Pandinus woke up in the evening, having taken a nap while waiting on the train. There really wasn't much she could do at this point. They had plenty of supplies for the ponies and she could last quite a while on her reserves, not to mention several jars of honey that were in the cargo hold behind her. The Equestrian guards were exercising as best they could in the limited space, several changelings were even working with them.
Until such a time as she was able to do something useful though she would likely just sleep. Heart had control of the Equestrian hive, the ponies were working on returning to power in their land, the drones were still a day away from returning the dragon-mother's eye to the dragon lands, and Zelus was watching the Temple. There was nothing she was needed for, nor was there much she could do, separated from the hives as she was. She might be able to help with sorting information or jobs in Equestria, but considering how most of the Equestrian hive were actually ponies who had only recently come to trust Heart, the presence of another queen ordering them about and receiving their reports unsettled them. They found it scary when she was right there next to Heart, what would they say when she was doing so from miles away?
Simple. They'd panic.
"Why are ponies so quick to panic? It's not even as though their panicking is useful to others. Many just run around screaming."
Twilight, who was sitting across from her, looked up from her scrolls.
"What?"
"What is the reason for ponies being so quick to panic? They do not even flee sometimes, so its not a survival trait as it is in most species I have observed. I would even suggest that it is the opposite. It's likely to end in their death."
"I um, never really thought of it. Most of the time my friends and I were galloping towards the screams, so-"
"So you were even more lacking in survival instincts?"
"No, we were acting to protect ponies. Like if your hatchery was attacked."
Pandinus tapped her hoof against her cushion.
"Fair enough. But that still does not answer why ponies have come to be so flighty, yet refuse to leave their homes in spite of such reactions."
"What brought this on?"
"Boredom," the queen said. "I have nothing to do at the moment, not even able to follow Cimmerian into the cold. I can watch the rune passively so even that isn't going to distract me."
Looking over to the papers the drone-rider was working with, Pandinus scowled. She recognized some of the algorithms as changeling control sequences and commands, usually used to give unsired drones long-term duties such as surveillance or transportation jobs.
"Reviewing the links?"
"Pulmonus gave me some things to work on in the meantime. I've been working on memorizing them, but there are several that are very similar to each other that I sometimes get crossed. She also has me studying flesh-shaping which while certainly of questionable morality if practiced on ponies, has much less disturbing implications on true drones given their lack of sapience."
"She has taught you flesh-shaping?" Din asked. "Mother never really finished many of my lessons and that was sadly one of the lessons that I was never able to complete. Could you show my what she has been teaching you?"
"I um, I'm not really sure- I mean I could ask her next time or-"
"Twilight, I am not asking you to just teach me," Pandinus chuckled, moving across the train car and sitting next to the smaller mare. "I'm asking you to help me review my own lessons and see if you know anything that I missed. I already know some flesh-shaping. You are not teaching me; or did you forget that Zelus and I crafted your first altered drones?"
Twilight hummed, looking at the mare before shaking her head.
"Alright. I expect to learn a thing or two from you as well though. Mutual learning."
"That's fine with me. I'll even provide a few drones for practice after we've gone over a few things. If nothing else, this will give me something to do."
Cimmerian followed the weird queen through the snow as she led him towards the Crystal Castle. Eventually he spied a tunnel, leading under the spire. The queen entered the cave, the odd illumination of her crystal shards giving the tunnel an eerie glow.
"So the Crystal ponies are in hibernation?"
"My children find safety in sleep," the queen's echoing voice said, not bothering to look back at him. "When the shadow came, when it broke my daughter's heart, it left other shadows. They were ravenous, constantly gnawing at my power. They gnawed at me, at my children, at our song; I could not silence the song they sung, so I let my children sleep. When they slept, the cold returned. The shadows fell silent one by one, and soon, their song was silent."
The tunnel opened into a large cavern, and Cimmerian glanced around, noting the blending of ice and crystal throughout the room. From the direction he'd traveled he'd been expecting a stairway or a door, but instead there was only what looked like a crystal pedestal in the middle of the chamber.
The queen stepped up onto the pedestal, facing him before resting upon it.
"Their song has ended, but the shadow still walks the lands to the south, spreading its song of death. My daughter is missing, my children sleeping. Rousing them would bring only more pain. So they shall sleep. They shall sleep, and wait until it is safe to sing again."
"But what of you?" the queen asked, tilting her head curiously. "Your song is discordant, a sour note amongst the choirs of this world. Not a shadow, not consuming, but you are different."
