, she was wearing her tiara like a beard, and it was that which set Twilight off, giggling madly.

"How dare you..."

"Oh, so you admit I willed it to happen, proving this is just a dream!" Twilight interrupted. A storm of cotton candy clouds formed over the rest of the group and a downpour of chocolate milk drenched them, leaving them looking like drowned rats, except for Pinkie who was eagerly lying on her back with her mouth open. A field of poison joke grew up around them and instantly took effect.

Cadence started hiccupping pink bubbles of love. Shining Armour shrunk down to foal size, while Spike grew pretty butterfly wings. Luna was hit in the face with a moon pie whenever she opened her mouth to speak, and the rest of her friends reprised their old ailments. 

Celestia spoke, her stern tone somewhat diminished by the fact that she sounded like a squeaky balloon. "You would do this to your friends? You truly are a terrible person."

Twilight stopped giggling at the ridiculous sight in front of her and said, "They're not my friends, they're Sombra's shadows, just as you are. Now I'm going to leave, and you're not going to stop me."

She walked towards the door that had suddenly appeared in the far wall and Celestia moved to block her, but when she came into contact with Twilight she burst into oily black smoke that spread out and evapourated. As Twilight walked towards the door she heard Thorax calling out her name. She opened it and found herself staring at a blank wall inside an open door frame. She looked around and saw she was right where she had been, with Thorax shaking her shoulder with one hoof. She could feel his concern as well as hear it in his voice.

"Twilight, you're okay! I saw you sit down and stare at the doorway, and I thought you were just trying to work out why there was a solid wall there. Then you started moaning and saying things...."

"Don't look at the crystal! It creates a dream based on your worst fears and tries to control you with it!" Twilight immediately exclaimed.

"Okay, okay. But if umbral magic doesn't open the way, how do we get through?"

"I don't... wait, that's brilliant! Thorax, you're absolutely right!"

"I am? What am I right about?"

"Sombra wasn't just an umbral magic wielder, he was a unicorn! He must have figured that having used umbral magic above, any intruder would use the same thing again, and that gave him a direct path to the intruders worst fears. So he set this seal to a different form of magic, another one the crystal ponies would never have, because he destroyed any-pony who could have wielded it. Unicorn magic!"

Her horn glowed it's normal purple, and she shot a beam at the stone. This time when the door glowed, it showed a white platform. Twilight cautiously stepped through, ready to jump back, but no monsters or nightmares appeared to assail her, and she motioned Thorax through after her.

"It looks like Sombra liked stairs almost as much as he liked crystals." quipped Thorax, looking at the exterior stairway that somehow wound around the outside of the shaft. 

Twilight poked the featureless exterior wall. "Hmmm... This is similar to the sort of space expansion charms unicorns cast on high end luggage, but on a much bigger scale. It's another of his twisted dimension tricks, in both senses of the word."

She looked up. "Shall we?"

Her crystal dragonfly wings buzzed, and she darted into the air, heading straight upwards. Thorax flew up after her, his own wings beating hard to keep up.

"Does that mean he could be trapping us in time the way he did the Crystal Empire?"

"Not with this kind of spell, there was no warping feeling as there was when we felt the Empire's return, or when we were drawn into the book. It's just a clever way of hiding a passage."

They continued upwards. Twilight's magically powered wings were tireless, Thorax's less so. "Twilight, please slow down!"

Twilight looked down at him with concern, "Do you want a tow? I hadn't realised how tiring this would be for you."

"I'm okay, I can fly, just not as fast for this long, straight up." Thorax drew up beside her and added, "I'm sorry if I'm holding you back. I guess an ordinary changeling drone can't keep up with Celestia's personal student."

Twilight could sense his feeling of inadequacy and decided she needed to do something about it. "Thorax, you are many things, but ordinary is not one of them. I wouldn't have got this far without you, in fact I'd be at the bottom of that chasm back in the caves. Several times you came up with the answers, or at least the right questions to ask when we were faced with a puzzle. 

"Above all, of all Chrysalis's changelings, you sought out friendship, not to steal, but to share. You are my friend, and I care for you greatly. So don't think you're holding me back. If anything you're supporting me, pushing me onwards, the way a good friend does. So come on, let's find that Crystal Heart, together."

She started upwards again, but more slowly. Even at their reduced rate it didn't take long for them to come to the top of the stairs, which lead through a hole in the roof. They flew over the steps and carefully ascended into the room above. It was a massive circular cupola, with tall, unglazed windows that showed it had to be at the peak of the crystal palace. The only things within the room were the stair well they'd just risen through, and a shining blue and white star shaped mosaic in the middle, above which floated a heart shaped crystal.

"Yes! We did it!" Twilight cheered, spiraling around Thorax with a big grin on her face. 

Thorax smiled back. "Yes, we actually did. I can feel the power, the love it's radiating..."

Twilight winged away to look through the windows. She landed and trotted round until she could see the boulevard they'd come along. Already pavilions were being raised and stalls were being set up. Among the preparations, like shining stars were crystal ponies, shining like librarian with renewed purpose and hope. She turned back towards the Crystal Heart. "Now all we have to do is STOP!"

She sprang into the air to intercept Thorax, who was hovering over the crystal with one hoof about to touch it. She reached him a second too late. When his hoof touched the Heart, the mosaic turned black and a siren sound started. She body-tackled him away just before razor edged sheets of black crystal sprung out of the edges of the mosaic and speared him. They shot up to form a jagged cone, totally enclosing the mosaic and the Crystal Heart.

The two of them landed in an ungraceful heap and slid several hooves before coming to a stop. 

"... check there aren't any traps on the Crystal itself." Twilight finished, untangling herself from Thorax. She got to her hooves, then stumbled, sitting back down with a thump on the hard crystal floor. A trail of blood was trickling down one of her hind legs.

"Twilight! You're hurt!" Thorax pulled himself up with his wings and dashed over.

"Must have caught it on the edge as it rose." Twilight replied, drawing her trusty canteen from her saddlebags. She poured some of the water on the cut, gritting her teeth at the sudden sting, then padded the blood away with the side of a fore-hoof. She bent her head and touched her horn to the cut, causing a golden glow to spread along it, but the glow sparked out. "I was afraid of that, there must have been shadow magic in the crystal, it's resisting the healing spell. I don't have anything to bind it with either."

"Maybe I can help." Thorax said, and spat up a glob of green goo into one hoof. "Ichor. It's used for restraining captives and sealing things..."

Twilight found she recognised the material, even though she'd never seen it before. Maybe whatever had happened in the nightmare state had broken some sort of mental block, or barrier, because she was beginning to remember knowledge she'd never learned. Chrysalis' memories were available to her, without the snark, but as if she'd read them in a book rather than having lived them herself.

"Yes, that will do." Twilight's eyes went distant as she consulted the new memories. "It should harden in seconds and provide a watertight seal."

Her magic lifted it from Thorax's hoof and spread it over the cut and around her fetlock forming a translucent green cylindrical cast. She didn't have to look at him to sense the massive amount of guilt he was feeling. She raised a fore-hoof towards him.

"It's okay, you couldn't have known..."

"I should have known!" Thorax exclaimed bitterly. "Sombra's been all about tricks and traps and deceptions. But the love radiating off the Heart, it called to me, I completely forgot anything else... I've ruined everything!"

"No you haven't." Twilight put a hoof on his shoulder. "We've beaten every other trap Sombra's laid, we can beat this one."

She trotted over to the to the ragged cone of black crystal sheets and started casting her suite of scrying and diagnostic spells. Thorax sat there and worried as she examined the trap. 

Finally she said, "Well, the good news is neither of us is trapped in there. The bad news is it's an impressive piece of work, Sombra must have spent months developing this warding scheme. The structure is designed to absorb both physical force and magic, either reflecting it back on it's originator or absorbing it to make itself stronger. I'm not going to be able to break it, not unless I had access to the Elements of Harmony, or alicorn magic, and I'm not sure that even Princess Celestia could overload it on her own. This schema will have to be solved, not broken, and that could take days." 

Thorax slumped, and she said reassuringly. "If it takes days, we'll take them..."

The light from outside the windows seemed to dim for a moment, and they both looked out to see the blue skies of the weather shield flicker to reveal storm clouds and flurrying snow. The warm air turned chilly for a moment before restoring itself.

"We may not have that long..." Thorax said bitterly. "If only there was something I could do!"

"Maybe I can unpick the schema faster. Unless you have a spare Crystal Heart on you, you're probably best going down to the Crystal Fayre and keeping ponies' spirits up. You'd be able to sense their feelings and know where to help out."

Thorax's eyes narrowed, not in anger but in thought. "Maybe I can do more than that..."

He walked up to the black crystal trap and bowed his head, pointing his horn at the location of the hidden Heart. Twilight caught the edges of a turmoil of emotions, focusing down to a great effort. Suddenly there was a new sensation, a feeling of warmth and love, but it seemed like an echo rather than coming from Thorax himself.

"Yes!" He exclaimed. "I said the Heart called to me, and when I touched it, just for a moment I felt all the love, all the joy it contained. It's alive in a way, or maybe it just acts as if it is. I think it created a connection of some sort, I can still sense it if I concentrate, like the Queen's mind-link spell. Maybe I could use that to strengthen it."

Twilight looked at him, puzzled. "That could be useful, but unless we can place the Heart in front of the Crystal ponies and have them empower it, it's not going to be of immediate help."

"Not by itself, but I think the connection runs both ways. The Crystal Heart is basically an artifact that collects all the love and joy in the hearts of ponies and converts it to magic, right? What is a changeling?"

Twilight's eyes widened as she worked out what he meant.

"You're proposing that you act as some sort of bridge, allowing the crystal ponies to feed their emotions into the Heart via you!? That's either crazy or brilliant, I'm not sure which. But that would require them to be willing to feed you their emotions, rather than the Heart."

Thorax grinned, and she felt his spirits rise. "Who says they have to know? Changelings can shapeshift into other things than ponies after all."

"You think you can transform into a replica of the Heart?" Twilight used Chrysalis's knowledge to examine the idea. "Yes, it's possible, but it would be incredibly dangerous! We're talking about the emotional energy of thousands of ponies, no, more. Even Chrysalis didn't know what would happen if a regular drone were to have that much power poured into them! Your philogastric sac may not be developed enough to handle the energies!"

"I'll be acting as a channel, not storing the energy myself. Besides, you said I wasn't a regular drone, and it's time to prove you right!"

"I said an ordinary drone, and I didn't mean it like this!" Thorax could hear the worry in Twilight's voice.

"Please Twilight, I have to do this. I have to redeem my mistake!" Thorax pleaded.

The light dimmed again and another chill swept across the tower. It was in part that, and partly the way what she sensed from him once again paralleled her feelings about her own mistakes, that decided her.

"You are crazier than Discord in a fun house on All Foals Day!" she sighed. "And I'm just as crazy because I'm letting you do it."

"Yes!" Thorax pumped his hoof in a victory pose. "Okay, are you ready to go?"

"As I'll ever be..." As a last minute thought, she recast the mind-link spell, bringing it up to full power.

Thorax bent his head again towards the trap, and both the gem on his headband and his own horn started to glow in synchronisation. Green fire flickered around his hooves, tinged with blue and gold. It climbed up his legs slowly, seemingly burning them away, and engulfed his body. She could sense his absolute concentration and the presence of the Crystal Heart but did nothing to help. This was dangerous enough without adding any additional sources of magic.

When the flames vanished, in Thorax's place was a perfect replica of the Crystal Heart, that started to fall to the floor, only to be caught in her telekinetic grip.

'Thorax? Are you okay?' she thought.

'Woah, this is odd.' came the reply over the link. 'But yes, I seem to have done it.'

The outside light dimmed for a third time, and Twilight went towards the window, spreading her dragonfly wings. 

'Okay!' she thought, both to herself and Thorax. 'No use putting this off. Showtime!'

With that she powered up her wings and dived off the edge.
> Return of the King
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight descended from on high, swooping downwards with 'the Crystal Heart' held in her telekinetic grip. Thorax played his part by channeling energy from the real Crystal Heart to make his altered form shine like a star. The crystal dragonfly wings that supported her made movement nothing more than an effort of will, and far less of an effort than self-levitation. She aimed for the steps in front of the plaza, on the avenue that had the most stalls. 

She could see the crystal ponies more clearly now, more and more of them were being restored as they moved around and remembered their roots. They sparked into life like stars in Luna's sky, shining as they threw off Sombra's legacy of fear induced amnesia. Though it wasn't all one way, as the weather shield flickered and flared again, a few of the crystal ponies furthest away from the central plaza looked outwards towards the failing dome and their inner glow died as they cringed from the black clouds massing beyond. She clearly had no time to loose.

When she landed on the steps, it was as if a wave flowed out from her, every-pony who was not already restored raising their heads to look in wonder at the giant gem held in her magic, and shake off the fear Sombra had sown. Twilight added a minor voice amplification spell to her throat, and spoke to them.

"Ponies of the Crystal Empire! My friend and I promised that if you provided a Crystal Fayre, we would provide the Crystal Heart as a centrepiece. We faced Sombra's deceptions and traps and overcame them. We found the resting place of the Crystal Heart, where Sombra had sealed it away, and now I bring you the proof of our discovery!"

She held up Thorax's disguised form, and with perfect timing he flared the aura surrounding him. Twilight could feel the power of the real Crystal Heart, flowing out through him and over the ponies surrounding them. 'Now the tricky bit.' she projected to him.

'Don't worry, I've got this!' he thought back. 'I may not be as good at crystal magic as you are, but I can sustain a levitation effect, especially with the Heart backing me.'

'That's not the bit I'm worried about!' she replied, releasing her telekinetic hold. Thorax floated over to the centre of the plaza, and as he reached the middle of the snowflake inlaid in it's central point, a spike of clear white crystal sprung up from below and a second speared down from above, framing his form. Twilight spoke to the assembled ponies again, choosing her words carefully to stick to the spirit of the truth, if not the letter.

"The Crystal Heart is yours once more! Now use the joy and love within you to empower it and protect your kingdom!"

With joyful smiles, the Crystal ponies bowed their heads, taking on a translucent quality that also seemed to give every mare a fancy mane style. Around each one the crystal pavement glowed, expanding circles of light that came together and flooded the surface of the central plaza, and flowing out to light up the boulevards right to the edge of the Empire. Twilight found her own body taking on a similar crystalline appearance, and her hair taking on a fancy new style. 

But the biggest change was with Thorax, as his Crystal Heart form started to spin more and more rapidly. She could feel both the strain and exhilaration as he absorbed the emotional energy the ponies were feeding into him and passed it on to the real Heart. She did nothing but observe, she had no desire to jog his metaphorical elbow when it was clear it was taking everything he had just to maintain a stable flow, but she allowed her own approval and encouragement to flow over their mental link, supporting him as best she could.

Finally from the peak of the central tower, a spherical shell of brilliant white light expanded out, engulfing the ponies beneath and enlarging to merge with the existing barrier that marked the Empire's boundaries. There was a distant roar, but it was a roar of rage and frustration, not a roar of triumph. One or two of the ponies looked worried at the sound, but most of them were too deep in the euphoria of having the Crystal Heart returned to pay much attention.

Thorax's spin reduced to a slower speed, and she finally felt it safe to communicate. 'Thorax! Are you okay?'

'Uuugh! Dizzy!' was the reply. 'Feeling kind of bloated too.'

'Don't worry, the real Crystal Heart should be free now, so I'll fetch it and perform a switch as soon as possible.' As Twilight thought this, she noticed the aged librarian approaching her.

The old mare bowed her head deeply. "Crystal Mage, on behalf of every-pony here, I thank you for your courageous deeds. May we know your name, milady?"

Twilight was slightly embarrassed, and pawed the ground with a hoof, but said more quietly, "I am Twilight Sparkle, and there's no need for formality, I just did what needed doing."

If the Crystal ponies heard the last part, they didn't seem to take notice. Several of them called out, "All hail Lady Twilight Sparkle, the brave and glorious!" and there was a general cheer and a fanfare of flugelhorns.

"What about your companion?" the librarian asked. "I remember you had an earth-pony with you... I remember everything now!"

Twilight decided that if there was credit due, she was going to spread it around. Once again she chose her words carefully. "My friend Thorax was with me every step of the way. I couldn't have done it without him. He was caught by one of Sombra's traps; he's safe, but he couldn't be here beside me."

There was a cry of, "All hail Sir Thorax the brave and glorious!" and another flugelhorn fanfare. Thorax was apparently aware of it, as she felt his emotions over the link. She was surprised the Crystal Heart didn't glow pink, or whatever colour changelings blushed. Of course, in his case the positive emotions directed at him were like the finest wine.

Over the sound of celebrations, Twilight heard another distant roar of anger. She turned to the librarian. "What is your name?"

"Amethyst Maresbury, milady."

"No need for miladies, if you remember everything, Miss Maresbury you know that my job isn't complete yet. King Sombra was turned to a dark shadow and bound in the arctic ice by the Diarchs of Equestria, but he wasn't completely destroyed. Like this empire, he as been sealed away for a thousand years, and now it has returned, he is free, greatly weakened, but he still exists."

The nearest crystal ponies heard this, and cringed in fear, their ears going flat. Amethyst was among them, "Sombra's alive?"

The words spread, and more of the ponies started looking fearful. Twilight stepped forward and raised her voice amplification back to maximum. "Fear not, whatever happens, you are safe! He is trapped outside the border of the Empire, and he can no longer approach the Heart without being destroyed. But to ensure he does no further harm, I must go out there to face him."

