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.