Twilight powered through the air back towards the city, pushing the magic of her dragonfly wings as far as it would go. She heard Rainbow Dash calling from behind her, but her mind was on other things. She'd only known Thorax for a short time, even with the uncertain period they'd spent inside the book, but he'd become her friend, as important to her as any of the girls. Rarity's probing into whether there was something more had flustered her because she'd started to wonder that herself.
She'd had a crush on his pony form, she could admit that now. The way he'd saved her, helped her when she was in need, stuck with her when she'd decided to explore the Crystal Empire, it had been like something out of a storybook, and Twilight had read a lot of storybooks. But that had come to an end when he'd revealed his true nature. However, something deeper and richer had taken it's place, once she'd gotten to know the real pony behind the facade. It was similar to the way in which she'd bonded with the others during the quest to defeat Nightmare Moon, but only gotten to fully appreciate their friendship as she'd lived with them in Ponyville.
She didn't love him, not romantically, but the possibility no longer seeemed ridiculous. As to whether he loved her, well she hadn't felt any trace of such a thing when she'd done the deep mind dive, but then she hadn't been looking for it, and besides that was before they spent time together training with Garnet Nib. What she was certain of was that he cared for her deeply, and she felt the same way. The idea that she'd never have a chance to find out where it might lead left a deep, hollow ache where her heart was.
She broached the barrier without slowing down, creating a ripple of energy that spread across it's surface. She scarcely noticed the change in temperature, or the sunnier sky as she continued on towards the spire above the literal heart of the Empire. She ignored the cries of 'There she is!' and 'She's returned safely', as she reached the outskirts of the city, or the scattered cheers and joyous exclamations that swelled into a flood as she flew over the many ponies clustered in the boulevards and plaza around the Crystal Palace.
She dived in and landed at speed, skidding across the polished crystal at a rate that would have seen her end up in an amusing crash if she hadn't thrown out a telekinetic anchor to halt herself. The area under the Crystal Palace was almost the same as when she'd left, with Miss Maresbury, Twilight's saddlebags, and the floating Crystal Heart suspended between two spires of translucent white crystal. However, one thing had changed. Alongside the Crystal Heart was a second floating object, a spindle shaped object with a surface that looked more like silk than crystal, glowing with white light.
Twilight cast a scrying spell and quickly discovered the Crystal Heart was now the real one, but she couldn't get a reading on the other object. "What happened here? Please, tell me!"
"M'lady." Miss Maresbury corrected herself as Twilight gave her a look. "Twilight, none of us know. We felt your battle through the Crystal Heart, and when you called for a final effort, everypony put everything they had into it. The connection broke, and there was a blinding flash of light. When we could look at the Crystal Heart again, that thing was floating beside it. Is it... dangerous?"
"I... I don't think so..." Twilight approached the object, now she had a change to examine it, it almost looked like a shell. No, not a shell, a cocoon! Hope sprung up in her heart. She carefully cast more complex diagnostic spells at it, there was certainly something inside, something alive. She gingerly reached out a hoof to touch it, and there was a brilliant flash. When it subsided, floating down to the ground was a creature who looked like a pastel coloured mixture of deer and insect.
He, the muzzle shape suggested a male, was a head taller than Twilight, and ice blue stag-like horns added as much height again. Purple pupilless eyes and a trio of iridescent gemstones embedded in his chest complemented his white body, which shaded to a pale pastel blue around the chest. A pair of diaphanous insect wings that shaded from blue to purple completed the picture, except for one thing. On his head was the diadem that Thorax had been wearing. His eyes were blank for a moment, then they focused on her and he broke into a broad smile.
"Thorax? Is that you?" Twilight put a hoof forward again.
"Yes, I feel different though." His voice was deeper, richer somehow, but still recognisably his. He bumped her hoof. "You've gotten smaller!"
Twilight giggled, relief flooding through her. "It's not me getting smaller..."
She gestured to him and he looked back, noticing his own body for the first time and starting in surprise. "Whoa! I didn't create this form!"
"I think you did. Your wings were already changing when I first saw your true form, and at that point you'd already started to share friendship with me. I felt you give me all your stored love to help me defeat Sombra. For the first time in history, a changeling had all the love he could want and gave it away. Maybe it's that, or your connection to the Crystal Heart, but you've clearly undergone some sort of permanent transformation. Can you still shapeshift?"