There were several cries of "No!", "Don't go!" and similar exclamations. One of the mares who'd been eating porridge when Twilight had first met her approached, holding a paper cone of deep fried fritters in one hoof. "Please, don't risk yourself! Not even Princess Amore could face him and win. Stay here, stay safe, and have a fritter."

Twilight took one of the fritters, and took a bite. It was hot, still fresh from the fryer with a crispy doughnut style batter around a sweet crystal berry paste core. She swallowed and spoke. "I can't do that. Well, the fritter, yes, but Sombra must be stopped once and for all."

She shucked off her saddlebags, folding her crystal wings back to ensure the straps didn't tangle as they slid off her withers. "Miss Maresbury, would you look after my bags until I get back?"

She finished the fritter and turned to the crowd. "If Sombra can't get in here, he may slink away to try and find some other way of regaining his strength. He could end up among the caribou, or  the yaks or even one of the pony settlements in the Yaket range. Who knows how much damage he could do before he gets defeated? No, he needs to be stopped here, while he's still weakened from his long imprisonment. And there's another reason. Neither the Princess or the Crystal mages had access to the power of the Crystal Heart when they faced him. But if I have the power of the Heart to call upon, I'll have the advantage over him."

She thought to Thorax, 'I can't see a way to swap you for the real Heart right now. Do you think you can handle another power surge?'

'I'll manage. Maybe I can't fight by your side, but I can make sure you have the power to call on.' She could feel his support and determination to succeed over their link, and a taste of the magical energy from the Heart.

She called out to the crowd, remembering what she could the many inspiring speeches she'd read. "Will you grant me this boon? I need you all to once again fill the Crystal Heart with your positive feelings to generate the magic for me to call on. Remember your long and storied history. Remember the power you wield, greater than any one pony, even an alicorn! Believe that Sombra can be defeated and together we can make it so!"

She sprang into the air and flourished her dragonfly wings theatrically, and the flow of magical energy from the Heart via Thorax outlined her with an aura that matched his. The Crystal ponies cheered, some calling out her name, while others were already dipping their heads to once again charge the Heart. Wasting no time, she soared off towards the barrier, in the direction which had been most filled with dark, swirling clouds before it had been restored, and from which a quickly cast detection spell showed umbral magic was most concentrated. It was almost a third of the way around the city from their original entry point.

'Now to see if those tactics we came up with will actually work.' she thought. It was odd, despite the fact that this was a most dangerous foe, she didn't really feel scared, and not just because of Thorax's quiet support coming over the link. She didn't even feel the rage she had when she'd attacked Chrysalis, though she had ample evidence that his crimes were as vile as any villain in history. She simply felt a quiet determination that he must be ended, whatever the cost to herself.

This was it, the day she'd keep the vow she'd made to when she'd found to her surprise that she'd survived the explosion at the wedding. She would find redemption for her past failures and mistakes by saving this land and these ponies. Though it was ironic. As she'd said in the throes of Sombra's nightmare trap, she'd never meant to kill Chrysalis and part of what she wished to redeem was the guilt of her death, though that had lessened slightly when she'd discovered exactly what Chrysalis had planned to do if she had succeeded. 

Yet here she was, planning to kill another being as part of her atonement, if you could call something that was half shadow and half magic alive in the first place. As she approached the barrier, she felt the magic of the Crystal Heart start to flow down the link from Thorax in earnest, and threw up a skin tight sheath of crystal magic infused force over her body, a barrier jacket, armouring herself for the battle to come. She prepared her spells and plunged through the barrier and out into the storm that raged beyond.

&&&

The seven ponies and one dragon looked out of the train windows at the unprepossessing view of the coaling depot. It was little more than a platform, a shed with a gantry that supported an heavily insulated water hose, and a sturdy shack that was lit warmly from within. The whole thing was half obscured by driven snow, sweeping across the platform and making things beyond the station merge into a featureless white sheet.

Shining Armour pointed to the hut. "Right then. The scout team from Rainbow Falls should already be here. Let's get across to the station house and rendezvous with them. And every-pony, put on a pair of snow goggles. The weather's going wreck visibility enough without snow blindness."

His horn glowed and sets of goggles with narrow slits for eyepieces were retrieved from one of the cases on the train. Rarity's horn also glowed and elegant scarves rose up from a neat stack to distribute themselves to the others. Each one was coloured to complement the pony in question, and had their cutie-mark knitted into the wool. 

"That's a nice thought Rarity, but I reckon we're going to need more than just scarves to get through that lot." Applejack stated.

Rarity smiled. "That's why I wove a weather protection spell into them. They'll protect you from the worst of the wind and cold, for a few hours at least."

"Neat! I didn't know you could do that!" exclaimed Pinkie, scooping her scarf out of the air and spinning on the spot. When she stopped, the scarf was neatly wrapped around her neck and the snow goggles were on her forehead. "Ohhh! Fancy!"

"I took a leaf out of Twilight's book, and had Spike help me look up a few useful spells we might need. After helping her for so long, he knew exactly where to look." Unspoken was the additional reason that she'd been keeping him occupied ever since the wedding to help him work through his grief. She looked over at the small dragon, who was trying to lift a large stack of luggage. "Spike dear, no need to carry all that, I can manage some of it."

Her horn glowed, and a couple of the cases on top floated off the stack and onto her back.It was typical of their new dynamic. Rarity had effectively taken over Spike's care, and now treated him more like a companion than an assistant. 

"It's okay, I can manage it!" Spike called out, hefting the remaining cases.

"But you shouldn't have to, not by yourself." 

Shining Armour had already moved to the door and swung it open. It caught the wind and slammed back against the carriage, letting in 
a blast of icy air. Rainbow dashed out, and had to spread her wings like spoilers to keep steady. Her scarf fluttered in the wind as she made her way across the platform. Her words barely reached the others as they were snatched away by the wind. "Whoa! When they make a snowstorm up here, they don't mess about!"

The others followed across the platform more carefully, except for Pinkie Pie, who pronked as usual. Shining Armour shielded Cadence with his body, while Applejack assisted Fluttershy, and Rarity, horn glowing, helped stabilise the luggage Spike carried.

Inside the hut was a spartan but neat office, a roaring fire blazing in the iron bellied stove in one corner. Resting on the various chairs and benches set around it were a group of four pegasi in Royal Guard winter uniforms, the three privates playing a card game. The senior guard, a sergeant, sprung to his hooves when Shining Armour entered and saluted, followed quickly by the other pegasi. "Captain Armour! Skystorm squad, Rainbow Falls Guard Command, reporting for duty, sir!"

Shining returned the salutes. "At ease Sergeant... Windwarper? Your patrol was the one that sighted the anomaly?"

The sergeant was a burly pegasus stallion with a bushy mustache that the built in disguise enchantment on his armour had turned the same blue colour as it did his mane and tail. He spoke with an accent heavily leaning towards that of the Shetlands region of the Griffish isles.

"Yessir! We were performing a routine patrol of the rail line, when the sky to the north blazed with a golden glow. As per standing orders, we turned to investigate. Approximately three miles north of this position, we sighted what looked to be structures, under a dome of fading light. As we approached to confirm our observations we were driven back by a snowstorm that blew up out of nowhere. It was uncanny sir, I've seen everything the feral weather this far north can throw at a pony, but nothing like this, sir!"

Shining Armour nodded. "And the current storm?"

"Much the same, sir. It didn't start seriously blowing until we got close to the coaling station. But for the last half mile we had to land and follow the tracks. No pegasus could fly through this muck."

"I could!" Rainbow Dash called out brashly, then paused when every-pony looked at her. "Well I could, but the sarge is right about the other thing. Visibility in this storm is hoof in front of your face. With no reference points you could end up flying in circles and never know it. But ground pounding won't be much better, once you're away from the railway tracks, there's no way to tell which way we're going."

"Could you clear it?" Shining asked.

Dash shook her head. "I may be awesome, but even I'm not that awesome! This would be an all-wings job for Ponyville or even Cloudsdale. Besides, this storm has my pinion feathers itching, it's all kinds of freaky. Sarge is right about that too."

"Sergeant Windwarper or sergeant if you please, Miss Dash." The sergeant requested.

"Okay... Sorry if I ruffled your feathers... Hey, you know me?" Dash preened.

The sergeant stood to attention. "Yes ma'am. All guard personnel have been notified of the identities of the Elements of Harmony, to facilitate rapid response in an emergency situation. Of course most of us have seen Princess Cadence and Master Spike around the palace while on rotation there."

"Good, then we don't need to waste time with introductions." Shining Armour's horn lit, and he drew a relief map of the area around the coaling depot. He also withdrew a couple of other items, a pen and ink pot, a compass, and a flat square of blue crystal about the size of his hoof. He placed the map on the office desk and used the compass to align the map to north and said, " Sergeant, if you can indicate the location of the city as best you can?"

While the sergeant marked the map with the quill, Shining placed the blue crystal on the desk and fed magic into it with his horn. The surface lit up with circles of runes, a line of dashes formed part of a circle inside it, and a glowing arrow appeared in the centre, pointing more or less north. Shining checked the direction of the arrow against the map and gave an approving snort. "Right, that seems to match."

"Beggin' your pardon, Captain, but what's that doohickey?" Applejack looked over the map curiously.

"A directional thaumometer. I borrowed one from Celestia's school. It detects the direction and strength of the most powerful magic source. I suspected that the appearance of the city would have generated a large magical energy spike and it seems to have persisted. It will allow us to home in on the location even in this storm. However, we have another means of confirmation. Rarity?"

"I assume you want me to use my gem finding spell?" The white unicorn asked, lighting her horn. "Let's see... Oh my!"

She trotted over to the map and glanced at it. "I feel a concentration of gemstone, and a vast concentration at that, in the direction you have on the map."

"Excellent!" Shining picked up the thaumometer in a hoof and withdrew a lanyard from his saddlebags with his magic then attached it. As he placed the device around his neck over the scarf Rarity had made, he gave further orders. "We'll all need to stay close together, as Rainbow said, our visibility is pretty much zero. We'll form a line of pairs, I'll take point, the sergeant and Cadence after me, Rarity, I'll want you at the rear, as you are the only other pony who can detect the place and guide the others. Everyone choose a buddy. Do not let them out of your sight!"

The party shook down into pairs, Rarity decided to carry Spike on the saddle between her hoof-stitched designer saddlebags, so she ended up walking alongside one of the privates. Applejack and Rainbow Dash teamed up, as did Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. The other pair of privates took position mid way along the line, ready to move to protect the Element Bearers.

Cadence spoke for the first time, drawing a small, ornate chest from her saddlebags. "Every-pony, please put on your Elements." 

She opened the chest to reveal the necklaces which the five remaining Bearers took, putting them on under their scarves. She picked out the diadem of magic and held it by her own head. "I know I'm not Twilight, but I hope you'll accept me as a substitute. If the Elements are needed, some-pony must guide the power."

"You're right, you ain't Twilight." Applejack said. "But I reckon we've gotten to know you well enough these last few weeks to count you as a friend."

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, besides Twilight was all kinds of excited when she knew it was you marrying her brother. I guess she'd want you to have it if anyone has to."    

"Ohhh! Maybe it will work to super-amplify your Princess powers!" Pinkie exclaimed. 

Rarity and Fluttershy said nothing but both gave nods of agreement. Seeing that, Cadence lowered the diadem onto her head.

"Right every-pony! Goggles on. Let's move!" Matching actions to words, Shining Armour took the lead out of the shack, then lifted the thaumometer up on a hoof and noted the direction before moving forward into the storm, the rest of the group hard on his heels. 

&&&

Twilight emerged into the biting cold and swirling snow, and despite her jacket of force, she still felt a chill, both physical and spiritual. There, to her left where there was a peculiar lull in the storm, a far more sinister miasma billowed and gyred, a black cloud the size of a house who's motions ignored the wind. Tendrils of inky black cloud extruded from the mass to brush against the barrier, only to be repulsed. She no longer needed an active spell to detect the roiling umbral magic within the darkness, it pressed on her senses like a foul blot on the world.

She wondered how long it would take Sombra to notice her, and quickly had her answer. The cloud swirled and flowed round, glowing green eyes appearing from within and focusing on her. Would Sombra attack right away, or would he try and intimidate her to generate some fear? With the Crystal ponies free of his spell and the Heart shutting off all access to them, he  had no other source to replenish his powers.

"Ssso, a Crysstal Mage comes to face me? No, a foolisssh unicorn apprentice playing pretend." The voice was deep and sibilant, coming from all sides as the cloud billowed and loomed over her.

Twilight felt the beginnings of an unnatural terror forming deep inside her, but she was ready for it, and quickly used the positive energy flowing through her to quell it. Time to make her first strike, Pinkie Pie style. "Y'know, you really should have that sssspeech impediment looked at."

Normally she wouldn't make fun of another pony like that, but when it was a shadow of an evil dictator who enslaved ponies, she felt she could make an exception. It certainly managed to aggravate Sombra.

"Harrr! Do you even know who I am?"

"Um... Black Snootie? Evil Dark Cloudy McCloudface? Oh, oh, I know! A cumulo-nimbus cloud in a bad mood!"

The idea was to taunt him into acting rashly rather than using his superior tactical skill and intelligence to it's fullest. It seemed to be working as the eyes flared and the darkness expanded even further. Hopefully he couldn't feed on his own rage, that shouldn't even be possible.

"I AM SOMBRA! KING OF MONSTERSSS! RULER OF THE CRYSSSTAL EMPIRE! I WILL DESSSTROY YOU AND USE YOUR LIFE-FORCE TO BREAK THE BARRIER AND RECLAIM MY THRONE!"

Under other circumstances, Twilight would have been terrified. As it was, she was too busy unleasing the full power over her own considerable snark combined with that of Queen Chrysalis. "Was. Past tense. You'll get used to it. The Princesses destroyed most of your strength, and since you can no longer feed on the Crystal ponies, you've got to be feeling pretty feeble, for all your roaring and bluster."

"I WILL SHOW YOU MY TRUE SSSTRENGTH!" Sombra roared and the cloud swept forward. 

"That's what I just said." She threw a narrow beam of crystal magic infused coherent light at Sombra, only for him to split apart and let it pass through his shadowy substance harmlessly. An evil, roaring laugh bellowed from within the cloud as he descended upon her, sure her futile efforts made her no more of a threat than of the many other crystal mages he'd defeated.

Which was exactly as planned. Twilight drew on the fountain of crystal magic pouring into her via Thorax and infused her force jacket with it. As he engulfed her, she released the bindings that gave it shape and blasted it outwards in a sphere, driving back the inky mist, and blasting it into nothingness where it could not move away fast enough. The roar of laughter became a howl of pain as Sombra felt his body being consumed. 

He regrouped, condensing enough to materialise his head and horn, and sprayed Twilight with a wave of razor sharp, umbrally tainted, shards of deep purple crystal. She established another shield, condensing it to take the blow, even as she aileron rolled out of the way of the heart of the burst. Twilight drew on memories of watching Rainbow perform to guide her own evasions, the magic of her dragonfly wings turning thought into action without the inconvenience of muscle memory or physical exertion.

She threw another attack spell as she pulled out of her manoeuvre, a ball of crystal magic infused energy that homed in on the self proclaimed King of Monsters' head. He once again split to evade it, only to have the seeker sphere shatter into dozens of smaller balls of energy. They flew in all directions, plunging into his shadow mist form and exploding, shredding and destroying more of his substance. Even as he gave voice to his fury he was reforming and fighting back. This time his glowing crimson horn shot back a beam, more a torrent of dark magic, which he swung and guided like the beam of a searchlight.

Twilight ducked as it blasted over her head and dived down as it swung down after her. This was exactly what she and Garnet Nib had hoped to do, get him to expend his energy recklessly while he had no way to recharge and she had the Crystal Heart replenishing her. But she had to be careful, even in a rage he was a cunning and ruthless opponent. His energy beam split, forming a barrier of lines that drove her further down as they descended. He was driving her towards the floor, but why...

She remembered what had happened to Chrysalis in the nightmare and almost happened to Thorax; she threw herself into a wild side spin a fraction of a second before a jagged spike of black crystal punched up from the ground right where her belly would have been if she'd continued straight down. As it was, it speared one of her crystal dragonfly wings and shattered it, and also flung her sideways to plough into the snowy ground. Her shield took the brunt of both impacts, but she was still shaken, and she felt the flow of energy from Thorax diminish.

He sent her not so much a message as a gestalt image thet explained why. It seemed the link worked both ways. By virtue of their connection to the Crystal Heart, though the Crystal ponies could not see her fight with Sombra, they could feel it, and the turning of the battle against her had caused some of them to lose some of their belief in her victory. The drop in power only lasted for a moment before it returned full flow, but it 'tasted' different. From their rapport, she realised that Thorax was now feeding his own stored power into the connection to make up the loss.

She couldn't afford to turtle, or let his gift go to waste, she had to regain the upper hoof and fast. Fortunately, two could play games with crystals. Even as she planned, she rolled sideways, evading the black crystal spikes as they trailed after her and sprung up as she drew on the connection to cast a spell into the ground below. She rose up on a column of clear white crystal, blocking Sombras black ones, while projections rose up around her like support columns which merged into a roof. It deflected the spread out beams of his fading blast attack, giving her room to act. As a keen astronomer, she understood optics, and it was optics that would make this particular attack work.