"I was brought to this world by a second shadow," Cimmerian explained. "It was fleeing the Elements, and used me as a shield."
"The other shadow, the one who stole your...daughter? I assume you're speaking of Cadance?"
"You were judged by the six who are one," the queen hummed, a smile breaking out over her face. One that confused the stallion. He squinted, looking closer to the queen while attempting to see past the glare of the glowing crystal shards and her glowing eyes.
"It is not often one who was their target, even if by accident. I do not know what the others call her in their own songs. I never learned them. I never had to."
Cimmerian's eyes widened as she 'spoke'. In the snow, she was hard to see. In the tunnel, she was ahead of him and never looked at him while speaking. Now, he could easily see her mouth. It wasn't moving.
"What are you?"
"I am the heart of the song of this kingdom. When my children sing, my song grows stronger. When my children suffer, so too do I."
"...You're not a queen at all, are you?"
The changeling looked confused before glancing towards her own body.
"This one's song was long silenced. By time or others, I do not know."
"So if you're not a queen then what are you? What, what did your children call you?"
"They sang for me many titles. Their life, their love, their breath. They called me their sun, their soul. But one found a tune they all loved. They sang of their heart."
Cimmerian stepped closer, looking over the crystals that seemed to be interwoven into the queen's body. Getting closer, he recognized the color. He'd seen it before, not too long ago. Only at that point it had only been an image. A beautiful image that he was told pictured an ancient artifact that sat at the center of the Crystal Kingdom on a pedestal. The same one that the queen now occupied.
"You're the Crystal Heart? But it was an artifact," he blurted, looking around in confusion. "Cadance never mentioned you were actually alive. Just that the Crystal Heart channeled the good will of the ponies into actual power. Their love became a force that held back the blizzard."
The queen frowned, looking almost hurt by his words.
"They were not singing to me?"
"What?" he asked, not understanding the question.
"You refer to me as a lifeless thing, a simple trinket. Did...did my children not know of my love for them? Could they not hear my song?"
"I don't know."
The stallion looked about the chamber, noticing the four crystal pillars barely visible in the ice. Just how was this castle designed? This wasn't some sort of chamber?
"Cadance didn't mention the Crystal Heart having its own...song. She just mentioned a powerful artifact that was the most important thing in the empire."
"A trinket."
"The center of their power and source of their life," he insisted. "When did you uh, start to sing?"
"When does a child know they are a child?" the Crystal Queen replied. "When do they learn they are capable of song? This I do not know. I only know that for years they sang to me. For years they sang and I began to wish to sing with them. That desire grew until I could; until my voice joined with theirs. I sang, we sang, and our joined voices made my love only grow."
"I learned that their songs were passing. That new songs would come, that old ones would fade. I learned that some sang to themselves, that some sang to others, that some even silenced each other. I learned of the un-song, the one who's voice silenced many songs. I learned of my daughter returned, whose song joined perfectly with my own. Then I learned of the shadow."
"It was two songs, a strangeness I have never felt before. Some songs were softer than others, sometimes there were multiple songs in the same voice. But this was two songs of two voices. The stronger voice broke the song of my daughter. It brought more shadows, pulling at my children, weakening their songs. Then it...did something to me. I felt wrong. I felt. I still do not understand. It took my daughter when it left, stealing her heart and voice and love."
"Do you know where this, body came from?" he asked her. "I went looking for the rest of its species and have had a little success, but you said it was already gone. Did the shadow bring it with her?"
"I do not know. I am still unsure how I feel about it. In fact I am still becoming used to feeling at all. It was not so long ago that I was not quite aware of anything, and yet now I am. I know that I am."
The alicorn stepped closer, most of his fears allayed by the fact that the queen seemed to be, for all intents and purposes, the Crystal Heart.
"Is it possible that at one time, you were a trinket? That over time, you grew into more?"
The Crystal Queen's irritation faded at the idea, her expression becoming thoughtful.
"I do not know."
He stared at her for a moment. Was the this really the Crystal Heart? Nobody had said it was sapient, but then again would they even realize it? Or was it the fusion of changeling and artifact that gave it sapience? Was it inferring experiences it had from before its fusion? Before it's 'creation'?
'Though considering the Heart's use, I don't think you could have picked a body more reactive to it or its magic.'
He hadn't been told much about how the Crystal Heart worked, just that it focused and amplified the positive emotions of the citizens of the empire into a powerful protection that kept the city warm in the midst of the blizzards the area experienced.