Blue fire with a purple core flared up around him, to leave his Forward Ho form. The flames flashed again and he was a duplicate of Twilight, dragonfly wings and all, a final flash he returned to his base form. "It's so... easy! I can feel so much more, I can sense the surprise and wonder of everyone in the crowd... it's all so clear! Wait, there's one who's not happy, approaching fast..."
"Hey, get away from her, you changeling!" Rainbow Dash dived in on a collision course with Thorax, only to find herself coming to a stop surrounded by a purple aura.
"Rainbow, please don't attack my friend." Twilight pleaded.
"Friend? But he's a changeling!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"Remember what I said about Queen Chrysalis? The changelings that attacked Canterlot only knew how to steal love. Thorax shares it."
Miss Maresbury finally had the courage to step in. "This is the companion you told us of? I recognised the earth pony he became... can you tell us who and what he is?"
Twilight sighed, "Of course. As I said, without him, I wouldn't be here, or found the Crystal Heart or have been able to defeat Sombra. But I have some more friends coming, we should wait so I can explain all at once. You need to know the full truth anyway."
"This is one of your friends from Canterlot, isn't it?" Thorax asked. "I can leave if you want, she's feeling really hostile towards me, almost as much as she cares for you. I don't want to cause any trouble between you..."
He stopped when Twilight put her hoof up and put it in front of his lips. "There's no need. You're my friend too, and it's best that every-pony knows it, and why."
Thorax looked down the avenue and said, "They're here."
The rest of the group from Canterlot came galloping up, coming to a stop, expressions of anger or worry appearing on their faces as they laid eyes on Thorax. He ducked his head and moaned. "Please, stop..."
The group from Canterlot were getting a few dirty looks from the crystal ponies, tempered by those looking at Cadence murmuring about an alicorn among them. The Royal Guards stiffened, moving back to protect the group.
Twilight created a shield around him and pumped energy from the crystal heart into it, surrounding him with a shield that radiated positive energy and blocked out exterior ones. As he sighed with relief, she fired off a flare from her horn. "Everypony! Please stop projecting negative emotions! This is all a misunderstanding!"
"But Twilight, that's a changeling!" Shining Armour called out. "It doesn't matter if he's made himself look less evil. If he has some sort of mind control effect on you, we can break it."
"If anything, it's the other way round." Twilight turned to calm the crowd of crystal ponies. "Every-pony, these are my friends and family from Equestria. Don't be angry at them, they've had a bad experience with changelings, they're just worried for me. Guys, remember what I said about Chrysalis's mind-link spell? I was suspicious of Thorax at first too, so I used it on him, with his permission. It was designed to link to changelings, and they were brought up to have no resistance to it. I've seen deep into his mind and soul, and I can assure you he changed inside long before he became like this."
Seeing the situation was calming down, Twilight dismissed the shield around Thorax. "I said I'd explain fully, and I will."
She let Rainbow down with another pleading expression. She took it with bad grace, but trotted over to the others. However, once there she looked right at Thorax and put her hoof to her eyes before pointing it at him in an 'I'm watching you' gesture. Twilight took the chance to cast another voice amplification spell, so she could speak normally.
"Thorax is a member of a species called changelings, as I'm sure you've picked up. They are shapeshifters and empaths, also pathovores who absorb positive emotions and convert it to magic, a lot like the Crystal Heart. Only for them, the magic is quite literally their lifeblood. They were ruled by an evil queen called Chrysalis, who taught them from birth that she was their absolute ruler, and that they were to steal love and return it to her, and that only she could convert it to magic to feed them, just enough to survive and do whatever task they were assigned to, always hungry, never sated.
"Imagine if King Sombra had mind controlled every foal at birth to be his willing slave, that's how it pretty much was. However, Thorax was born different. He felt sympathy as well as empathy, and wanted to share love, not steal it. But he had to hide it deep, if Chrysalis had found out he'd have been punished at the very least, possibly 'made an example of'."
That got a few murmurs of acknowledgement and sympathy from the crystal ponies. It was clear that Sombra had been a big fan of that sort of 'example'.