While the first pillar rose, a second spire shot up into the heart of Sombras darkness. Before he could corrupt it, she threw a powerful directed light spell down into the heart of the crystal pillar she stood on, using it as a carrier for all the crystal magic she could absorb. Internal facets guided and concentrated it into a tight beam that was reflected and shot out at the bottom and across into the other spire. The spire glowed as the light was caught and directed back upwards into Sombras core, and emerged from dozens of facets at the peak as sweeping beams of crystal magic infused light which evaporated more of Sombras shadow form. 

Even as Sombra reared back his head in agony, she felt the flow of energy from the Crystal Heart swell back to full power and beyond its previous limit. She recast the dragonfly wings spell even as she called out. "You see Sombra? This Crystal Mage is quite capable of defeating you once and for all!"

She reinforced her force jacket  with more crystal magic and spread her wings, glowing like a beacon inside the crystal tower she'd formed. The snowstorm around them was dying as the positive energy released by her spells drove away the Windigo influences that amplified it. Sombra was barely half his previous bulk, and even seemed to flinch away from her light. She dismissed the pillars in front of her and shot forward to strike once more, ready for any attack he could muster.

But he didn't attack, his form shrank in on itself and fled, flying away at a speed she was hard pressed to match. Clearly he had no stomach (or whatever equivalent his shadow form used) for a losing battle and had decided to engage in a tactical withdrawal, or in other words running away. It made sense, he must have realised that she was channeling the power of the Crystal Heart and wanted to either escape to go lick his wounds and recover, or draw her far enough away that he connection would be weakened and he could face her on more even terms. Neither result was acceptable.

She swept after him, her wings buzzing, forcing her way through the dying storm with a cone shaped corona of crystal energy piercing the air. She shot off a sweeping blast of magic, slicing across his fleeing form and shredding more of him, but he quickly evaded before she could do significant damage. An attempt to grab him with telekinesis was equally futile, his form turning insubstantial and simply flowing through her horn's grasp. He quickly outpaced her, sliding through the swirling, eddying wind currents that she had to punch through.

Her eyes were protected from the windblown snow by the shielding effect, but she had to blink as she thought she saw some spots of colour in the distance. She threw out one of Garnet Nib's best scrying spells and gasped at what she found. Her brother, leading Cadence, Spike, her friends and a group of royal guards. Beyond them, not a hundred body-lengths further was a house, no, it was a coaling stop on a railway line, an Equestrian locomotive and royal train carriage parked right by it as the train-ponies went about loading with coal and water.

After a few seconds of stunned surprise, she realised what must have happened. Of course Princess Celestia would be watching out for the Crystal Empire, and Sombra, returning. It was equally clear that she'd send out an expedition to deal with the threat once it returned. Twilight would probably have been part of that group. It was a remarkable co-incidence that what must be the northern line to Rainbow Falls and the Griffon lands passed so close to the site of the Empire, or maybe not; it could have been Princess Celestia planning ahead to make sure there was a way to reach it quickly when the inevitable happened.

This was bad, very bad. She'd more or less driven Sombra onto them, and in a few seconds he would descend on them while they were unaware, both a potential source of fear and anger he could use to restore himself, and a source of hostages to keep her at bay. Who knew what he'd do to them? Worst of all, there was no way Twilight could stop him before he reached them!
> Reunion Station
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight ruthlessly quashed her burgeoning panic attack. The pre-wedding Twilight might have reacted that way, but panicking and reacting rather than reasoning had caused her friends and the Princess to not believe her, and led to Chrysalis almost winning.  She could feel the power and belief of both Thorax and the ponies of the Crystal Empire that she would succeed. However, she also had to believe in herself, quash her fear of failure and think. If she couldn't stop Sombra directly, what could she do?

When put like that, she formulated a plan in seconds. A spell lashed out, passing Sombra and guided to Shining Armour via the scrying spell. It connected, and created a mind-link. Normally this wouldn't work on a non-Changeling, due to a lack of rapport between them, but Chrysalis had spent weeks exploring the defenses of Shining's mind in order to make her mind control more effective; now that knowledge was Twilight's, and combined with her own closeness to her BBBFF it was enough to establish enough of a connection for her purposes.

'Shiny! Shield everypony, NOW!' She felt his stunned confusion, mixed with a stirring suspicion, he was hearing Twilight's voice in his head but he knew she was dead, was this some sort of trick?

She had to convince him, but there was no time to explain. Remembering how she'd restored her Discorded friends, and guided by Chrysalis's knowledge, she put together a gestalt image of how she'd survived and ended up in the Frozen North, and pushed it down the link, followed by a plea. 'BBBFF, if you ever trusted me, trust me now! Protect my friends and Cadence!'

She could sense his mind flashing through trying to imagine any way that this could harm them, and coming up empty. A translucent purple dome of energy blazed into being around the group, drawing exclamations of surprise and shock from the other ponies. It was just in time, only seconds later, Sombra's shadow form slammed into the shield as he tried to engulf them, cracking it slightly even in his weakened state. 

Twilight could feel the strain Shining Armour was under but was unable to send any power from the Crystal Heart to reinforce his shield. The link had almost broken, just from the gestalt image. However, she realised she didn't need to. 'Have Cadence feed her magic into your shield to reinforce it. Sombra's magic is based on hate and fear, love and hope should be anathema to him!'

"Cadence, help me! Feed your magic into mine!" Shining called out and Cadence came forward, touching her horn to his as it took on a pink aura. It mixed and merged with the purple glow of Shining's horn, and the shield took on a hue that was a mix of the two. The cracks healed, and when Sombra slammed against it again, it burned away the shadow almost as effectively as Crystal magic. He howled in pain, and backed off, manifesting a head and forelegs  clad in plate barding. Dropping down, he slammed his hooves into the ground and a line of black crystals sprung up, heading for Shining Armour's shield.

'He's burrowing under the edge!' Twilight projected, even as she flew on towards them. 'Extend the barrier underground!'

The crystal line reached the barrier and shattered, leaving the dome unmarked, and exposing the fact that the shield did now reach below the surface. 

Twilight had almost reached them, and her brain was whirring. She'd intended to use her advantage in having a renewing source of power to defeat Sombra through attrition, wearing him down. However, with her friends and brother there, she no longer had the luxury of time.  Even in his present state, Sombra was still cunning and capable. She could not allow him the time to find a way to defeat her brother's shield, or find some other way to threaten her friends. She'd have to act fast; move decisively and take risks. 

She was close enough to target him with her magic though it was still some distance. So she dropped her barrier jacket, only to reform it around Sombra's now condensed mass of ink black cloud. With a toss of her head, she hauled her spherical shield away from Shining Armour's and pulled it towards her.

Forming a barrier at a distance was far harder than forming one around herself, and more unstable. While she tried to shrink it to crush him, in solid form he could concentrate his magic more precisely and punch through it by overloading it at one point, shattering the structure even though it was reinforced with the Crystal Heart's magic. However, Twilight had never counted on it being that simple, and even as the barrier went down, she was forming another ball of energy at the tip of her horn. She didn't try to re-establish her full body barrier jacket, deliberately leaving herself vulnerable to make herself a more tempting target and draw his attention away from the others.

He took the challenge and flew towards her, eyes blazing, even as Twilight sped towards him. They were close enough now that the ponies under Shinings shield could see the duel. She flung the sphere of crystal magic infused energy at him, guiding it to home in, only to have a black, corrupted burst of energy fly from his horn and cause it to explode before it could reach him. That he had already developed a counter-spell after seeing the seeker sphere spell once showed just how dangerous he was. 

He roared in triumph as he swept forward through the remnants of the explosion, ready to tear the pesky unicorn mare who'd bedeviled him so. A hundred shards of crystal formed around him as they came face to face, only to have her flip end for end and give him an Applejack worthy buck to the face with her hind hooves. While this wouldn't normally have phased him, both of them blazed with the magic from the Crystal Heart, courtesy of her choosing to modify her barrier jacket spell on the fly to focus it on those two hooves. He flew backwards and off to the side to smash into the ground near the expedition.

However, Twilight hadn't escaped unscathed. Sombra had flung the shards forward even as they met, and in turning she'd exposed her side to them. Fortunately they'd been flung off parallel to each other and her head and withers had been out of the line of fire. Her rump and hind legs weren't so lucky, having caught several shards as they swung around, and a number of thankfully shallow cuts bled freely. 

On top of that, the cuts felt more painful than she'd expected, and the pain was slowly spreading. A glance showed that there was blackness oozing from the wounds, an umbral taint. There was enough crystal magic leaking back into her body to retard the spread of the taint, but not stop it altogether.  Twilight shrugged it off, just another reason to end this quickly, she couldn't afford to give Sombra time to plan, and scouring the corruption with directed crystal magic would take too much time. 

She did have a moment to look more closely at the group under the shield and realised that her friends were wearing the Elements over some natty scarves. The Element of Magic on Cadence's forehead stirred a slight annoyance that she'd been replaced, which she stomped on with all four hooves. They must have been ready to fight Sombra themselves, and the Elements were a powerful tool and defense. Only the Princesses had been able to wield them before, and with Twilight gone, the Princess of Love would be the one with the highest chance of activating an artifact based on friendship.

It would almost certainly defeat Sombra, but he wasn't likely to just stand there and let it hit him. He clearly hadn't noticed them, or didn't recognise their new forms, or he wouldn't have been so cavalier in attacking them. But when they started charging it would be a different matter. If only there was some way to distract him, make him focus on something else, pin him in place. A plan instantly came to mind. On the upside it was absurdly simple, on the downside it was absurdly dangerous. But it would definitely focus his attention on her for the dozen or so seconds it would take for Cadence to activate the Elements. Plus, it was poetic justice of a sort.

First she had to get Cadence up to speed without Sombra knowing. But despite her friendship with her foalsitter, she didn't have the same level of connection as with her brother. Chrysalis's memories were no use, as she'd only taken her form, not explored her mind. If she had, she'd have probably done a better job of impersonating her. However, there was another way. Cadence was linked to an entity that Twilight did know intimately. The Element of Magic was more than just a magical power source, while it wasn't exactly alive, it had a will and purpose of it's own, something she could target with a mind-link spell.

She formed the spell in her mind, but rather than trying to establish rapport with Cadence, she reached out to the Element of Magic, seeking the same connection she'd felt when she'd wielded it against Nightmare Moon and Discord.  Thankfully it still recognised her, and allowed her access. She asked it to let Cadence use it on her behalf, then fed her words through that connection.

'Use the Elements Cadence.'

She felt Cadence's shock, and sorrow. 'Twilight? But you're dead! How can I hear you?'

Rather than send another gestalt, which might have overloaded the link, Twilight simply projected, 'I'm speaking to you through the Element of Magic. Sombra is right there, and greatly weakened. I will see he does not escape. Stretch out your feelings. Trust in my friends and the power of Harmony and strike him down.'

The exchange had taken place with the speed of thought, but it was enough time for Sombra to start to scramble to his hooves and start to evaporate into shadow mist form again. Twilight swept round, power-diving in from the direction opposite Shining Armours dome with her crystal horn scintillating like a star. "Sombra! It ends here!"

He raised his head to look at her, snarling, and flung a wave of black energy at her that she couldn't dodge. Just before it reached her, her horn discharged and she vanished in a flash of light. She reappeared, only a few hooves away from him and still traveling at full velocity. Her head came down and her horn plunged into his neck, just above the line of his plate armour. Her fore-hooves wrapped round him as her momentum slammed them both into the surface of Shining Armour's barrier. 

He somehow managed to howl despite the hole in his throat, but pushed forward off the barrier, bowling her over so he stood over her, and a raspy chuckle was heard. Twilight could feel the tip of her horn numbing and warping as his magic corrupted the crystal sheath, disrupting her ability to spell-cast. "Foolisssh pony! You thought that could harm me, Sssombra, King of Monssssters?"

"No, but this will! NOW CADENCE!" Even as she felt energy surge through the Element of Magic and saw the rainbow of light rising behind them, she poured everything she had through the horn, not trying to shape it or impose any spell matrix, just pure raw magical power. She wove together all the magic she could receive from the Crystal Heart with every scrap of magic, both unicorn and changeling, she possessed. She even felt the distinctive sensation of Thorax's magic flowing through her. Her horn felt like it was on fire, even with the crystal sheath to help channel most of the power was causing mana-burn, but losing her ability to cast magic again was a small price to pay to protect every-pony.

Sombra threw back his head and howled again in earnest, pure white beams of light pouring from his eyes and mouth. His armour, his very skin started to crack like poorly baked pottery and lines of white showed underneath. A rainbow torrent fell upon the two of them just as he exploded, disintegrating every shard of his being, The light faded away to show a crater.

The ponies within the dome waited nervously as steam rose from within. After a moment they heard a groan, and a voice mutter something about 'getting to be a habit' and a purple horn emerged over the rim, followed by the rest of a pony none of them thought they'd ever see again. They were frozen in shock, except for Shining Armour and Cadence. She was the one to speak.

"Twilight? Is it you, I mean really you?" She asked, half pleading.

"Uhhh..." Twilight looked as battered as she felt, though her cuts and bruises had been healed and her body was cleared of the umbral infection; most of her body was plastered with mud, and she wasn't completely sure of the answer herself. "I'm not a changeling, or Sombra in disguise if that's what you mean. If you have any doubts, zap me with the Elements again. The Element of Honesty should strip away any deceit."

The pink alicorn took a step forward, then hesitated. "But how can you be here? We thought you were dead!"

Twilight could no longer sense Shining Armour or Cadence, casting that last spell must have drained her other active spell effects, so she explained the old fashioned way.  "Not yet, though not for lack of opportunity. When I attacked Chrysalis, I teleport skipped towards her. The spell matrix was still in my horn, and the energy backlash super-charged it. I wanted to get away from the explosion, somewhere cooler, and it took that intent and transported me to the far side of Mount Everhoof. I woke up in a crater.

"I survived for a time by myself, until I was found by a tribe of caribou who took me in. I stayed with them, and helped out as best I could. When we came south to collect crystal berries I fell into a crevasse and was washed down an underground river. I ended up in the caves under the Crystal Empire, or where it had been." She decided not to complicate things with an explanation about Thorax. "I emerged just as the Empire returned, discovered what had happened to it and about Sombra and offered to help. I wanted to atone for my mistakes."

"Your mistakes?" asked Shining, incredulously.

"Yes! I let Chrysalis goad me into acting like a crazy mare at the wedding! It's no wonder no-pony believed me when I was going around yelling 'Cadence is Evil!' rather than asking myself 'Why?' and acting calmly and sensibly to find out." She hung her head. "I let my emotions get the better of me, and as a result, Chrysalis came within a hair's breadth of winning. I had to stop her, though I swear I never meant to kill her... she is dead, isn't she?" 

Rainbow Dash piped up. "Yeah! You splattered her all over the wall..." and was quickly hushed by a hoof over the mouth from Applejack when she saw Twilight wince.

"I just wanted to distract her so Princess Celestia could subdue her. But I let my emotions get the better of me again. believing I'd lost your friendships, because of her... I may not have meant to kill her, but I charged her with rage in my heart. I wanted to hurt her, and I did, far more than I'd intended."

She sighed, head still down. "Though what I did to King Sombra might have been worse. That was no accident. I came out here to destroy him. You have to understand, he didn't just take the title King of Monsters, he gloried in it. I saw the records, the ponies of the Crystal Empire took him in as a foal, cared for him, taught him magic and gave him a position of honour, and he used it to turn on them, destroy their Princess and any-pony else who stood in his way and enslave the rest. There was nothing in him that was redeemable, and if I'd somehow just captured him, the next time he escaped the blood of the ponies he'd have killed would be on my hooves. I had no choice, but for all of that, he was once a living, breathing pony... and I killed him." 

The determination that had been driving her ever since she'd discovered the fate of the Crystal Empire was fading. Suddenly, the full impact of what she'd been through hit her as the adrenaline wore off, and she collapsed to the ground, sobbing. "I killed him and I'm not even sorry for him, only myself! I'll... I'll understand if none of you ever want to speak to me again. I'm just glad I got a chance to see you all once more, that you're all safe."

Twilight felt horrible, and better all at the same time. She had finally had the chance to say everything she'd been bottling up as she concentrated first on survival and then on her self imposed mission. It felt cleansing, to finally have expressed her feelings, and apologise for her mistakes. On the other hoof, she couldn't help but remember the nightmare versions of her friends from Sombra's trap. She knew her real friends wouldn't be as hostile, but that was a long way from saying they could pick up where they'd left off.

She flinched as some-pony dropped down in front of her and leaned in to give her a wing-hug. She sniffled as she looked up to find Fluttershy of all ponies holding her, an expression of compassion on her face. "Twilight, it's alright. There, there..."

"Fluttershy? I'd have thought you'd be the last pony to want to be around me." Twilight leaned into her friends shoulder, taking comfort from her warmth.

"What you had to do was horrible, but that doesn't make you a horrible pony. Some of my animal friends eat meat, but I don't hate them for having to hunt. We all know what you did was to protect us, to protect every-pony." She started sniffling. "We thought you were gone forever!"

Pinkie was the next to join the hug. There was a squeaky noise as she glomphed onto Twilight. 

"You look like Twilight, speak like Twilight, even squeak Like Twilight... It really is you!" She produced a fountain of tears as she held on tightly. "Don't ever leave us again! We were all really sad, losing you made me feel like I never wanted to party again!"

As quickly as the tears had turned on, they turned off as she perked up. "But now you're back I'm going to hold the most superific extra-fantabulous party I ever created. No-pony will feel have to feel sad anymore, especially you."

