//------------------------------//
// Reunion Station 
// Story: A Different Bridal Path 
// by Stainless Steel Fox 
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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.