"Queen Chrysalis attacked Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, masquerading as Princess Cadence, my future sister in law." She pointed to Cadence. "She was defeated, but not before her army of drones had broken through the city shield generated by my brother, Shining Armour, and attacked. When she was defeated Thorax decided he couldn't steal love anymore, and fled. How many ponies could turn their backs on what they'd been taught from birth was the natural order of things to strike out into the unknown like that? Very few, I think.
"When I first met Thorax, he was masquerading as an earth pony, Forward Ho." Reading her intent, Thorax shifted into his Forward Ho form. "He was hiding in the caverns under where the Empire had been, trying to work out what to do next and it was lucky for me he was. I'd fallen into a crevasse up on Frostfield Glacier, and was carried by the snowmelt river at the bottom down into the caverns. He hauled me out of the water a minute before I went over a waterfall into a chasm, saving my life."
She looked fondly over to Thorax, who blushed.
"I stayed with him, and that night, the Crystal Empire returned. We came to explore it, and found every-pony in a semi-trance, with no explanation beyond the name Sombra. We found the answers in the Library, the archivist Garnet Nib had placed a copy of his memories and all the knowledge of the Crystal mages inside a dimensional pocket in a book. We were sucked in and spent time with him, learning about Sombra's history and training in Crystal magic. In the process, I found out what Thorax truly was, and after some initial suspicion, we became friends. Garnet Nib was the one who asked us to find the Crystal Heart and defeat Sombra.
"With Thorax's help, I navigated every trick and trap Sombra had used to hide the Heart, but there was one last trap that almost caught us. Touching the Crystal Heart triggered blade-like walls of razor sharp corrupted crystal to seal it in. I almost got my leg sliced off. I examined the trap and thought I could undo the enchantments around it, but it would have taken days, and Sombra was getting more powerful by the second. That's when Thorax had a brilliant and very dangerous idea.
"When he'd touched the Heart, it had created some sort of connection, much like a foal at a Crystalling. His empathic powers meant he could still feel the Heart even though it was sealed away. He decided to use his shapeshifting powers to emulate it, and his emotion collecting powers to act as a relay, to transfer your emotions to the real Crystal Heart."
There were expressions of shock and surprise when she said that, and someone in the crowd said, "You lied to us?"
Twilight sagged at the question, ducking her head. "I... intentionally misled you. I never actually said the Heart I'd brought down was the real one, I only implied it. It was wrong of me, I know, but I could see no other way. There was no time for detailed explanations; the barrier was on the edge of collapse and you were all still so afraid. Sombra was feeding on that fear, if I'd let him feed for much longer, he could have become unstoppable!
"You all have every right to be angry with me, but not Thorax. No changeling had ever channeled a fraction of the energy you poured into the Heart, it could have killed him, either from sheer overload, or by burning out his ability to process magic, leaving him to starve. He risked his life to save all of you, and even if I don't deserve the title 'brave and glorious' he definitely does!"
"Fortunately, it turned out that he could manage it. I used a spell to mind-link us, he was with me every step of the way when I went to fight Sombra, managing the energy flow from the Heart so I could concentrate purely on the fight, feeding me his own energy when every-pony else faltered, and at the end he sent me very scrap of magic he had stored."
"But didn't you say that magic is what changelings live on?" asked Rarity, ever one to remember small details.
"Yes, that's why I was in such a state. When I couldn't re-establish the link, I thought he was dead." She looked over fondly at Thorax. "I've never been so glad to be proven wrong. How did you survive?"
"I don't know. I knew how vital it was that you have the absolute maximum power for that final blow, and I over-compensated. I felt utterly drained for a moment, as if I was fading away, then a new source of energy flowed into me. The next thing I remember was floating down out of the sky in front of you."
Twilight turned back to the crowd, and her friends. "I'm sorry I'm not the hero you thought I was. Your Empire is safe, and my friends are here. I'll take my things and go with them."
Her horn glowed; she dispelled her dragonfly wings and lifted her saddlebags onto her back. As she started to walk away, head down, there were multiple exclamations from the crowd not to go, that they still thought she was a hero, while the stallion who'd asked the question was cringing under a dozen death glares. Miss Maresbury hobbled over as fast as she could to block them off from her friends. "Please! Don't go! No-one ever said you weren't heroes, both of you. You made the right choice, the full truth would have confused every-pony, and you did stick to it's spirit; you both did give us a way to empower the Crystal Heart, and you have now truly returned it to us."