Spike sprung of Rarity's back, ran in and put his arms around her barrel, face against her withers as he cried, manly tears he'd later claim. "I... I thought I'd never see you again! When that mean old Chrysalis said you were dead, I felt so bad about not listening to you. I should have been standing by you, like a good number one assistant would."

"Indeed, darling." Rarity was trying to find an area to hug, but the available parts of Twilight were diminishing rapidly. "We all felt absolutely dreadful that we didn't listen to you. We should have learned from the Smarty Pants incident, just because we didn't believe you, doesn't mean we shouldn't have taken seriously the fact that you believed it. 

"Chrysalis survived long enough to taunt us about how we'd abandoned you. We thought we'd never have a chance to make it up to you. The fact that you saved us from her, that you still considered us to be your friends and worth fighting for, it just made things worse." 

She gave up trying to be lady-like and just piled in, her facade gone as she wailed. "Oh Twilight, it's so good to see you ag-a-a-ain!"

"Yep, we was feeling lower than a snakes belly in an apple cellar." Applejack wasn't as fussed about jumping in, and joined the cuddle pile, hugging Twilight tightly. "I want to apologise for letting you down like that, and I'm sure every-pony else feels the same way."

There was a chorus of agreement from the others clustered around her.

"No-pony thinks the less of you for doing what you had to, sugar-cube." She had tears in her eyes, but she was smiling. "You saved us all, and we can finally show you how much it means to us."

"And how!" Rainbow finally chirped in, rubbing a fore-hoof across her faceand sniffing. "Darned snow getting in my eyes.... Chrysalis was all 'I have all the power!' and you were all, 'Nope!' and when you charged her and pulled off that cool trick, you were even more awesome than I am! Okay, it's a bummer that the bug lady died, but like you said, it was an accident, and she was totally trying to take over Equestria so she kinda brought it on herself."

"But I struck at her in anger!" Twilight's voice was slightly muffled by cuddling ponies. "What if I lose my temper again and hurt someone with my magic?" 

"What if I lost my temper and bucked some-pony into next week with Bucky Magillicuddy and Kicks Mcgee? Considerin' how it tore you up this time, I reckon just remembering what happened should help you to stop yourself." Applejack replied. "We all make mistakes. You've gotta accept that and move on. And you've got a bunch of friends to help you."

"And Sombra?" Twilight asked, feeling better but still needing reassurance.

Having sobbed herself out, Rarity had managed to gain some level of control again. "You said it yourself dear. From what you said, he was just as evil as we'd been told. I'm sure you did your research. If you believe the only way to ensure the safety of the Crystal Empire and Equestria was to deal with him permanently, then so be it. I don't believe Princess Celestia sent us up here to give the fellow a warm hoof shake and a 'welcome back' party."  

"Yeppers, that's one pony I wouldn't give a party for!" exclaimed Pinkie.

"Girls, can Cadence and I get a look in?" Shining Armour came forward, bringing the shield dome with him, Cadence at his side and the guards flanking him. He looked nervous and determined at the same time. The rest of the mane six opened up a space for him, but hovered either side of her protectively.

"Twilly... Twilight, the last time we saw each other, I didn't mean what I said, I was angry, and confused. I want to make amends, to be the big brother I should have been, but I have to ask some questions first. That mental image you sent me gave an explanation of how you got here, but it only raises more questions.

"How did you learn to do that? It's not like any unicorn spell I know of, and I'm fairly certain you didn't know it at the wedding. Also, what's happened to your horn? And how did you come by those dragonfly-like wings you were using? I don't want to seem suspicious, not after I have a second chance, but I'm in charge of this expedition and need to be sure of every-ponies' safety."

"It's okay BBBFF, I know this must seem crazy. I'm glad you're protecting every-pony." Twilight smiled through her sniffles. "The wings are a modification of the butterfly wings spell I used on Rarity for the Young Fliers Competition. I knew I would need mobility to keep up with Sombra, so I reworked the spell with crystal magic elements. Using crystal dust as a matrix rather than gossamer and morning dew I made them faster, tougher and more agile.

"As to where I learned Crystal magic, it's the same place I got my new horn. The Crystal Mages were advisors and teachers who kept peace and order in the old Empire. Mostly earth ponies, they used crystal headpieces to focus magic through rather than horns, and could do many things only a unicorn could. Linked to the Crystal Heart, the a giant gemstone that was the focus and power source of the entire Empire, they could do amazing things. Sombra was one of them, but he betrayed them and Princess Amore, hid the Crystal Heart away and attacked them.

"Garnet Nib was a Crystal Mage, and their Archivist. He knew he couldn't face Sombra and win, so he created a Haycartesian pocket dimension inside a book and stored the knowledge of the Crystal mages and his own memories within it. I had the chance to see the Haymiltonian arithmantic decomposition, it's a work of genius! We found the book when we were searching the library... and it's an amazing library, Shiny, you have to see it!... and it pulled us into the pocket dimension. The pocket was chronally desynchronised, so he had plenty of time to explain the situation and train us."

The way Twilight sparkled when she mentioned the library got a few chuckles from her friends and a comment from Spike of, "Now that's Twilight!"

Twilight ignored it and carried on. "If you look deep, you can see that my horn was damaged by the energy backlash from Chrysalis. The top half was burned off, and the lower part suffered massive mana burn. Even after it healed I couldn't cast anything more powerful than beginner level spells. Garnet Nib forged a horn sheath out of magically active crystal to act as a replacement focus and amplifier. Obviously it can't replace the nerve tissue, but he also showed me their methods of spell casting, where they don't just construct the spell matrix in their minds but sustain it consciously rather than simply holding it into their cornual ganglion as unicorns do."

The unicorns present winced at the mention of her horn damage, and looked more closely at the horn on her forehead, just as she'd said.

She grinned proudly. "I can cast using both methods now, even intermix them. Of course, I also learned a bunch of crystal magic based spells, as the source of the Crystal Hearts power is the love and joy of the Crystal ponies. It was the direct opposite of the umbral magic, dark magic that Sombra used and was the only effective weapon against him."

"That's impressive dear, but I don't see any damage." Rarity said, in a rather nonplussed tone.

Twilight stopped her explanation, looking equally puzzled. While she'd utterly drained herself with the blow she'd delivered to Sombra, her magic had flowed back nicely afterwards, possibly a side effect of being hit with the power of the Elements. She'd also expected to feel the mana-burn in her horn, but there was no pain. Experimentally, he conjured a hoof mirror and examined her forehead. Within the shell of purple crystal, her horn looked intact. Only then did she concentrate on the sensations in her horn, the flow of her magic as she held the mirror. There was still no pain, no ache, no resistance, not even the mental blurring from a damaged horn that she'd learned to work around.

"My horn, it's okay?" She asked, then answered herself joyfully, bouncing up and down like a little filly. "It's okay! It must be the Elements! They restore harmony, and my damaged horn must have been considered something out of balance!" 

She came to a stop. "Oh my, I wonder if the amplification effect from the crystal sheath is still in effect? I have to experiment..." She looked around at her friends. "... later."

Shining Armour felt relieved. Every word, every turn of phrase was pure Twilight Sparkle, and so was her 'victory dance'. 

"It really is you, little sis! You're really alive and safe!" He lunged forward to hug her, his own tears falling freely. "So the telepathy spell was one of these crystal mage spells?"

He knew he'd said something wrong instantly. Twilight's ears flattened, and her good mood vanished as quickly as it had come. "I could lie and say yes, but I won't. The energy backlash between myself and Chrysalis did more than just burn my horn and teleport me to the Far North. I still haven't deduced the mechanism, and it's not exactly something I can test, but somehow that event transferred or imprinted a lot of Chrysalis's knowledge and memories into my brain. It took time to manifest, first as a version of Chrysalis I could see and hear, now it's more as if it's something I read in a book, or saw in a movie. I also received some changeling typed magical energy.

"That spell was what she used to communicate with her drones, both to give orders and receive their reports and the love energy they'd collected. I adapted it to carry messages between us, using my familiarity with you and Chrysalis's study of your mind to create a sufficient rapport. I'm sorry big brother, I didn't have any choice. I couldn't catch up with Sombra when he fled the fight, or format a good enough target location to teleport ahead of him, so I had to find a way to warn you before he reached you."

She hung her head. "I only used it to create the barest connection, just enough for communication, as I did for Cadence through the Element of Magic. Sending you that gestalt image nearly broke it. I wouldn't have considered using mind magic if the situation hadn't been so critical."

Cadence came forward to join Shining Armour, whispering reassurances as she hugged Twilight. Her brother thought about dimissing it out of hoof, but Twilight didn't want platitudes, she clearly wanted absolution, and that meant being as honest as possible. After the way he'd treated her, she deserved no less. 

"I can't say I'm happy about it after what Chrysalis did, but I can understand why you did. You were just doing the same as I would, keeping those close to you safe. Just as I would have struck the final blow on Sombra if needed. I've trained as a guard, so I've always known I might have to take a life, whereas you came to it unprepared. As Applejack said, nopony here thinks less of you for doing it, any more than I'd hope you'd think no less of me, or the Sergeant, or any member of the Royal Guard if we were forced to kill a threat to protect the innocent. Would you?"

"No, of course not!" Twilight exclaimed, and felt better for the realisation. Her BBBFF was back to normal, helping her put things in perspective. "Thanks BBBFF, you always know the right thing to say."

"Not always." Shining replied, stepping back and ruffling her mane with a hoof. "I'm never going to be able to make up for the way I messed up at the wedding rehearsal, but I hope asking you to be best mare once again is a start."

"Wait, you're not yet married?"

Cadence answered. "After what had happened, and losing you, having the wedding right afterwards didn't seem right. I should have known that Chrysalis wouldn't be able to get rid of you that easily. I never got to thank you for rescuing me."

"Well you can start by holding that wedding! I was overjoyed at the idea of my favourite foal-sitter and my BBBFF getting married, before I met Chrysalis." Twilight made a disgusted face, which got chuckles from several of her friends.

Rainbow piped up. "So... You've got Chrysalis's memories stuck in your head, egghead. You're not feeling any desire to take over countries, steal love, or laugh maniacally, are you?"

"No!" Twilight exclaimed vehemently. "I got her memories, not her personality. She was a terrible pony, almost as cruel to her own brood as she was to her victims. They were indoctrinated from hatching that all love energy was to be delivered to her for conversion to magic, and she was the only one to give them the energy they needed to survive. She called them her children, but she thought of them more as tools, to be used and thrown away when no longer useful."

"Sheesh Twilight, I was just kidding!" Rainbow replied, backwinging. "You sound like you're sorry for them."

"Let's just say I have a lot more sympathy for them, knowing what they went through." Twilight still wasn't sure how to broach the subject of Thorax. However, she didn't have to.

"Let's not talk about those horrid things! I'm more interested in something Twilight said. 'We' found the book. That implies you had someone with you, a Crystal pony perhaps? Maybe even a stallion?"

From Twilight's reaction, Rarity knew she'd struck gems. "Aha! Maybe even a special some-pony?"

"No! Well, no... look Tho... Forward Ho and I are just good friends!" Twilight huffed. "When I was being carried down that underground river, he pulled me from it just before I went over a waterfall into a bottomless chasm. He was there for me the whole time as we discovered the Crystal Empire and searched for the Crystal Heart. I couldn't have found it or beaten Sombra without him. He's brave, and kind and gentle, and and only wants to make some new friends."

Cadence and Rarity exchanged knowing glances and grins more appropriate to something with a fin on top. "Well then, we shall have to meet this paragon."

Spike looked downcast at this latest revelation. "So, he replaced me as your assistant?"

Twilight scooped the woebegone little dragon up in her fore-hooves and hugged him. "He can't replace you, any more than Owlicious did. I know if you'd been there you'd have been just as helpful and heroic."

"Heroic? Interesting turn of phrase." Rarity commented.

"Um... That is... You know what, I should let him know what's happened." Twilight, flustered, dropped Spike and decided to change the subject. "He was helping to manage my link to the Crystal Heart, and when I pushed all the magical energy I could into that final strike, it broke the link. He needs to know I'm safe, and that we won."

Her eyes grew distant as her horn glowed, a faint secondary aura of green flickering through the purple horn glow. She reached out for the familiar mental signature and found... nothing. She tried again, double checking her every action. Still nothing. Which was impossible. The mind-link spell didn't have unlimited range, for long distance communication Chrysalis had used enspelled shells to create viewing illusions, but at this range the only way a changlings mind would fail to respond is if they were unconscious or...

Twilight's eyes widened, and her pupils shrank. "Thorax! Oh no..."

She'd felt a lot of energy coming from Thorax in that final spell, and unlike ponies, changelings needed at least some of their magical energy just to live. Could he have drained himself dangerously low, or worse? She started to gallop off, to exclamations of surprise and questions from the others, then changed her mind and recast the dragonfly wings spell on the fly. As she leaped into the air, she called out, "I have to go check he's okay!"

The assembled ponies looked at one another in confusion, then as a group galloped after her.
> All good things...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight powered through the air back towards the city, pushing the magic of her dragonfly wings as far as it would go. She heard Rainbow Dash calling from behind her, but her mind was on other things. She'd only known Thorax for a short time, even with the uncertain period they'd spent inside the book, but he'd become her friend, as important to her as any of the girls. Rarity's probing into whether there was something more had flustered her because she'd started to wonder that herself.

She'd had a crush on his pony form, she could admit that now. The way he'd saved her, helped her when she was in need, stuck with her when she'd decided to explore the Crystal Empire, it had been like something out of a storybook, and Twilight had read a lot of storybooks. But that had come to an end when he'd revealed his true nature. However, something deeper and richer had taken it's place, once she'd gotten to know the real pony behind the facade. It was similar to the way in which she'd bonded with the others during the quest to defeat Nightmare Moon, but only gotten to fully appreciate their friendship as she'd lived with them in Ponyville. 

She didn't love him, not romantically, but the possibility no longer seeemed ridiculous. As to whether he loved her, well she hadn't felt any trace of such a thing when she'd done the deep mind dive, but then she hadn't been looking for it, and besides that was before they spent time together training with Garnet Nib. What she was certain of was that he cared for her deeply, and she felt the same way. The idea that she'd never have a chance to find out where it might lead left a deep, hollow ache where her heart was.

She broached the barrier without slowing down, creating a ripple of energy that spread across it's surface. She scarcely noticed the change in temperature, or the sunnier sky as she continued on towards the spire above the literal heart of the Empire. She ignored the cries of 'There she is!' and 'She's returned safely', as she reached the outskirts of the city, or the scattered cheers and joyous exclamations that swelled into a flood as she flew over the many ponies clustered in the boulevards and plaza around the Crystal Palace.

She dived in and landed at speed, skidding across the polished crystal at a rate that would have seen her end up in an amusing crash if she hadn't thrown out a telekinetic anchor to halt herself. The area under the Crystal Palace was almost the same as when she'd left, with Miss Maresbury, Twilight's saddlebags, and the floating Crystal Heart suspended between two spires of translucent white crystal. However, one thing had changed. Alongside the Crystal Heart was a second floating object, a spindle shaped object with a surface that looked more like silk than crystal, glowing with white light.

Twilight cast a scrying spell and quickly discovered the Crystal Heart was now the real one, but she couldn't get a reading on the other object. "What happened here? Please, tell me!"

"M'lady." Miss Maresbury corrected herself as Twilight gave her a look. "Twilight, none of us know. We felt your battle through the Crystal Heart, and when you called for a final effort, everypony put everything they had into it. The connection broke, and there was a blinding flash of light. When we could look at the Crystal Heart again, that thing was floating beside it. Is it... dangerous?"

"I... I don't think so..." Twilight approached the object, now she had a change to examine it, it almost looked like a shell. No, not a shell, a cocoon! Hope sprung up in her heart. She carefully cast more complex diagnostic spells at it, there was certainly something inside, something alive. She gingerly reached out a hoof to touch it, and there was a brilliant flash. When it subsided, floating down to the ground was a creature who looked like a pastel coloured mixture of deer and insect.

He, the muzzle shape suggested a male, was a head taller than Twilight, and ice blue stag-like horns added as much height again. Purple pupilless eyes and a trio of iridescent gemstones embedded in his chest complemented his white body, which  shaded to a pale pastel blue around the chest. A pair of diaphanous insect wings that shaded from blue to purple completed the picture, except for one thing. On his head was the diadem that Thorax had been wearing. His eyes were blank for a moment, then they focused on her and he broke into a broad smile.

"Thorax? Is that you?" Twilight put a hoof forward again.

"Yes, I feel different though." His voice was deeper, richer somehow, but still recognisably his. He bumped her hoof. "You've gotten smaller!"

Twilight giggled, relief flooding through her. "It's not me getting smaller..."

She gestured to him and he looked back, noticing his own body for the first time and starting in surprise. "Whoa! I didn't create this form!"

"I think you did. Your wings were already changing when I first saw your true form, and at that point you'd already started to share friendship with me. I felt you give me all your stored love to help me defeat Sombra. For the first time in history, a changeling had all the love he could want and gave it away. Maybe it's that, or your connection to the Crystal Heart, but you've clearly undergone some sort of permanent transformation. Can you still shapeshift?"

Blue fire with a purple core flared up around him, to leave his Forward Ho form. The flames flashed again and he was a duplicate of Twilight, dragonfly wings and all, a final flash he returned to his base form. "It's so... easy! I can feel so much more, I can sense the surprise and wonder of everyone in the crowd... it's all so clear! Wait, there's one who's not happy, approaching fast..."

"Hey, get away from her, you changeling!"  Rainbow Dash dived in on a collision course with Thorax, only to find herself coming to a stop surrounded by a purple aura.

