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.