She brightened as an idea struck her. "But Crystal Mage Thorax does raise a point. Princess Amore is gone, maybe forever, and so are the Crystal Mages, except for the two of you. We have no-pony to lead us, we are a thousand years out of time, and we need some-pony wise in the ways of this new world, some-pony who has shown unfailingly that they are ready and willing to protect and guide us."
She turned to the crowd and raised her voice. "Every-pony! Their titles of 'brave and glorious' are well deserved. Who thinks that another title would suit them? Prince Thorax and Princess Twilight Sparkle of the Crystal Empire!"
This pronouncement was greeted with cheers and flugelhorns, and many shouts of 'Hail Prince Thorax! Hail Princess Twilight!"
Twilight's pupils shrank to dots. She'd been worried they'd be angry when they found out about her deception, she hadn't expected this.
"I... I don't know what to say. I'm honoured, of course, but I'm not a princess, I wouldn't know where to start. Princess Celestia trained me to be a mage and a researcher, not a leader." She looked over at Thorax, wondering how he felt about this, but he just smiled and nodded. "I'll help get things started of course, but I think it's better I act as an advisor. I have a home to go back to, one I've been away from for far too long."
She looked over at her friends, smiling at them, then thought of something as her eyes landed on her brother and Cadence.
"Um... Cadence, you're a real princess. Your talent is love magic, and your cutie-mark is even a crystal heart. You're practically made for the job! Would you and Shiny be willing to help them?"
Cadence glanced at Shining Armour who gave her a kiss on the cheek and replied, "Wherever you go, my love, I will be there beside you.".
The pink princess turned back to Twilight, and chuckled. "Twilight, only you would act as if asking some-pony to become the ruler of a kingdom was a great imposition. I would be glad to help them, but I'm not the one they want."
"But you helped defeat Sombra too!" Twilight exclaimed, then spoke to the crowd once again. "I told you these ponies are from Equestria, the same as I am. However, I didn't have a chance to introduce them properly."
She motioned her brother and Cadence up onto the plaza proper. "This is my big brother, Shining Armour, Captain of the Royal Guard, and his fiancee, Princess Cadence. Princesses Celestia and Luna, the Diarchs as you call them, must have learned of Sombra's return and sent them to deal with him. They also sent some of Equestria's most valuable artifacts, the Elements of Harmony. My friends are the Bearers of the Elements..." She named them and motioned them up on the raised plaza with her.
"The Elements are as powerful as the Crystal Heart, and have defeated multiple dangers that threatened Equestria. Princess Cadence commanded them on this expedition, and used them against Sombra. My brother's special talent is shield spells, and when Sombra tried to flee my attack, he created a shield strong enough to stop him. That gave me a chance to launch my final attack that pinned him in place while Cadence struck with the power of Harmony.
"They were the hammer to my anvil. So if you want a genuine prince and princess, who have put their lives on the line to protect you, then you want them. I can personally vouch that Cadence is one of the nicest, most caring ponies I've ever met, and my brother is the Captain of Equestria's Royal Guard because he's one of the finest soldiers they have. He's also just as amazing a pony as Cadence is. Any kingdom would be lucky to have them as rulers!"
There were mutterings and discussions going on among the assembled crystal ponies, and Twilight resisted the urge to bite her hoof as the talking continued. Thorax came alongside her and stood there, radiating reassurance, literally. Miss Maresbury had gone down among them, joining in the discussions. Finally there were calls of 'The Crystal Heart!', 'The Crystal Heart will know!', and the murmurings became ones of agreement.
Twilight asked the re-appearing Miss Maresbury what they meant.
"The general consensus is that you would not steer us wrong, but that we don't know these ponies' true worth, the way we do with you and Crystal Mage Thorax, through your connection to the Crystal Heart. So if they are willing, they are to place their hooves on the Crystal Heart and let it judge their worthiness. If it accepts them then we will gladly have them as our rulers."
"How will we know?" Twilight asked, "Will it hurt them at all if it doesn't?"
Miss Maresbury gave a short snort of laughter. "No, if not, nothing will happen, if they are accepted, trust me, we'll know."