"Rainbow, please don't attack my friend." Twilight pleaded.

"Friend? But he's a changeling!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"Remember what I said about Queen Chrysalis? The changelings that attacked Canterlot only knew how to steal love. Thorax shares it."

Miss Maresbury finally had the courage to step in. "This is the companion you told us of? I recognised the earth pony he became... can you tell us who and what he is?"

Twilight sighed, "Of course. As I said, without him, I wouldn't be here, or found the Crystal Heart or have been able to defeat Sombra. But I have some more friends coming, we should wait so I can explain all at once. You need to know the full truth anyway."

"This is one of your friends from Canterlot, isn't it?" Thorax asked. "I can leave if you want, she's feeling really hostile towards me, almost as much as she cares for you. I don't want to cause any trouble between you..."

He stopped when Twilight put her hoof up and put it in front of his lips. "There's no need. You're my friend too, and it's best that every-pony knows it, and why."

Thorax looked down the avenue and said, "They're here."

The rest of the group from Canterlot came galloping up, coming to a stop, expressions of anger or worry appearing on their faces as they laid eyes on Thorax. He ducked his head and moaned. "Please, stop..."

The group from Canterlot were getting a few dirty looks from the crystal ponies, tempered by those looking at Cadence murmuring about an alicorn among them. The Royal Guards stiffened, moving back to protect the group.

Twilight created a shield around him and pumped energy from the crystal heart into it, surrounding him with a shield that radiated positive energy and blocked out exterior ones. As he sighed with relief, she fired off a flare from her horn. "Everypony! Please stop projecting negative emotions! This is all a misunderstanding!"

"But Twilight, that's a changeling!" Shining Armour called out. "It doesn't matter if he's made himself look less evil. If he has some sort of mind control effect on you, we can break it."

"If anything, it's the other way round." Twilight turned to calm the crowd of crystal ponies. "Every-pony, these are my friends and family from Equestria. Don't be angry at them, they've had a bad experience with changelings, they're just worried for me. Guys, remember what I said about Chrysalis's mind-link spell? I was suspicious of Thorax at first too, so I used it on him, with his permission. It was designed to link to changelings, and they were brought up to have no resistance to it. I've seen deep into his mind and soul, and I can assure you he changed inside long before he became like this."

Seeing the situation was calming down, Twilight dismissed the shield around Thorax. "I said I'd explain fully, and I will."

She let Rainbow down with another pleading expression. She took it with bad grace, but trotted over to the others. However, once there she looked right at Thorax and put her hoof to her eyes before pointing it at him in an 'I'm watching you' gesture. Twilight took the chance to cast another voice amplification spell, so she could speak normally. 

"Thorax is a member of a species called changelings, as I'm sure you've picked up. They are shapeshifters and empaths, also pathovores who absorb positive emotions and convert it to magic, a lot like the Crystal Heart. Only for them, the magic is quite literally their lifeblood. They were ruled by an evil queen called Chrysalis, who taught them from birth that she was their absolute ruler, and that they were to steal love and return it to her, and that only she could convert it to magic to feed them, just enough to survive and do whatever task they were assigned to, always hungry, never sated. 

"Imagine if King Sombra had mind controlled every foal at birth to be his willing slave, that's how it pretty much was. However, Thorax was born different. He felt sympathy as well as empathy, and wanted to share love, not steal it. But he had to hide it deep, if Chrysalis had found out he'd have been punished at the very least, possibly 'made an example of'."

That got a few murmurs of acknowledgement and sympathy from the crystal ponies. It was clear that Sombra had been a big fan of that sort of 'example'.

"Queen Chrysalis attacked Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, masquerading as Princess Cadence, my future sister in law." She pointed to Cadence. "She was defeated, but not before her army of drones had broken through the city shield generated by my brother, Shining Armour, and attacked. When she was defeated Thorax decided he couldn't steal love anymore, and fled. How many ponies could turn their backs on what they'd been taught from birth was the natural order of things to strike out into the unknown like that? Very few, I think.

"When I first met Thorax, he was masquerading as an earth pony, Forward Ho." Reading her intent, Thorax shifted into his Forward Ho form. "He was hiding in the caverns under where the Empire had been, trying to work out what to do next and it was lucky for me he was. I'd fallen into a crevasse up on Frostfield Glacier, and was carried by the snowmelt river at the bottom down into the caverns. He hauled me out of the water a minute before I went over a waterfall into a chasm, saving my life."

She looked fondly over to Thorax, who blushed.

"I stayed with him, and that night, the Crystal Empire returned. We came to explore it, and found every-pony in a semi-trance, with no explanation beyond the name Sombra. We found the answers in the Library, the archivist Garnet Nib had placed a copy of his memories and all the knowledge of the Crystal mages inside a dimensional pocket in a book. We were sucked in and spent time with him, learning about Sombra's history and training in Crystal magic. In the process, I found out what Thorax truly was, and after some initial suspicion, we became friends. Garnet Nib was the one who asked us to find the Crystal Heart and defeat Sombra.

"With Thorax's help, I navigated every trick and trap Sombra had used to hide the Heart, but there was one last trap that almost caught us. Touching the Crystal Heart triggered blade-like walls of razor sharp corrupted crystal to seal it in. I almost got my leg sliced off. I examined the trap and thought I could undo the enchantments around it, but it would have taken days, and Sombra was getting more powerful by the second. That's when Thorax had a brilliant and very dangerous idea. 

"When he'd touched the Heart, it had created some sort of connection, much like a foal at a Crystalling. His empathic powers meant he could still feel the Heart even though it was sealed away. He decided to use his shapeshifting powers to emulate it, and his emotion collecting powers to act as a relay, to transfer your emotions to the real Crystal Heart."

There were expressions of shock and surprise when she said that, and someone in the crowd said, "You lied to us?"

Twilight sagged at the question, ducking her head. "I... intentionally misled you. I never actually said the Heart I'd brought down was the real one, I only implied it. It was wrong of me, I know, but I could see no other way. There was no time for detailed explanations; the barrier was on the edge of collapse and you were all still so afraid. Sombra was feeding on that fear, if I'd let him feed for much longer, he could have become unstoppable! 

"You all have every right to be angry with me, but not Thorax. No changeling had ever channeled a fraction of the energy you poured into the Heart, it could have killed him, either from sheer overload, or by burning out his ability to process magic, leaving him to starve. He risked his life to save all of you, and even if I don't deserve the title 'brave and glorious' he definitely does!"

"Fortunately, it turned out that he could manage it. I used a spell to mind-link us, he was with me every step of the way when I went to fight Sombra, managing the energy flow from the Heart so I could concentrate purely on the fight, feeding me his own energy when every-pony else faltered, and at the end he sent me very scrap of magic he had stored."

"But didn't you say that magic is what changelings live on?" asked Rarity, ever one to remember small details.

"Yes, that's why I was in such a state. When I couldn't re-establish the link, I thought he was dead." She looked over fondly at Thorax. "I've never been so glad to be proven wrong. How did you survive?"

"I don't know. I knew how vital it was that you have the absolute maximum power for that final blow, and I over-compensated. I felt utterly drained for a moment, as if I was fading away, then a new source of energy flowed into me. The next thing I remember was floating down out of the sky in front of you."

Twilight turned back to the crowd, and her friends. "I'm sorry I'm not the hero you thought I was. Your Empire is safe, and my friends are here. I'll take my things and go with them."

Her horn glowed; she dispelled her dragonfly wings and lifted her saddlebags onto her back. As she started to walk away, head down, there were multiple exclamations from the crowd not to go, that they still thought she was a hero, while the stallion who'd asked the question was cringing under a dozen death glares. Miss Maresbury hobbled over as fast as she could to block them off from her friends. "Please! Don't go! No-one ever said you weren't heroes, both of you. You made the right choice, the full truth would have confused every-pony, and you did stick to it's spirit; you both did give us a way to empower the Crystal Heart, and you have now truly returned it to us."  

She brightened as an idea struck her. "But Crystal Mage Thorax does raise a point. Princess Amore is gone, maybe forever, and so are the Crystal Mages, except for the two of you. We have no-pony to lead us, we are a thousand years out of time, and we need some-pony wise in the ways of this new world, some-pony who has shown unfailingly that they are ready and willing to protect and guide us."

She turned to the crowd and raised her voice. "Every-pony! Their titles of 'brave and glorious' are well deserved. Who thinks that another title would suit them? Prince Thorax and Princess Twilight Sparkle of the Crystal Empire!" 

This pronouncement was greeted with cheers and flugelhorns, and many shouts of 'Hail Prince Thorax! Hail Princess Twilight!"

Twilight's pupils shrank to dots. She'd been worried they'd be angry when they found out about her deception, she hadn't expected this.

"I... I don't know what to say. I'm honoured, of course, but I'm not a princess, I wouldn't know where to start. Princess Celestia trained me to be a mage and a researcher, not a leader." She looked over at Thorax, wondering how he felt about this, but he just smiled and nodded. "I'll help get things started of course, but I think it's better I act as an advisor. I have a home to go back to, one I've been away from for far too long."

She looked over at her friends, smiling at them, then thought of something as her eyes landed on her brother and Cadence.

"Um... Cadence, you're a real princess. Your talent is love magic, and your cutie-mark is even a crystal heart. You're practically made for the job! Would you and Shiny be willing to help them?"

Cadence glanced at Shining Armour who gave her a kiss on the cheek and replied, "Wherever you go, my love, I will be there beside you.".

The pink princess turned back to Twilight, and chuckled. "Twilight, only you would act as if asking some-pony to become the ruler of a kingdom was a great imposition. I would be glad to help them, but I'm not the one they want."   

"But you helped defeat Sombra too!" Twilight exclaimed, then spoke to the crowd once again. "I told you these ponies are from Equestria, the same as I am. However, I didn't have a chance to introduce them properly."

She motioned her brother and Cadence up onto the plaza proper. "This is my big brother, Shining Armour, Captain of the Royal Guard, and his fiancee, Princess Cadence. Princesses Celestia and Luna, the Diarchs as you call them, must have learned of Sombra's return and sent them to deal with him. They also sent some of Equestria's most valuable artifacts, the Elements of Harmony. My friends are the Bearers of the Elements..." She named them and motioned them up on the raised plaza with her.

"The Elements are as powerful as the Crystal Heart, and have defeated multiple dangers that threatened Equestria. Princess Cadence commanded them on this expedition, and used them against Sombra. My brother's special talent is shield spells, and when Sombra tried to flee my attack, he created a shield strong enough to stop him. That gave me a chance to launch my final attack that pinned him in place while Cadence struck with the power of Harmony. 

"They were the hammer to my anvil. So if you want a genuine prince and princess, who have put their lives on the line to protect you, then you want them. I can personally vouch that Cadence is one of the nicest, most caring ponies I've ever met, and my brother is the Captain of Equestria's Royal Guard because he's one of the finest soldiers they have. He's also just as amazing a pony as Cadence is. Any kingdom would be lucky to have them as rulers!"

There were mutterings and discussions going on among the assembled crystal ponies, and Twilight resisted the urge to bite her hoof as the talking continued. Thorax came alongside her and stood there, radiating reassurance, literally. Miss Maresbury had gone down among them, joining in the discussions. Finally there were calls of 'The Crystal Heart!', 'The Crystal Heart will know!', and the murmurings became ones of agreement.

Twilight asked the re-appearing Miss Maresbury what they meant.

"The general consensus is that you would not steer us wrong, but that we don't know these ponies' true worth, the way we do with you and Crystal Mage Thorax, through your connection to the Crystal Heart. So if they are willing, they are to place their hooves on the Crystal Heart and let it judge their worthiness. If it accepts them then we will gladly have them as our rulers."

"How will we know?" Twilight asked, "Will it hurt them at all if it doesn't?"

Miss Maresbury gave a short snort of laughter. "No, if not, nothing will happen, if they are accepted, trust me, we'll know."

Cadence and Shining Armour had already shared a gaze and decided wordlessly. The two of them trotted over to the Crystal Heart, and side by side they each placed a forehoof on the Crystal Heart. The Heart pulsed and Cadence's eyes flashed with a sparkle of blue white. Both of them were outlined in the Heart's aura, and delicate crowns made of glowing blue crystal formed on their heads, Cadences inside the Element of Magic.

They stepped back and returned to face the crowd. The glow faded away except around Cadences cutie-mark which blazed, the heart in it glowing like a sun. Ponies bowed their heads again, this time in reverence. Once again there were murmurs, "The Crystal Princess", "Princess Amore", "But she looks so different!" "You felt it through the Heart?" "It's her!"

Miss Maresbury was bowing as deeply as the rest as she came over to them. "Your Highness, I'm sorry we didn't recognise you, but you've changed so much."

"I... It's alright, I don't remember ruling the Crystal Empire before... except, the Heart, it felt familiar, like an old friend."

Twilight glanced back and forth between the Heart floating in mid-air and the Heart on Cadence's flank and face-hooved. "Auggh! How could I have missed that? I even said as much!"

"Twi, reckon you can tell the rest of us pony-folk what you just figured out?" The rest of the mane six had remained silent during these events, along with the guards, though Pinkie Pie had managed to acquire a baseball cap with the Crystal Empire's snowflake symbol on and a big bucket of crystal corn pop-corn which she was sharing around.

"Cadence's full formal name, 'Mi AMORE Cadenza'. The original Princess of the Crystal Empire was Princess Amore, an Earth-pony who ascended to alicorn-hood by working out how to channel the magic of positive emotions through crystals, creating the Crystal Heart. When Sombra took over he turned her to crystal and shattered her, scattering the shards to the four winds. But her soul must have survived, somehow, and been reborn in Cadence. 

"No wonder she ascended, she'd done it before! Celestia must have worked it out, she probably knew Princess Amore personally, so it's no surprise she was ready for all this. It's like with Nightmare Moon, Cadence's ascension may have been a warning of the return of the Crystal Empire and Sombra. Hence the formal name Celestia gave her when she assumed her title, and all the princess training."

"Ohhh! This is amazing! We can have a super-colossal mega-party, a 'Twilight's not dead and saving the world again, come Crystal Empire saving come Princess Cadence is the long lost Crystal Princess come Cadence and Shining Armours coronation/wedding/reception'. I'll need an entire battery of party cannons, three metric tons of frosting, twenty miles of streamers and 21 flavours of ice-cream. And a toothbrush."

"Why a toothbrush, Pinkie?" Rainbow asked.

"To clean my teeth silly!" Pinkie gave a big smile. "Gotta keep those pearlies pearly white!"

Twilight snuggled into Thorax's side, enjoying the sun-warmed suede feel of his new default form, the affection he was radiating and the chatter of her friends. They were hovering close by (literally in Rainbow Dash's case), unwilling to come too close to Thorax, while still wanting to be close to her. Spike, as soon as he was able to, had claimed one of her legs opposite Thorax and was hugging it. Removing him at this point might require some sort of heavy machinery, or the Elements of Harmony. 

She giggled at Pinkie's enthusiastic party planning monologue, though it did provoke one comment. 

"I didn't save the world, I didn't even save the Crystal Empire, not alone, anyway. It's been like that from the very start. Nightmare Moon, I relied on all your strengths to help me, and with Discord too. There I wouldn't have been any use without Spike and Celestia delivering me my own friendship lessons. "I can't even claim the Ursa Minor as a solo feat, if Trixie hadn't distracted it and kept it in place until I could get there, things would have been much worse. 

"I'd have had no clue about Chrysalis without Cadence, and Sombra, that was the biggest team effort yet.  I already said I wouldn't have made it to the Heart without Thorax, and I was little more than the focus for the magic that took him down. It was the crystal ponies who supplied the power, Thorax who fed it to me, and you and Cadence who added Harmony magic..."

Her eyes widened as she realised something. "It wasn't just Harmony magic, or Crystal magic, or unicorn magic, or even changeling magic  that defeated him, it was the combination, something new, a new kind of magic, and my only contribution was to recognise it and wield it. New magic, drawn from all of us together, who we are, forged by friendship and used for the betterment of all."

"That's a lovely sentiment, darling." Rarity commented, "And this is a magnificent setting, the marvelous crystal houses, the pristine boulevards, the amazing palace, I'm quite speechless."

"Yeah, we noticed." chuckled Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy spoke up. "Um... It does seem a bit, sterile though. It's beautiful, but there aren't many animals around."

Twilight chuckled, "You need to visit the crystal ewe petting zoo."

As Flutershy geeked out (quietly) at the idea, Applejack added, "I reckon we should visit some of those food stalls, I'm hungrier than a timberwolf in zap-apple season."

"Oh yeah, I could go for that!" Rainbow added, looking over ponies' heads at the stalls. She nodded at Thorax. "Does four-ex over there even eat regular food?"

"Thorax." Twilight replied. "Not as far as I know."

Thorax added his own comment. "Actually, I can, or could, but only for appearances sake. When I was disguised, I ate meals when I had to, but simply brought it back up when no-pony was watching.The whole process is rather uncomfortable, so I prefer to avoid it when I can." 

"Huh!" Rainbow said, not expecting the changeling to actually say anything. "Oh well, more for me!"

"Well don't eat too much, there's a wedding to plan, and a coronation, as Pinkie so rightly said." Cadence interjected, surprising them. She and Shining Armour had come over to the group as they'd chatted. 

"Don't forget the bachelor party!" Spike added from his new position, attached to Twilight's leg. "We need to get messages to mom and dad, and Princess Celestia... ohmigosh, they don't even know Twilight's alive yet!"

He finally let go, and started looking around for a quill and some paper. Twilight quickly brought the fountain pen and some of her leftover paper from her saddlebags and passed it to him with her telekinesis.

Shining Armour grinned, looking fully relaxed for the first time since before they'd left Canterlot. "Good thinking Spike!"

Cadence nodded in agreement. "But first I have something I need to return to it's rightful owner..."

She lifted the diadem containing the Element of Magic from her forehead and lowered it onto Twilight's, crowning her. As she did, the gem started shining with a brilliant white light, and the gems on the other necklaces glowed thier signature colours in sympathy. The ponies wearing them found themselves being lifted up, floating into place around Twilight. Thorax and Spike were pushed away, despite their best efforts to reach her. 

"Twilight! What's happening!" called out a panicking Thorax.

"It's okay, it's the Elements, they're reacting to something..."

The Elements started throwing out solid beams of magic, all converging on Twilight. She was engulfed in an almost solid white sphere of energy. The ponies around her could just see her through the shell, floating quite unharmed and calmly at it's centre. Then a sixth beam of light, pure white this time, sprang from the Crystal Heart to the sphere, adding it's own benediction. There was a great flash, and when it faded, Twilight was gone without a trace except for a few purple sparkles in the air.

&&&

After the flash, Twilight found herself drifting in a strange place, like a night sky shot through with stars and nebulae. There was no visible floor, but her hooves quickly found purchase, though not texture. She looked around, puzzled, but for some reason not worried, as she felt the serenity of the place mirrored within herself. "Hello? Where am I? What happened?"

She noticed movement in the distance, a pair of figures, one dark, one light that seemed to be approaching her. They resolved into the forms of the Princesses, Celestia and Luna. Both of them came to a halt, their expressions one of blank shock. Then Celestia galloped forward at a most unprincessly velocity, flaring her wings and lifting Twilight up with her forelegs in a bone-crushing hug. "Twilight, oh my dear Twilight! You're alive!"

"Not for much longer..." gasped Twilight, activating her telekinesis to reinforce her rapidly compressing ribcage. 

Celestia instantly released her looking mortified. "Twilight, I'm so sorry..."

"It's okay, I think a healing spell will take care of worst of the bruising." Twilight leaned forward into a hug of her own, which Celestia returned more sedately, though with tears in her eyes.

"... not for that, not just for that. I should have listened to your concerns at the wedding, even if I did feel they were unfounded. I should never have left you alone in such a state." 

"It's okay, I didn't exactly present a rational argument." Twilight blushed as she remembered her actions once again. 

"Running around screaming 'Cadence is evil!' didn't exactly constitute a reasoned explanation. Though that was part of Chrysalis's plan, she was deliberately goading me into one of my freak-outs to divert suspicion. You aren't... unhappy with what I did to her?" Before Celestia could say anything, she continued, "I swear I didn't mean to kill her, just distract her so you could defeat her and capture her. I really didn't!"

When she heard the distress in Twilight's voice, Celestia's tears were no longer in her eyes. "Only that it appeared to cost you your life, and that it clearly has cost you so much anguish. You are so young to have made such a choice, and such a sacrifice. But how did you survive, and where have you been?"

She actually looked up as she asked the question, and movie screen-like panels appeared, zooming into place to form a corridor. They showed scenes from Twilight's life, from her arrival in Ponyville to the wedding and beyond. The two of them walked side by side, Twilight explaining, with Luna trailing along behind.

"... once Cadence put the Element of Magic..." Twilight frantically reached for her crown. "... oh no, where is it!"

"It's safe." Celestia replied, smiling enigmatically.

"Okayyy... when she put the Element on my head, all the other Elements reacted, and the Crystal Heart too. I was encased in a ball of energy, and when it vanished, I was here. What is this place anyway?" 

"A place very few ponies have ever visited, both more and less than a dream." Celestia offered. She gave a warm smile. "Once again you have far surpassed my highest expectations, Twilight."

"Indeed!" Luna spoke for the first time. "Truly an adventure worthy of a hundred bards' tales! You have faced and overcome challenges that would have daunted even my sister and I. Even if your very presence here did not demonstrate it, you are clearly ready."

"Ready for what?" Twilight asked.

"To fulfill your potential." replied Celestia. "The potential I saw within you that first day at the entrance exams for my school. You have passed through many trials, and become stronger from each one, without becoming cruel or jaded. You have grown, and done something not even Starswirl could accomplish, to not only to wield the Magic of Friendship, but through that friendship to bring together many kinds of magic to create something new, greater than any one of it's parts. Though even I did not expect you to be ready so soon."

"It's true," Luna interjected, "She was even having a song commissioned, but it isn't ready yet."

Suddenly, Celestia stepped back, looking at Twilight as if observing something deep inside her. "Sister. It is time."

Luna moved back to stand by her side, and the two of them lifted up on their wings in a salute.

Twilight felt something within her chest, a warmth as if it were a stove in which a fire had just been lit. But this fire didn't burn, it warmed and soothed. All her aches and pains seemed to fade away as it grew, and emerged as a glowing purple star from her breast. Despite the concealing glow, she recognised the power it radiated, the Element of Magic. She was lifted up as it started to orbit her, spinning faster and faster to encase her in bands of light.

"What's happening!" she called out.

"Something wonderful." was Celestia's reply.

&&&

The surprise of Twilight's sudden disappearance barely had time to spread before a glowing purple star in the shape of Twilight's cutie mark formed overhead, floating down to land at the end of the plaza. It faded away to reveal Twilight, lying down on the crystal surface. She pushed herself to her feet, eyes opening as she stretched and her wings spread wide. There was a stunned silence from everyone present, including Twilight, who examined her new appendages with a mixture of surprise and disbelief.

Thorax was the first to shake off his paralysis and ran over to her. "Twilight! You're okay! More than okay, you're an alicorn now?"

"I... guess so." Twilight flexed one wing, feeling the air flow over it. This was nothing like the enchanted dragonfly wings. They were just a tool, something with no real sensation that she willed into moving as she desired. These were far more sensitive, and as she concentrated she could feel a new type of magic coursing through them, pegasus magic she assumed. They were the same purple as her coat, except for the trailing edges of the feathers, which shaded to a paler blue.

"Awesome! Twilight has wings! A new flying buddy!" Rainbow crowed.

Applejack shook her head in disbelief. "Whooee! Ain't that the darndest thing!" 

"Oh my darling, they are simply magnificent!" Rarity exclaimed. "And your horn complements them so well!"

Twilight conjured a mirror, and once again examined her head. Her horn was slightly longer and sharper than before, but it had a sheen unlike the purple velvet that normally covered it, as if it were still sheathed in a fine layer of crystal. But she could feel no sheath, just her bare horn. The tip shaded from her normal purple to the same pale blue as the tips of her feathers. But most striking was the colour of her aura, no longer a straight purple, it was now shot with an inner layer of cool blue, crystal magic she realised. 

She concentrated on the magic and realised she could feel both unicorn and crystal magic flowing through her, each distinct but melding together, as well as a similar power flowing up through her hooves, which made her feel as if she could lift the palace above her bare hooved. There was even a thread of another magic, one she'd thought gone. She teased at it and focussed it into a spell, causing cyan flames to flicker round her wings, making them vanish, then reappear. It appeared that the changeling magic she'd absorbed was now a permanent part of her, somehow refilling just as her other sources of magical energy did.

"Woo hoo!" Pinkie Pie swung past on a rope suspended from the balcony above, wearing a set of pink paper wings and horn. "Alicorn Party!"

"You look like a princess." Fluttershy said softly.

"That's because she is a Princess." There werre gasps as ponies looked up to see Celestia and Luna gliding down to the plaza.

"A princess? But I can't be a princess, I just explained to every-pony I have no idea how to princess! Just because I have wings as well as a horn doesn't make me a princess! It just makes me an alicorn."

"Twilight, calm down." Celestia said soothingly. "It is not that your wings and horn make you a princess, it is because you have displayed the qualities of a princess that Harmony itself has granted you your ascension. We have seen, as has every-pony here, that you have displayed the leadership, compassion, courage, integrity and determination worthy of a princess."

This statement met with petty much universal acclamation.

"But I don't even want to be a princess! I just want to go back to Ponyville with my friends and continue my studies."

"Twilight, did I ask Cadence to take up a throne beside me as soon as she ascended?" Celestia asked. "There will be a coronation, of course, but for now, if that is what you will, no-pony will stop you. However, you will no longer be simply a student, but a teacher as well. Even I have things to learn from you, as you continue your studies into the magic of friendship, as the Princess of Friendship."

Twilight still felt pretty sandbagged, but as she looked around her, she saw and felt nothing but support and approval from every-pony around her. She looked to Thorax, from whom she felt a sense of awe and fear, thankfully not directed at her, but at the two eldest princesses. She decided to fix that right away, and went over to him, nudging him towards where the Diarchs stood.

"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, may I present Thorax, my friend and companion. He helped me and saved my life. He may be a changeling, but he is the very opposite of Queen Chrysalis, and he is under my protection."

"He has nothing to fear from us." Celestia said, bowing her head to Thorax. "Thank you for taking care of Twilight when we could not."

"Indeed, well met Sir Thorax!" Luna added. "We know of your courage and heroism from Twilight's tale. If there is any boon we can grant, ask it and it shall be done."

"Th... thank you, your highnesses." Thorax stuttered in reply. He could sense no deception, no reservation in either of them. "I have only one request, that I be allowed to go to Ponyville, to stay there with Twilight, if she will have me."

Twilight spluttered eyes widening, in shock. "Are you crazy? You're a hero to these ponies, in an Empire that runs on the magic derived from joy and happiness! You can fulfill your dream, here you will have all the friends you can ever want! If you come to Equestria, I'll protect you every way I know how, but some ponies will look on you with suspicion and even fear."

Seeing, and more importantly feeling his hurt and and dawning sense of rejection she quickly added, "I am happy to have you come with me, but I'm just thinking of your best interests. You were trying to find a place to belong? You could belong here!"

Thorax shook his head, and said in a firm voice. "I belong with my best friend. You say I saved you, well you saved me! I was lost, alone and starving until you came into my life. You gave me your friendship, purpose, everything that mattered.  I will not abandon you. As long as you want me, I will be by your side. I don't care if every-pony else rejects me, as long as you don't."

"Of course I won't, silly." Twilight tearfully nuzzled his neck, causing Rarity to summon her fainting couch and swoon. "So romantic!"

That had to two of them spring apart, blushing. "We're not..." they exclaimed together, then glanced at each other. Twilight continued, her wings popping out. "We're just... good friends. That's all, very good friends."

"Yeah, right..." Rainbow cackled, while Pinkie Pie walked past with a Fetlock Express mailpony outfit on, carrying a parcel on her back. The rainbow maned mare looked over Twilight once more, her new wings, new horn and changed colour scheme, and said, "I just realised, they're going to have to redo the statue in Palace Square."

Twilight looked puzzled, "What's this about a statue?"
> ... get better as things continue (part 1).
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Epilogue 1 - Whatever happened to the Mentor?

"Are you sure you want to do this Twilight?" Thorax asked as he walked with Twilight through the library.

"I have to try, or at least see if it's possible." Twilight's new wings twitched slightly as she spoke, showing her nervousness. "Don't worry, I won't take any unncessary risks."

"Sugarcube, I'm more worried about what kinda risks you'll reckon are 'necessary'." Applejack was only one of the ponies trailing the pair. The other Elements and Spike were all there, still wearing their Elements.

"I owe Garnet Nib a great debt, every-pony here does." Twilight stated, not exactly answering Applejack. "He had the wisdom to prepare a refuge for the knowledge to defeat Sombra, and the courage to to go into a fight he knew he could not win in order to protect it."

She lead them down to the bottom level of the library, past the big table and to the alcove that housed the secret doorway. The rotating platform could only carry two ponies, three if they were very friendly, so the group had to break up into three to get into the room that held the ruined remains of the Crystal Mage Archives and the crystalised remains of it's Archivist.

Even as Thorax was bringing the other ponies through, Twilight's horn was already glowing, and the magenta aura, shot with cyan flickered and played over the form of red crystal that was Garnet Nib's mortal remains and the book held in his outstretched forehooves.

"Yes!" Twilight exclaimed triumphantly as the scrying and detection spells she'd cast returned the results she'd hoped for. She turned to the others. "I did wonder if the version of Garnet Nib inside the book was too aware, too flexible for a mere copy of memories. I mean the version of Chrysalis that spoke to me in the book and my own nightmare felt like a living being, but she was basically a part of me talking to myself using Chrysalis's memories. Garnet didn't have anything like that."

"You're going to try it then?" Thorax asked, sounding worried.

"The restoration part should be easy. If I combine crystal magic from the heart to cleanse Sombra's corruption, with the restorative properties of the magic of the Elements, reversing what Sombra did should be simple enough. It's the transfer that will be the tricky part. I suspect the book won't survive, so I only have one shot at it. That's why I have to get his agreement first."

She picked up the book in her telekiesis and placed it in front of her, opening the cover. "Stand back every-pony, this should only take a moment."

She flicked over the first few pages and as before, the interior started glowing and she was drawn in. This time she didn't try to resist. As the book closed, Spike exclaimed, "Whoa! She really did go into the book! I wish my comics worked like that."

"Knowing Twi, this has to be some sort of life long dream!" quipped Rainbow Dash.

"I hope she's alright." Fluttershy said.

"Darling, she'll be fine." Rarity put a comforting hoof on her pegasus friends shoulder.

"Yeah, she survived exploding, twice!" Rainbow chipped in. "No book is going to give our egghead any trouble."

Pinkie giggled. "Applejack, I just realised! You were wrong! You can explode twice!"

"Say what now?" Before Pinkie Pie could remind Applejack of the trip to Froggy Bottom Bog, the book flipped open and Twilight was ejected, though this time she flared her wings to slow herself and as a result landed far more gracefully than last time. She looked around herself at the assembled ponies, dragon and changeling, and said, "Garnet agrees. We went over my plan in detail and analysed it carefully, and he could find no flaws. The only thing he's worried about is the knowledge stored in the book, but we think we have an answer to that too."

She started pulling coloured vials of gemstone dust out of her saddlebags, and in moments had created a septagon with numerous arcane sigils embedded in it enclosing the red crystal form of the Archivist. She touched her horn to one point of the septagon and the fine lines of gemstone dust flared like a trail of gunpowder from a match, leaving behind lines of fused crystal. 

"Alright, each of you take position at one of the points of the septagon, the one with your cutie mark. Thorax, your point is the heart symbol." As Twilight spoke, she placed the book back on Garnet Nibs outstretched fore-hooves.

"Oh? Any reason why?" Rarity asked. If a tone of voice could smirk, hers would probably win some sort of national prize.

"Yeah, why is he a part of this?" Rainbow added.

"Yes, Thorax will channel power from the Crystal Heart, allowing me to focus on manipulating and combining the energies. He's the only one apart from me who can do it." Twilight replied. "Please, we need to be in harmony for this to work. Just do this for me?"

She got a nodded agreement from the oathers and added, "One more thing, once the process starts, don't stop until I tell you."

They took their places without further comment, and on Twilight's signal, each concentrated on activating their Element, while Thorax's diadem glowed with the blue white glare of the Crystal Heart. The lines of the septagon illuminated with a polychromatic radiance that rose from the crystal surface to form low walls. As Twilight's Element of Magic flared along with her horn, beams of energy were drawn from each of them to play over Garnet Nib's body, mixing and swirling like oil on the surface of water that somehow clung to the shape.

The change started around Garnet Nib's rear hooves, a multi-coloured flame that seemed to burn slowly up his legs, replacing angular crimson crystal with light blue fur. The flames spread to his body and down his tail, revealing it to be as white as the mane and spade beard that appeared as the fire restored his head. The last part of the body to be revealed were the fore-hooves, and as the flame reached them Twilight grimaced and her horn glowed even more brightly, throwing off sparks.

The book caught the blue white flame and seemed to burn so quickly as to evaporate into fumeroles of smoke. This split into dozens of smaller streams, the largest of which flowed up Gannet Nib's nostrils. The others flowed outwards swirling over and around the ponies to blow over and around the ruined shelves and ashes. The light from Twilight's horn reached a blinding intensity then flared, leaving them blinking away the spots from their eyes.

Even before they could see clearly, they heard a double thump of hooves landing of a crystal floor, and an explosive exhale of breath. When they could, the burned and ruined shelves surrounding them had beeen replaced by shelves of immaculate books and tomes, and the crystal statue had been replaced by an elderly blue earth pony wearing a crystal horn on a headband.

He breathed deeply, and slumped, his forelegs giving way, only to be caught by Twilight's telekinesis. He took several more breaths and steadied homself, looking around in wonder at the ponies around him.  His gaze finally fixed on Twilight and he gave a gentle smile.

"Your work, as always, is impeccable, young Twilight. It feels so good to live again. I felt the defeat of Sombra, and sensed your own transformation, but I had not expected this was even possible."

"Welcome back, Master Garnet." Twilight answered, tearing up slightly. "You didn't think I'd leave you like that if there were any possibility of restoring you."

Garnet just smiled again, and turned to Thorax. "It seems you, young Thorax, have undergone your own transformation."

"Yes Master, I'm not sure what it means though." Thorax replied, rubbing the back of his neck with his hoof. 

"I suspect it means the Crystal Heart has blessed you. Your kind have lost their leader, maybe the powers of harmony have decided that they need a new one, one that can show them a better way to live?"

As Thorax considered this, Twilight said, "Oh, I must introduce you to the rest of my friends, the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony and my number one assistant."