Cadence and Shining Armour had already shared a gaze and decided wordlessly. The two of them trotted over to the Crystal Heart, and side by side they each placed a forehoof on the Crystal Heart. The Heart pulsed and Cadence's eyes flashed with a sparkle of blue white. Both of them were outlined in the Heart's aura, and delicate crowns made of glowing blue crystal formed on their heads, Cadences inside the Element of Magic.
They stepped back and returned to face the crowd. The glow faded away except around Cadences cutie-mark which blazed, the heart in it glowing like a sun. Ponies bowed their heads again, this time in reverence. Once again there were murmurs, "The Crystal Princess", "Princess Amore", "But she looks so different!" "You felt it through the Heart?" "It's her!"
Miss Maresbury was bowing as deeply as the rest as she came over to them. "Your Highness, I'm sorry we didn't recognise you, but you've changed so much."
"I... It's alright, I don't remember ruling the Crystal Empire before... except, the Heart, it felt familiar, like an old friend."
Twilight glanced back and forth between the Heart floating in mid-air and the Heart on Cadence's flank and face-hooved. "Auggh! How could I have missed that? I even said as much!"
"Twi, reckon you can tell the rest of us pony-folk what you just figured out?" The rest of the mane six had remained silent during these events, along with the guards, though Pinkie Pie had managed to acquire a baseball cap with the Crystal Empire's snowflake symbol on and a big bucket of crystal corn pop-corn which she was sharing around.
"Cadence's full formal name, 'Mi AMORE Cadenza'. The original Princess of the Crystal Empire was Princess Amore, an Earth-pony who ascended to alicorn-hood by working out how to channel the magic of positive emotions through crystals, creating the Crystal Heart. When Sombra took over he turned her to crystal and shattered her, scattering the shards to the four winds. But her soul must have survived, somehow, and been reborn in Cadence.
"No wonder she ascended, she'd done it before! Celestia must have worked it out, she probably knew Princess Amore personally, so it's no surprise she was ready for all this. It's like with Nightmare Moon, Cadence's ascension may have been a warning of the return of the Crystal Empire and Sombra. Hence the formal name Celestia gave her when she assumed her title, and all the princess training."
"Ohhh! This is amazing! We can have a super-colossal mega-party, a 'Twilight's not dead and saving the world again, come Crystal Empire saving come Princess Cadence is the long lost Crystal Princess come Cadence and Shining Armours coronation/wedding/reception'. I'll need an entire battery of party cannons, three metric tons of frosting, twenty miles of streamers and 21 flavours of ice-cream. And a toothbrush."
"Why a toothbrush, Pinkie?" Rainbow asked.
"To clean my teeth silly!" Pinkie gave a big smile. "Gotta keep those pearlies pearly white!"
Twilight snuggled into Thorax's side, enjoying the sun-warmed suede feel of his new default form, the affection he was radiating and the chatter of her friends. They were hovering close by (literally in Rainbow Dash's case), unwilling to come too close to Thorax, while still wanting to be close to her. Spike, as soon as he was able to, had claimed one of her legs opposite Thorax and was hugging it. Removing him at this point might require some sort of heavy machinery, or the Elements of Harmony.
She giggled at Pinkie's enthusiastic party planning monologue, though it did provoke one comment.
"I didn't save the world, I didn't even save the Crystal Empire, not alone, anyway. It's been like that from the very start. Nightmare Moon, I relied on all your strengths to help me, and with Discord too. There I wouldn't have been any use without Spike and Celestia delivering me my own friendship lessons. "I can't even claim the Ursa Minor as a solo feat, if Trixie hadn't distracted it and kept it in place until I could get there, things would have been much worse.
"I'd have had no clue about Chrysalis without Cadence, and Sombra, that was the biggest team effort yet. I already said I wouldn't have made it to the Heart without Thorax, and I was little more than the focus for the magic that took him down. It was the crystal ponies who supplied the power, Thorax who fed it to me, and you and Cadence who added Harmony magic..."
Her eyes widened as she realised something. "It wasn't just Harmony magic, or Crystal magic, or unicorn magic, or even changeling magic that defeated him, it was the combination, something new, a new kind of magic, and my only contribution was to recognise it and wield it. New magic, drawn from all of us together, who we are, forged by friendship and used for the betterment of all."
"That's a lovely sentiment, darling." Rarity commented, "And this is a magnificent setting, the marvelous crystal houses, the pristine boulevards, the amazing palace, I'm quite speechless."
"Yeah, we noticed." chuckled Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy spoke up. "Um... It does seem a bit, sterile though. It's beautiful, but there aren't many animals around."
Twilight chuckled, "You need to visit the crystal ewe petting zoo."
As Flutershy geeked out (quietly) at the idea, Applejack added, "I reckon we should visit some of those food stalls, I'm hungrier than a timberwolf in zap-apple season."
"Oh yeah, I could go for that!" Rainbow added, looking over ponies' heads at the stalls. She nodded at Thorax. "Does four-ex over there even eat regular food?"
"Thorax." Twilight replied. "Not as far as I know."
Thorax added his own comment. "Actually, I can, or could, but only for appearances sake. When I was disguised, I ate meals when I had to, but simply brought it back up when no-pony was watching.The whole process is rather uncomfortable, so I prefer to avoid it when I can."
"Huh!" Rainbow said, not expecting the changeling to actually say anything. "Oh well, more for me!"
"Well don't eat too much, there's a wedding to plan, and a coronation, as Pinkie so rightly said." Cadence interjected, surprising them. She and Shining Armour had come over to the group as they'd chatted.
"Don't forget the bachelor party!" Spike added from his new position, attached to Twilight's leg. "We need to get messages to mom and dad, and Princess Celestia... ohmigosh, they don't even know Twilight's alive yet!"
He finally let go, and started looking around for a quill and some paper. Twilight quickly brought the fountain pen and some of her leftover paper from her saddlebags and passed it to him with her telekinesis.
Shining Armour grinned, looking fully relaxed for the first time since before they'd left Canterlot. "Good thinking Spike!"
Cadence nodded in agreement. "But first I have something I need to return to it's rightful owner..."
She lifted the diadem containing the Element of Magic from her forehead and lowered it onto Twilight's, crowning her. As she did, the gem started shining with a brilliant white light, and the gems on the other necklaces glowed thier signature colours in sympathy. The ponies wearing them found themselves being lifted up, floating into place around Twilight. Thorax and Spike were pushed away, despite their best efforts to reach her.
"Twilight! What's happening!" called out a panicking Thorax.
"It's okay, it's the Elements, they're reacting to something..."
The Elements started throwing out solid beams of magic, all converging on Twilight. She was engulfed in an almost solid white sphere of energy. The ponies around her could just see her through the shell, floating quite unharmed and calmly at it's centre. Then a sixth beam of light, pure white this time, sprang from the Crystal Heart to the sphere, adding it's own benediction. There was a great flash, and when it faded, Twilight was gone without a trace except for a few purple sparkles in the air.
&&&
After the flash, Twilight found herself drifting in a strange place, like a night sky shot through with stars and nebulae. There was no visible floor, but her hooves quickly found purchase, though not texture. She looked around, puzzled, but for some reason not worried, as she felt the serenity of the place mirrored within herself. "Hello? Where am I? What happened?"
She noticed movement in the distance, a pair of figures, one dark, one light that seemed to be approaching her. They resolved into the forms of the Princesses, Celestia and Luna. Both of them came to a halt, their expressions one of blank shock. Then Celestia galloped forward at a most unprincessly velocity, flaring her wings and lifting Twilight up with her forelegs in a bone-crushing hug. "Twilight, oh my dear Twilight! You're alive!"
"Not for much longer..." gasped Twilight, activating her telekinesis to reinforce her rapidly compressing ribcage.
Celestia instantly released her looking mortified. "Twilight, I'm so sorry..."
"It's okay, I think a healing spell will take care of worst of the bruising." Twilight leaned forward into a hug of her own, which Celestia returned more sedately, though with tears in her eyes.
"... not for that, not just for that. I should have listened to your concerns at the wedding, even if I did feel they were unfounded. I should never have left you alone in such a state."
"It's okay, I didn't exactly present a rational argument." Twilight blushed as she remembered her actions once again.