She went round the group, introducing each of them, and at the end said, "I hope to stay here and learn more from you, at least for now, but ultimately I will be going back to Equestria with them. I have responsibilities, and friendships that I can't simply give up. That's why I hope that you will take the task of leading and teaching a new generation of Crystal Mages. You are aware of what has happened with my brother and Princess Cadence?"

"Indeed. I suspect that Princess Amore's reincarnation was what got you thinking about what you just did?"

Twilight blushed and ducked her head in an embarrassed nod. "Yes, I wondered that if Princess Amore's spirit was not sent beyond by Sombra's magic, whether your spirit could be saved. Especially if the book wasn't simply a collection of memories, but an anchor."

"Well done. Your deduction was correct. I bound myself to the book, so that when Sombra killed my mortal form, I would live on within it. I knew that whoever would answer the call to free us from, Sombra would need more than just raw knowledge, so I made sure I would be there to assist. You have talked to Princess Amore about this?"

"Yes. I'm sorry, but Cadence doesn't remember anything of her past life, even when she touches the Heart. However, she was happy to entertain the idea of restoring the Order of Crystal Mages, and getting to know you again."

"And I her. Let us go." With that, they left the secret chamber, heading back up into the library proper. 

> ... get better as things continue (part 2).
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Epilogue 2 - Caribou Over Ice

Sergeant Windwarper and Private Bluebelle were flying a perimeter patrol, familiarising themselves with the boundaries of the Crystal Empire, just beyond the weather shield. The weather outside was cold but clear, and the visibility excellent. While the sergeant had seen many remarkable things in the last few days, a deadly battle against a monster from most ponies nightmares, the use of Equestria's legendary artifacts and a new Princess, he was concerning himself with more down to earth things, odd as that might seem for a pegasus. 

The four pegasi of Skystorm squad and the Prince Consort-to-be comprised the total military defenses of the Crystal Empire, though admittedly having all three, no four Princesses and the Elements of Harmony there made it rather more secure than that. Princess Celestia had personally requested that they remain with Captain Shining Armour to help in the interim and act as cadre while he was re-establishing the Empire's own Crystal Guard. It wasn't going to be easy, most of the pre-Sombra guard had tried to fight him and paid the price, and any that had remained had not come forward as of yet. 

Between preparations for the coronation and subsequent wedding, and the general confusion of trying to restore some semblence of government and orgaisation to the place, setting up to recruit new ones had been a low priority. Still it would be worthwhile once it begun, he'd been a drill sergeant during his rotation in Canterlot, and he still had the leather lungs born of the Shetlands and refined on the parade ground. He looked forward to unleasing it on the new recruits, shaping them from sloppy civillians into guards worthy of the name...

Even though his thoughts were elsewhere, his eyes had never stopped their endless scan. Situational awareness was a vital skill for a flying pony, and even more so for a Royal Guard. That was why he noticed something moving, far below, a large, dark creature approaching the shield from the North East. He locked his gaze of it and called out, "Private Bluebelle?"

"I see it sergeant." Bluebelle was a mare under the glamour that was part of the Royal Guard armour, but she was no less capable than any stallion. "Bogey 10 o'clock grounder. Do we investigate?"

"Overflight at spans 20. Observe only. Dive!" The sergeant put actions to words as he went into a wing-over to plumet towards the ground. He pulled out of the dive, twenty wing-spans above ground level with Bluebelle in echelon, heading for the unknown creature.  

It clearly saw them as they approached, looking up and stopping to wave a hoof at them. It was as big as a buffalo, and far shaggier, but had a set of antlers more appropriate to a deer. It carried a pony-sized bundle across its back. The private's eyes widened. "A caribou!"

"Indeed it is, private. The question is what is it doing here? Circle round to land and we'll find out."

"Maybe we should have our spears out? I've heard some unsavoury things about these creatures." Bluebelle reached a hoof up to the compartment in her armour; a magically expanded deep pocket that held the standard Royal Guard longspear.

"Easy lass, it seems friendly enough for a pony-eating monster. Princess Twilight certainly believed otherwise." The sergeant made a neat four point landing ahead of the caribou's path. "We're not those feather stuffed idiots on Celestia's personal guard detail, pulling our weapons on anything that moves. We're real soldiers. We stop it and question it, if it turns hostile, well none of the stories I've heard say that can fly."

"Yeah, a flying reindeer." Bluebelle chuckled, and added, "Did you hear, two of those idiots pulled wingblades on the Element of Kindness at some meet and greet in Ponyville? Morons, try reading the guest list first..."

She put on her game face as the caribou approached within ear shot, coming to a parade rest. The sergeant called out, "Halt! You are approaching the boundaries of the Crystal Empire. Who are you, and what is your business here?"

The caribou came to a stop short of them and replied. "Greetings wing ponies. I am Olaf, of Wintergard. I come here to see what is great light, and to find lost horn pony. Is purple like evening sky, with star on flank and broken horn."

Both guards had been there for Twilight's story of her journey, and the longer, more detailed one she'd given to the Princesses after they'd arrived. Olaf the caribou had been mentioned as the one who'd rescued her. "Why do you seek her?"

"To save if alive, to bring home to clan to be properly honoured if not." Olaf's expression wasn't particularly grim, but it brightened considerably. "She is here? Is alive? Want to see her, to thank her for help."

The sergeant made a judgement call. There were no standing orders to refuse caribou entry, let alone a presumed ally of Princess Twilight's.  Best to kick it up the chain of command, which meant the Princesses. "Yes. We will escort you to the palace and inform her you're here."

He nodded to Private Bluebelle, and they took up flanking positions as they escorted him through the barrier. Olaf looked around in wonder. "Is all green!" He bent his head and nibbled at the grassy sward. "So much food."

They made their way to one of the crystal pavements leading towards the city, and Olaf stepped onto it cautiously at first, looking towards the city proper. "Is shiny rock, not ice. Is city of crystals from old tales, yes?"

"Yessir." Sergeant Windwarper replied. They continued on into the city proper, to surprised looks from the crystal ponies. Surprise, but not confusion or fear it seemed. The sergeant was not stupid. Logically, the Crystal Empire would have been one of the nations that traded with the caribou a thousand years ago. These ponies had clearly met caribou in the past, and seemed unafraid, which suggested that Equestrian tales of caribou depravity were probably horse-feathers.

They arrived at the central plaza, and met the other two privates at the foot of the stairs into the crystal palace. "Private Ironheart, where is Princess Twilight Sparkle? This caribou wishes to see her. He calls himself Olaf."

"I believe she's with the Captain and Princess Cadence, going over the plans for the wedding and coronation." Private Ironheart maintained his poker face, but his eyes showed a keen curiousity about the new arrival.

"Very well, go inform her of his presence." Bluebelle took up Ironheart's position while the sergeant remained with Olaf.

A few moments later, they heard a clattering of galloping hooves, which ended suddenly as Twilight emerged from the doorway with wings outspread, having glided down the steps inside. Her eyes lit up as she saw the caribou. "Olaf! Is it really you?" 

Olaf looked at her curiously. "Could ask the same question. You have wings now, and horn not broken."

"Oh, it's a long story. I'll explain later. I'm so glad to see you." She trotted up to him, wings flaring as she reared up and gave him a hug with both fore-legs. "How did you get here, I mean why did you come here?"

"Came for you. To help you return if alive, to bring you back to be properly honoured if not. Tracked you to crevasse, then saw great light on plains. Since river ran that way, came to see what light was."

"I'm sorry if you were worried." Twilight's ears folded flat. "I did mean to come find the tribe, let everyone know I was alright, but I've just been so busy..."

"Is okay. Glad to see you safe. Have chance to thank you for saving Jens and other calves. My son is only family left. If yeti had caught him..."

"Holding out on us, Twily?" While the two of them had been getting reacquainted, the rest of the group from the throne room had arrived as a more reasonable pace.  This was basically Shining Armour and his bride to be, the mane six, Garnet Nib and Miss Maresbury. Celestia and Luna had teleported back to Canterlot after arranging for the guards to stay to spread the good news and arrange for special trains (and in the case of Twilight's parents a flying chariot) to bring all the wedding guests. It was Shining who spoke.

Twilight blushed and ducked her head. "It wasn't anything important."

"Now sugarcube, I don't need to be wearing my Element to tell you're tryin' to bamboozle us." Applejack turned to the caribou. "I'm Applejack, one of Twilight's friends, we all are, excepting Shining Armour over there who's her brother. Care telling us what kind of critter a yeti is, and what it has to do with Twilight?"

Olaf gave a nod of greeting. "I am Olaf, and as have said before, Jens is my son. We came to south slopes of great mountain to collect crystal berries with others of my clan, including Twilight. My son and his two friends were hunting for berries when woke up yeti, which chased them. Yeti is twice as big as big caribou, with claws sharp as flint knife and fangs size of deep winter icicles. Very dangerous, am skilled warrior, but would not face yeti alone if had choice.

"They ran into Twilight as fled. She sent them to main gathering party, stayed behind to face yeti. Very brave, very foolish. Horn broken, not good for fight. Magic broken also. Not know how did it, but when rest of gatherers came to help, yeti had gone, and so had Twilight. No blood, only tracks of something sliding away and yeti prints following. I tracked to bottom of ice flow and found crevasse. Yeti had lost trail before that."

"Sounds like there's quite a tale there. Care to share Twilight?" Applejack asked.

"I said, it wasn't anything special. My horn was damaged and I could only cast cantrips, so I made them count. It was running over the snow, so I used a flare spell to blind it and cause it to stumble. Then I used a couple of those prank spells Shining taught me as a filly. Northern Star wrote that yetis have an acute sense of smell, to track small animals living under the snow, so a  stink bomb spell right in it's face made sure it wouldn't be able to track me or the calves by scent. 

"However, it was getting up, and I couldn't outrun it on my hooves, even down the glacier, so I cast a grease spell on my belly and body slid to the bottom. I managed to get away from the yeti, but then I fell into the crevasse. It was covered with windblown snow, so I didn't even know it was there until too late. I'm glad to know it didn't give you any further trouble, Olaf."

The caribou grinned, but it was Rainbow who said, "Okay, now you're just showing off! When did you get to be such a badflank?"

"Um.. well, she did charge head first at Nightmare Moon, and the Hydra, and Queen Chrysalis, not to mention King Sombra." Fluttershy answered, then quickly added, "Not that I'm saying she's reckless or anything!" 

"Indeed, it does seem that she has a unique interpretation of 'use your head'." Rarity quipped.

Twilight was by now blushing furiously and grinding one hoof into the crystal pavement, which was starting to show cracks.

"Girls, stop teasing her!" Cadence called out, then spoke to Olaf. 

"Thank you for bringing us this information, and to you and your clan for taking care of Twilight when she was lost in the north, Wintergard, I believe you called it? As princess-to-be of the Crystal Empire, I would be interested in meeting your leaders and thanking them personally. According to my advisors, we once traded with the caribou tribes a thousand years ago, and I'd be more than happy to renew those ancient agreements."

Olaf looked a bit stunned. "I will tell Elders when return to tribe. I have long way to go."

Twilight exclaimed, "You must stay here for the night at least, rest, and have a proper meal!"

The caribou suddenly looked a lot happier. "Now, that is plan I like!"

Cadence added, "If you wanted to stay for a several days, we might be able to arrange a faster way to get you home. Twilight, where is Spike? I need him to send a message to Princess Celestia to arrange some flight capable wagons to come along with that flying chariot."

"I sent him with Thorax to look around, get to know the city, and for them to get to know each other. After all, for Spike this is like a city made of candy. I really want the two of them to get on, I don't want him to feel jealous of Thorax, the way he was with Owlicious."

Rainbow, who had clearly had enough of standing around during the discussions, had taken to the air. Therefore she was the one to say, "Looks like it worked! Here they come now."

Thorax, in his base form, was trotting towards the palace, with Spike riding on his back. The young dragon had a cone half-full of crystal berry fritters, with a dusting of crushed ruby pieces. The crumbs of ruby around his mouth showed where the other half had gone.

Olaf's eyes widened at the sight of the changeling. "Is like caribou spirit! Can you command ancestors to return?"

Twilight giggled. "No, Thorax is a changeling, a shapeshifter, and that is his base form. He rescued me from the underground river."

Thorax had noticed the group at the entrance to the palace. He sped up to canter over, holding his wings out slightly to provide additional support for Spike. As he approached, he asked Twilight, "This is one of the caribou who helped you?"

Twilight nodded, grinning broadly. "Yes, this is Olaf, he was the one who actually found me and led me to his clan. Olaf, this is Thorax, Thorax, Olaf."

Thorax held out a hoof, and Olaf bumped it. "I'm pleased to meet you, I owe you a great debt for rescuing Twilight."

"You rescue too, ya?" Olaf replied cheerfully. "So we call it even?"

Spike swallowed his last bite of fritter and said, "Woah, he's as big as any buffalo!"

"Spike, manners! This is Spike, my assistant." Responding to Twilights surface thoughts, Thorax turned sideways so Spike could face Olaf directly and Spike gulped slightly at the imposing size of the caribou before him. However, Olaf simply put on his trademark grin and held out a hoof. "Little guy, big appetite, ya?"

Spike bridled slightly at the comment, then accepted that to this guy, every-pony looked little. "I guess. I'd offer you a fritter, but I don't think caribou eat gemstone."

There was a rumbling from the direction of Olaf's midriff, and Cadence said, "I think we'd all better go have some lunch."

She led the way back into the palace.

&&&

Elder Arga was making an inspection of the yurts, seeing that they were well sealed and none needed any patches. It wouldn't be many more years before she'd be providing the materials to do so. It was not a thought that caused her any great distress, she'd had her time and her life had been winding down as she helped the next generation grow and learn to survive. Which was not to say she didn't have her regrets. 

Ever since the berry picking expedition had returned with their fateful news, she'd added one more regret to the list she'd take with her. The young unicorn Twilight had more than repaid in full any hospitality she'd been shown by saving the three calves. The trio had been inconsolable when they found out Twilight was gone.

She wondered when Olaf would return, she understood his desire to find Twilight in grattitude for rescuing Jens, but it was almost certainly a futile effort. Finding the body of a single small unicorn in the vastness of the plains below the great mountain, especially if it had been carried away by a snowmelt river, was next to impossible. It was a pity, she deserved her place next to Northern Star on the Wall of Honoured Elders. At least he might be able to report what the strange lights were that the group had seen the day after.

As she looked towards the mountain, she saw several moving spots in the sky, aomething very unusual. While there were water birds that clustered around the great water to the north, the Boreal Ocean Northern Star had called it, but they never flew this far inland. Anyway, these were coming from the frozen plains of the south. She squinted at the sky but couldn't make out much more. Other caribou performing various tasks around the tents noticed them to, and as they came closer, they resolved into large oddly shaped objects.

A pair of flying chariots, pulled by paired Royal Guard pegasi, were followed by three flying cargo wagons, each pulled by a four pegasus team who were rather bulkier than their Royal guard counterparts. The first cargo wagon had a familiar face looking out over the buckboard, Olaf, relaxing in a pile of bedding. The other two were piled with bundles and boxes.

But it was the contents of the two chariots that caused the most stir, and three young calves to cheer excitedly and run towards one even as it touched down. Twilight Sparkle, at least it looked like her despite the larger horn and the fact that she now had wings, was riding in it alongside a white and blue creature who looked like a miniature caribou. She jumped out with a thanks to the haulers and met the trio with a wide hug. The white caribou and a purple and green creature that walked on his hind legs followed more sedately.

The other chariot disgorged another winged pony with a horn, this one pink, and a white male horned pony. Arga wondered if this the princess Northern Star had mentioned on occasion, the one that ruled his land, but she was sure he'd said she was white. She wore a head dress of spiked blue crystal, as did the male, who also wore a red coat on his forepart. She made her way over to Arga, followed by the others and stopped short, making a polite bow.

"Would you be Elder Arga of the Stonehoof clan?" Getting a nod she continued. "I am Princess Cadence of the Crystal Empire. I came to thank you for saving my sister-in-law, Twilight Sparkle, and to return one of your own. I bring gifts to show my grattitude and would like to talk of friendship and possibly trade."

Elder Arga realised that life had just gotten far more interesting.
> ... get better as things continue (part 3).
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Are you sure you're okay?" Twilight asked, as she saw Thorax stagger slightly and shake his head.

"I'll be fine!" The changeling replied. "Though I still feel as if some-ling stuck a stick in one ear and stirred it around in my brain."

"I shouldn't have pushed so much of Chrysalis's knowledge and memories over the mind-link." Twilight fretted, pacing back and forth. She stopped and faced him. "We can delay for a few more hours for you to sort out your thoughts, let things settle down..."

"We can't!" Thorax's reply was abrupt, then he softened his tone as he gave a rueful smile. "Sorry, but you know why we can't risk delaying any longer, the same reason you copied so much at once in the first place. I'll be fine by the time we get there. After all, I have a nice long walk in the sunshine to settle myself."

"That's hardly what I'd call it." Twilight shuddered, looking towards the sharp boundary where the verdant forest they were standing in cut off to be replaced by the miles upon miles of desolation that surrounded the Changeling kingdom, and the twisted, hole-filled spires of the castle-like hive at the centre. She pulled a pair of binoculars from her saddlebags and examined the sky around it. The saddlebags were her own, and unlike Northern Star's had no space expansion charms, which was as well, as they'd fail once the two of them entered the wasteland. "I don't see any patrols..."