"Running around screaming 'Cadence is evil!' didn't exactly constitute a reasoned explanation. Though that was part of Chrysalis's plan, she was deliberately goading me into one of my freak-outs to divert suspicion. You aren't... unhappy with what I did to her?" Before Celestia could say anything, she continued, "I swear I didn't mean to kill her, just distract her so you could defeat her and capture her. I really didn't!"
When she heard the distress in Twilight's voice, Celestia's tears were no longer in her eyes. "Only that it appeared to cost you your life, and that it clearly has cost you so much anguish. You are so young to have made such a choice, and such a sacrifice. But how did you survive, and where have you been?"
She actually looked up as she asked the question, and movie screen-like panels appeared, zooming into place to form a corridor. They showed scenes from Twilight's life, from her arrival in Ponyville to the wedding and beyond. The two of them walked side by side, Twilight explaining, with Luna trailing along behind.
"... once Cadence put the Element of Magic..." Twilight frantically reached for her crown. "... oh no, where is it!"
"It's safe." Celestia replied, smiling enigmatically.
"Okayyy... when she put the Element on my head, all the other Elements reacted, and the Crystal Heart too. I was encased in a ball of energy, and when it vanished, I was here. What is this place anyway?"
"A place very few ponies have ever visited, both more and less than a dream." Celestia offered. She gave a warm smile. "Once again you have far surpassed my highest expectations, Twilight."
"Indeed!" Luna spoke for the first time. "Truly an adventure worthy of a hundred bards' tales! You have faced and overcome challenges that would have daunted even my sister and I. Even if your very presence here did not demonstrate it, you are clearly ready."
"Ready for what?" Twilight asked.
"To fulfill your potential." replied Celestia. "The potential I saw within you that first day at the entrance exams for my school. You have passed through many trials, and become stronger from each one, without becoming cruel or jaded. You have grown, and done something not even Starswirl could accomplish, to not only to wield the Magic of Friendship, but through that friendship to bring together many kinds of magic to create something new, greater than any one of it's parts. Though even I did not expect you to be ready so soon."
"It's true," Luna interjected, "She was even having a song commissioned, but it isn't ready yet."
Suddenly, Celestia stepped back, looking at Twilight as if observing something deep inside her. "Sister. It is time."
Luna moved back to stand by her side, and the two of them lifted up on their wings in a salute.
Twilight felt something within her chest, a warmth as if it were a stove in which a fire had just been lit. But this fire didn't burn, it warmed and soothed. All her aches and pains seemed to fade away as it grew, and emerged as a glowing purple star from her breast. Despite the concealing glow, she recognised the power it radiated, the Element of Magic. She was lifted up as it started to orbit her, spinning faster and faster to encase her in bands of light.
"What's happening!" she called out.
"Something wonderful." was Celestia's reply.
&&&
The surprise of Twilight's sudden disappearance barely had time to spread before a glowing purple star in the shape of Twilight's cutie mark formed overhead, floating down to land at the end of the plaza. It faded away to reveal Twilight, lying down on the crystal surface. She pushed herself to her feet, eyes opening as she stretched and her wings spread wide. There was a stunned silence from everyone present, including Twilight, who examined her new appendages with a mixture of surprise and disbelief.
Thorax was the first to shake off his paralysis and ran over to her. "Twilight! You're okay! More than okay, you're an alicorn now?"
"I... guess so." Twilight flexed one wing, feeling the air flow over it. This was nothing like the enchanted dragonfly wings. They were just a tool, something with no real sensation that she willed into moving as she desired. These were far more sensitive, and as she concentrated she could feel a new type of magic coursing through them, pegasus magic she assumed. They were the same purple as her coat, except for the trailing edges of the feathers, which shaded to a paler blue.
"Awesome! Twilight has wings! A new flying buddy!" Rainbow crowed.
Applejack shook her head in disbelief. "Whooee! Ain't that the darndest thing!"
"Oh my darling, they are simply magnificent!" Rarity exclaimed. "And your horn complements them so well!"
Twilight conjured a mirror, and once again examined her head. Her horn was slightly longer and sharper than before, but it had a sheen unlike the purple velvet that normally covered it, as if it were still sheathed in a fine layer of crystal. But she could feel no sheath, just her bare horn. The tip shaded from her normal purple to the same pale blue as the tips of her feathers. But most striking was the colour of her aura, no longer a straight purple, it was now shot with an inner layer of cool blue, crystal magic she realised.
She concentrated on the magic and realised she could feel both unicorn and crystal magic flowing through her, each distinct but melding together, as well as a similar power flowing up through her hooves, which made her feel as if she could lift the palace above her bare hooved. There was even a thread of another magic, one she'd thought gone. She teased at it and focussed it into a spell, causing cyan flames to flicker round her wings, making them vanish, then reappear. It appeared that the changeling magic she'd absorbed was now a permanent part of her, somehow refilling just as her other sources of magical energy did.
"Woo hoo!" Pinkie Pie swung past on a rope suspended from the balcony above, wearing a set of pink paper wings and horn. "Alicorn Party!"
"You look like a princess." Fluttershy said softly.
"That's because she is a Princess." There werre gasps as ponies looked up to see Celestia and Luna gliding down to the plaza.
"A princess? But I can't be a princess, I just explained to every-pony I have no idea how to princess! Just because I have wings as well as a horn doesn't make me a princess! It just makes me an alicorn."
"Twilight, calm down." Celestia said soothingly. "It is not that your wings and horn make you a princess, it is because you have displayed the qualities of a princess that Harmony itself has granted you your ascension. We have seen, as has every-pony here, that you have displayed the leadership, compassion, courage, integrity and determination worthy of a princess."
This statement met with petty much universal acclamation.
"But I don't even want to be a princess! I just want to go back to Ponyville with my friends and continue my studies."
"Twilight, did I ask Cadence to take up a throne beside me as soon as she ascended?" Celestia asked. "There will be a coronation, of course, but for now, if that is what you will, no-pony will stop you. However, you will no longer be simply a student, but a teacher as well. Even I have things to learn from you, as you continue your studies into the magic of friendship, as the Princess of Friendship."
Twilight still felt pretty sandbagged, but as she looked around her, she saw and felt nothing but support and approval from every-pony around her. She looked to Thorax, from whom she felt a sense of awe and fear, thankfully not directed at her, but at the two eldest princesses. She decided to fix that right away, and went over to him, nudging him towards where the Diarchs stood.
"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, may I present Thorax, my friend and companion. He helped me and saved my life. He may be a changeling, but he is the very opposite of Queen Chrysalis, and he is under my protection."
"He has nothing to fear from us." Celestia said, bowing her head to Thorax. "Thank you for taking care of Twilight when we could not."
"Indeed, well met Sir Thorax!" Luna added. "We know of your courage and heroism from Twilight's tale. If there is any boon we can grant, ask it and it shall be done."
"Th... thank you, your highnesses." Thorax stuttered in reply. He could sense no deception, no reservation in either of them. "I have only one request, that I be allowed to go to Ponyville, to stay there with Twilight, if she will have me."
Twilight spluttered eyes widening, in shock. "Are you crazy? You're a hero to these ponies, in an Empire that runs on the magic derived from joy and happiness! You can fulfill your dream, here you will have all the friends you can ever want! If you come to Equestria, I'll protect you every way I know how, but some ponies will look on you with suspicion and even fear."
Seeing, and more importantly feeling his hurt and and dawning sense of rejection she quickly added, "I am happy to have you come with me, but I'm just thinking of your best interests. You were trying to find a place to belong? You could belong here!"
Thorax shook his head, and said in a firm voice. "I belong with my best friend. You say I saved you, well you saved me! I was lost, alone and starving until you came into my life. You gave me your friendship, purpose, everything that mattered. I will not abandon you. As long as you want me, I will be by your side. I don't care if every-pony else rejects me, as long as you don't."
"Of course I won't, silly." Twilight tearfully nuzzled his neck, causing Rarity to summon her fainting couch and swoon. "So romantic!"
That had to two of them spring apart, blushing. "We're not..." they exclaimed together, then glanced at each other. Twilight continued, her wings popping out. "We're just... good friends. That's all, very good friends."
"Yeah, right..." Rainbow cackled, while Pinkie Pie walked past with a Fetlock Express mailpony outfit on, carrying a parcel on her back. The rainbow maned mare looked over Twilight once more, her new wings, new horn and changed colour scheme, and said, "I just realised, they're going to have to redo the statue in Palace Square."
Twilight looked puzzled, "What's this about a statue?"