"Things must be worse than we thought!" Thorax exclaimed, as a Royal guard-pony came trotting up. 

"Princess Twilight, we have the additional canteens ready." He looked out towards the hive and his expression hardened. "Are you sure you don't want some of my troops as an escort? Going in with only..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but with the way he looked at Thorax he didn't need to.

"Thank you Lieutenant Ironheart, but this isn't a combat mission." Twilight replied coolly. "If there is any trouble, I trust Thorax with my life, and have done so on several occasions. You wouldn't be able to fly or call on your pegasus magic in other ways beyond this point anyway. Only Changeling magic works within their domain and Thorax and I are the only ones that can wield it. And until my coronation, I'm not officially a Princess."

"Yes your... ma'am." He saluted and walked stiffly away.

"It's okay Twilight, you don't need to defend me." Thorax said, "He has a right to be suspicious, from his surface emotions he was probably on duty during the Royal Wedding when the barrier over Canterlot went down. I'm just glad you stopped Chrysalis before the attack had more than started. Still, I knew some ponies wouldn't be so quick to forget. He's just trying to protect you."

Twilight dropped her head, apparently examining the patch of dirt she was scuffing with her fore-hoof. "Okay, I'll apologise. I just don't want you to have to deal with ponies' negative emotions all the time." 

"I'll cope. I'm getting better at filtering them. Let's go get your supplies." With that he started off back to the small encampment of Royal guards that sat some way back in the forest, and Twilight followed. 

&&&

The two of them trudged across the barren waste side by side, under a sky of orange tinted clouds. There were a few half-hearted mounds and outcroppings and snags of ancient, fossilised trees, but not enough to be any obstacle. Twilight could have flown along with Thorax, using changeling magic to de-manifest her regular wings and replace them with insectile ones, but they'd both agreed that they needed to conserve every scrap of energy they had to deal with the likely situation they'd finds inside the hive. It was the same reason they'd come here by chariot.

Twilight was still examining the area with interest. "Hmm, I wonder if this barrenness is a side effect of the magic absorbing stone at the heart of the hive? Chrysalis doesn't seem to have thought about it." 

"I don't know, it's always been like this. It could be, I guess." Thorax replied, shrugging his shoulders.

"It might be interesting to see if samples of Chrysalis's throne retain the power when separated from the main stone. It could be a useful restraining tool if another being with powerful magic tried to attack Equestria."

"You think that's likely?"

"Since Nightmare Moon, we've had two other major villains, three if you count Sombra, rise up to threaten Equestria. I'd just like to have a solution which doesn't involve putting my friends in harms way or me charging them with my horn down."

They carried on, slowing as they approached the castle itself. Thorax spoke. "No guards... there are always guards on the main entrance."

"I know, let's avoid it anyway." The knowledge Twilight had gained from Chrysalis made her completely familiar with the patterns that occurred in the ever changing holes that expanded and contracted seemingly at random in the walls of the hive. She cantered towards a place on the wall, and just as she reached it, the wall opened up in front of her. She continued on through without breaking stride, and Thorax followed a few paces behind.

The interior of the hive was a maze of tunnels and chambers, similar to a natural limestone cave. It was dimly lit by clusters of fading green pods, and the combination of odd shadows and every changing holes in the walls gave it a distinctly creepy vibe. Twilight brought a firefly lantern from her saddlebags and hung it on a loop attached to her saddlebag straps. They barely needed the light to navigate by, Chrysalis's memories led them unerringly to their first destination, but they did need warning of holes opening in the floor ahead.

"I still can't get over it, I know the Queen stripped the hive to provide as many changelings for the invasion, but I'd have expected at least some of them to have returned." Thorax said quietly, looking around. "We should have met some-ling by now."

"Well if they're anywhere, they'll be up ahead." Twilight replied. "It was one of the few places she left a dedicated guard."

&&&

Carapace was the senior changeling of those left behind to maintain the hive when Queen Chrysalis had taken her army to secure Canterlot. Carapace was now dying, as were the two dozen other changelings who were laying sprawled around the hatching chamber. The holes in his legs were large enough that he could no longer stand, and his wings were tattered rags, and the others were no better off, their chitin dull and cracked and their eyes dim. 

They had originally retreated here to sustain themselves on the leakage from the mana storage cells that served the larvae maturation pods. However, the power in the cells was all but exhausted, even with the maturation pods in standby mode; keeping the dozens of larvae in stasis rather than feeding and teaching them. When they finally died, so would the larvae, and the changelings lying there with him. Those fools who had gone to ground in Equestria wouldn't last much longer, even with the energy they'd received to enact the invasion. The entire race was under a death sentence.

He cursed those few among them who had returned with news of the great defeat, and the later ones, that of their Queen's death at the horn of a unicorn. They hadn't even stopped to collect any love, not that it mattered with the Queen dead. Without her ability to convert the love into magical energy to feed them, they would all starve, even if they were suddenly dumped in the middle of a pony village during Hearts and Hooves day. For a moment, he wondered if it had been a wise idea for the Queen to lead the mission personally, but then crushed the thought that smacked of questioning her judgement.

His empathic faculty was as weakened as everything else, but he could still feel something approaching. A changeling, though something seemed off about his aura, and... a pony? More importantly, they had an aura of powerful magic, changeling magic, as powerful as the Queen Chrysalis, almost as powerful, he corrected himself. It was ironic, if he'd had even a bit more energy in reserve, he could have attempted to siphon off some of that energy for himself. As it was, he was too weak to initiate an energy siphon. The only way he'd be able to receive energy was if some-ling fed it to him, and what changeling other than the Queen would give energy to some-ling else?

They entered the chamber, and his philogastric sac constricted. Wings and a horn, the pony was an alicorn princess? She was purple, with a star shaped flank marking, which matched the description of the unicorn who was supposed to have died killing Chrysalis. The creature beside her looked bizarre, a hybrid of changeling, pony and deer, but he didn't seem to be transformed. Confusion gave way to despair, the ponies must have turned the changeling with her somehow, and they were clearly not willing to let time and starvation finish the job of ending the changeling race.

His mind was in too much of a turmoil to read the flurry of emotions coming from them as they saw him and the rest of the chamber's occupants. He made a supreme effort and managed to drag himself forward to place himself between the larvae and the newcomers. Changelings might not care, even for one another, but he was still loyal to the queen, and he would do his best to carry out her last order.

"Please..." he rasped, "Do what you want to us, we're dead anyway, but don't kill the hatchlings."

As they towered over him he finally felt their emotions, and got... sympathy? 

"We're not here to kill any-pony, any-ling either." the alicorn said, and charged her horn. The pseudo-changeling next to her did the same. Twin beams of changeling magic flowed from their horns to strike the storage cells and be greedily absorbed. The energy was intense, and somehow different from any changeling magic he'd ever felt. Even the leakage was enough that he could absorb it passively, and feel his senses sharpen and his body go from dying to simply starving. When the beams vanished, the storage cells were full, brimming with energy and the alicorn was barely breathing hard.

"But... we invaded you, tried to steal your kingdom... why would you help us?" Carapace asked, still weakly.

"Because we don't want an entire race to suffer for one mad-mare's schemes." the alicorn replied. "We know she ordered the invasion, and you had no choice but to obey."

Carapace bridled at the insult, but was still too weak to do anything about it becond exclaiming, "You talk about Queen Chrysalis that way? We were her loyal subjects, we did as she commanded. To do otherwise was unthinkable."

"Like I said, you had no choice, Carapace, isn't it?." The alicorn turned to the pseudo-changeling and said, "You handle that side, I'll take the these others."

Her horn glowed again, and this time something even more impossible happened. He felt a mind-link, connecting him to the alicorn, and his newly restored senses felt that every other changeling on this side of the chamber was a part of it. Energy spilled down the link, gloriously rich and tasty filling him in a way that he'd never felt before. He felt the alicorn, Twilight Sparkle, brush his mind through the link, absorbing his surface thoughts with all the skill of Queen Chrysalis.

'How... This is impossible!' he exclaimed, then clamped down, his fear spiking. An outburst like that before the Queen, speaking over the link without permission would be severely punished. But rather than outrage, he felt humour from the alicorn, mixed with pity.

'Don't worry, I won't punish you for speaking your mind, I'm not Queen Chrysalis.' She cut the flow of energy, and he felt for a second that this was her punishment, but her voice quickly disabused him. 'You are all starving, and this energy is more potent than you're used to. When ponies eat too much rich food after starvation, it can harm them as their bodies can't assimilate it. I don't know if something similar will happen to changelings, but I don't want to risk it. You should have more than enough energy to restore yourselves and survive for the moment.'

Carapace could feel the energy within him, and it was amazing. It even blunted his ever present hunger. However, this effort, on top of the previous one had clearly caused more of a drain. The aura of changeling magic around them was weaker, more powerful than him or any of his fellows, but not vastly so. He felt her extending the link, and a second presence became sensible. It was the white changeling, and between him and the alicorn they were connected to all of the changelings in the chamber. The two of them were working together in synergy, and both of them seemed to have the same presence as the Queen had.

'I am Twilight Sparkle.' 'and I am Thorax.' The two mind voices flowed together as they spoke. 'I was the pony who killed your Queen, by accident as I only intended to distract her.' All the changelings could feel her genuine sorrow over the link, which blunted their shock and anger towards her claim. 

'In the process I became a sink for a massive amount of changeling magic. I absorbed some of it, and somehow imprinted much of Queen Chrysalis's memories. That's how I recognise each of you, Carapace, Chitin, Compound...' Twilight proceeded to name each of the changelings present, and over the link it was far more than just a spoken name. It was clear she remembered their aura patterns, that she truly had the Queen's knowledge.

Thorax continued. 'I am Thorax, and I was once a changeling infiltrator. However, I decided after the Queen's death that I could no longer steal love as the she had commanded. I fled, and found I could generate small amounts of magical energy by myself from the ambient positive emotions of the ponies around me, enough to stay alive.'

Carapace was shocked again by this blasphemy, as were the others if his empathic sense was anything to go by, but couldn't refute the truth he sensed in Thorax's words. To claim to be able to convert love to magic the way Queen Chrysalis had was absurd on the face of it, but then how had he survived and become so strong?

'I wanted more, though. I wanted to share love with a friend, have feelings directed to me, Thorax, not some pony I was replacing. I found that friendship in the person of Twilight Sparkle. We had several adventures together, and became friends. In the process I discovered that energy produced from emotion freely given and directed at you is far more powerful than that from stolen emotions. My wings healed, and I no longer felt the hunger.' A montage of mental images passed over the link, showing the events in some detail. 

'Ultimately, Twilight fought a great foe in the far north, one that if it hadn't been stopped would have overtaken Equestria and possibly the world. I was supplying her with energy to fight it, and at the end, freely gave her all the energy I had. I was changed into what you see now.' He smiled, and the changelings around him felt his presence wash over them. 'I no longer need to feed on emotions to survive, I generate my own magic through sharing my friendship with Twilight, and receiving her friendship in return. Though positive emotions from others do enhance my power.'

Twilight took up the narrative. 'I shared the memories from Queen Chrysalis with Thorax, and together we realised that the Hive was almost empty, and the maturation chambers would soon run out of energy, even though they were just sustaining the larvae, not growing them. So we came here to restore them, and any changelings who were here. They deserve a chance at life, and so do all of you.'

Carapace felt her warm regard over the link, and found that his magic was strengthening, even though she hadn't fed him any more energy. She must have  picked up his surface thoughts and confusion, because she added, 'The energy transfer included a healing spell, it restored your atrophied philogastric sacs to working order. That is the organ that converts love to magic, every changeling has one, but Chrysalis hid the fact from all of you so you were utterly dependent on her, and forced to give her the emotional energy you'd collected simply to survive.' 

One of the other changelings, Reflect by name, exclaimed out loud, "You say such horrible things about our Queen! She was strict, even cruel at times, but she did what she had to for the sake of the Hive, and all of us!"

'That was how she portrayed it, yes, but I have her private memories, and I know how she truly felt. Let me show you all.'

Memories and dialogue were pushed over the link, some with the unmistakable signature of Queen Chrysalis. There could be no evasion, no denial of their content. Twilight was asking about why changelings couldn't produce their own energy. There was a weird sense of a double viewpoint, seeing the conversation from both sides.



"I made sure none of my subjects could. Everything passed through me. I gave the orders, I collected and converted the love they gathered to energy, and I decided how much of that energy to dole out to each of them, just enough for their tasks."

"But why? It's clear they can convert love to magic to sustain themselves on their own, Thorax is proof of that."

"Control, you silly pony! Every changeling is indoctrinated from hatching that all love comes to me and that I provide them with their food. Preventing them from converting the love they collect by themselves keeps their philogastric sacs atrophied and weak. I don't know what would happen if a drone had all the energy it wanted, and I didn't want to find out."



The assembled changelings could feel the contempt in those words, the way she saw them as mere interchangeable parts, slaves bound to her will.It drove Carapace to his knees as he understood beyond a shadow of a doubt that the creature he'd given his undying loyalty to would have sacrificed him without a thought, and without a care. Since he'd hatched, he'd believed the credo he'd been taught in the egg, that other individual changelings were unimportant; only the Hive mattered, and as the one who controlled the Hive and saw to the welfare of all changelings, the Queen was paramount. She alone cared for and guided all changelings in return for their unswerving loyalty. 

He desperately wanted to deny the memories and the understanding that went with them, to avoid the destruction of that belief, but he knew as well as any-ling that you couldn't lie through the link, at least not without it being obvious. Chrysalis had cared for them, it was true, but only as far as they advanced her own ends. She had no interest in the welfare of the Hive beyond a source of power, a way to support her goals.

But even in his despair, he could feel something else, the sympathy coming from Thorax and Twilight. They were genuinely sorry that he and the other changelings were suffering. Between the two of them, they were showing far more concern than Chrysalis ever had. They had the power to do whatever they wanted, and they'd used it unstintingly to help him and the others. In the process they'd even weakened themselves enough that if he and the others had decided to attack them and try to take what was left, they would not have been able to defend themselves. That realisation triggered a decision within him, a surprisingly easy one.

Enacting the decision was far harder, it went against everything he'd known, but now he could see that he hadn't known enough. He rose up on his hooves and reached into the store of changeling magic he'd so recently received, and pushed it back out towards the two of them, following the method Thorax had unintentionally relayed when he'd been showing his memories of his own transformation. Carapace felt a wave of warmth flow over him and everything was obscured by a flash of light. He felt his body shift and reshape itself without any conscious decision on his part, and was momentarily drawn up into the air by the energy wreathing around him.

When he landed, he looked over his changed body. His carapace was a shaded pastel blue, his legs no longer had any holes in them, and his wings were larger and undamaged, with wing covers over them. More importantly was the change within. The hunger he'd felt his entire life was gone, not merely subdued or sated, but gone. His wonder galvanised other changelings into following in his hoof-prints, returning a portion of the energy they'd been given and transforming into new forms similar to his.

The surprise from Twilight and Thorax was almost comical, but it was tempered with happiness, something that only proved to Carapace that he'd chosen the right path. "So what happens now?"

There was a brief exchange over the link between the two that he couldn't overhear, then Thorax spoke out loud.

"Some of the changelings will have to remain here to keep on maintaining the Hive, and caring for the hatchlings when they... hatch. The rest of us will need to return to Equestria to seek out the other changelings who were scattered during the invasion. They may last longer than those here did, but they will run low on magic soon enough, and if they haven't worked out how to activate their own love conversion abilities, they could starve to death. 

"Twilight and I will be returning to Ponyville, to check out if any changelings hid there. Any who are found need to come to us at Golden Oaks library, and we can provide them with magic to tide them over. If you want to use a disguise, fair enough, but long term we need to show ourselves in Equestria in our true forms. We can no longer hide in the shadows, the invasion destroyed that option quite effectively, and that same invasion gave us a massively bad first impression to overcome. It would have been far worse if it had done more than crack the shield."

"Fortunately we're not likely to be arrested on sight any longer, the Diarchs have agreed to an amnesty for all actions  taken before and during the invasion. We have to show the ponies of Equestria that we're just another race that they can live alongside, like zebras or cows. We can even use our powers to help them. Twilight is also greatly respected among ponies. If she supports us, that should smooth things over considerably. She and I have been discussing ways in which we can integrate changelings into pony society. Our empathic and shape-shifting powers have many peaceful uses, and many of them will also generate positive emotional energy as a bonus. 

"While you'll find you don't need it so much anymore, I've found that absorbing freely given emotion makes me stronger, faster and more powerful than I am otherwise. Of course we'll still need to collect some energy anyway to power the Hive, but working together, I know we can do it. It means all of us are going to have to adapt to new ways of doing things, but we are changelings after all. Change is what we do best."   

Carapace bowed his head. "As you command, Que... King Thorax."

"Wait, King?" They could feel his shock, and Twilight's amusement at it via the still active link. "No, I just happened to have thought about what we needed to do to make sure our race survives, and to help the changelings who are still in hiding."

"Which is what a ruler does, your majesty. You saved our lives, and weakened yourself doing so, and it seems you alone have some idea of where to go from here. I think every-ling here will agree, you've done more for us than Chrysalis ever did." There were murmurs of agreement, which was unnecessary as Thorax could sense the positive affirmation of the the changelings connected to him and Twilight.

"He has a point." Twilight chuckled at the sandbagged expression on Thorax's face. "I think you'll make a great king. I'll do everything I can to help of course."

"Thank you, my Queen." Carapace interjected.

Twilight's pupils narrowed to dots as she asked,  "Wait... What?"