'It could have always been sapient, or maybe it was just the decades, maybe even centuries of channeling emotions?'
"The shadows," he said at last. "I've been either freeing them or destroying them if they're mindless. When the one who took your daughter came, did she bring creatures that look like you do now? Black shells, usually slaved to a glowing crystal?"
"The false songs," the queen spat. "The songs that hold no joy, no love, no life. They bound the smaller shadows to their song. The smaller shadows pulled at the songs of my children. I could not stop them, so I did what little I could. I sang for my children a lullaby. They slept, the cold came, and the shadows faded. When the last of the shadows fell into silence, so too did the false songs."
"Could you show me the Crystals? The source of the controlling songs?"
The Crystal changeling looked off into the distance before standing from her pedestal. She stepped down and made her way to a wall, the snow and ice seeming to disappear from her path. So once more he followed the glowing queen, this time to a frozen chamber that contained two half-buried control crystal arrays as well as the frozen bodies of dozens of changelings and a single queen.
"I thought we'd accounted for all of them," Cimmerian muttered, walking up to the body and using a quick spell to check for signs of life. He couldn't find any, but then again he'd found queens to be pretty durable. Was it possible it was still alive? He really couldn't dismiss that idea. Instead he stepped over to the control crystals, hefted them in his magic, and began bashing them together several times. Then he twisted the one of the crystals sideways, attempting to jam a pointed edge into the newly formed cracks. With a few more shoves, ones of them split in half with a horrid straining creak. With the broken half, he began to attempt the same with the second crystal, jamming the sharp end into the damaged chinks. Eventually and with a bit of magical elbow grease, he was able to break both of them.
"Okay, I think...I think that's it. I don't know of any other locations she put these things so- are you okay?"
The Crystal queen was staring at the shattered control arrays in what looked like horror. After a few seconds to think about it, the dark alicorn almost found it comical.
"Yea, I'd almost bet money you're the Crystal heart if seeing a few crystals broken bothers you. You ever experience that yourself?"
"Once," she whispered. "The Shadow shattered me, distorting my song. When I was next aware, I was...different."
"Well I'll be sure to send Cadance up here," he told her. Lighting his horn, he showed a profile image of the pink alicorn. "I'm sure she'd be happy to have her kingdom back, though I'm not sure what she'll think of the center of her kingdom wandering around. Was the Shadow the only thing you were worried about? It's on the run and it doesn't have much in the way of power right now. Do you need something to help restore the city? Magic? Maybe a lot of focused emotions?"
"The Shadow is gone? I have your word; it will not harm my children?"
"Even if it makes an attempt, which is doubtful considering how little power it has now, at least three other countries will rush to destroy it. We're currently searching for it. I just thought it more important to find out if this city needed help. Unfortunately, the railroad that lead up here is under several feet of snow and my friends couldn't make it. They don't do well with the cold."
The Crystal Queen nodded. She motioned for him to follow before leading him back to the main chamber and taking her place on the pedestal. She closed her eyes in focus, the air beginning to buzz with power, before she opened them and said a single word.
"Awaken."
The alicorn braced against the sudden burst of magic, the wave of power nearly knocking him over. The snow and ice around them seemed to disintegrate in an expanding ring, clearing from the rows of now visible houses and shops. The blast traveled upwards as well, eventually blowing away the clouds and leaving the sun shining down on the land for the first time in years.
The power slowly faded, holding to a weak barrier just outside of the city. Ponies stepped out of their homes, some stretching and yawning, others greeting each other cheerfully as they all came towards the town center. Those that reached the castle though didn't look so certain of themselves.
Looking behind him to where the frozen queen's drones were slowly dissipating in the grass, he could understand why. He stepped over to the queen, checking for any pulse of life or magic he could detect before stepping away from the body. He would have to ask an actual changeling to perform a more thorough check, but for now, the ponies looked confused, torn between fleeing and rioting and there was nothing he could do for the possibly dead queen.
"Good afternoon!" he shouted, drawing the eyes of all present. "If you'd wait a moment for your fellows to arrive, I'd be happy to deliver some good news. I'll start with this- Princess Cadance is safe, and is currently regaining her strength. In the mean time, I'm here to make sure you're all still alive."
A wave of excitement passed over the crowd, followed by another wave of something altogether. Confusion. Speculation. Who was this? What was the crystal-studded changeling? What had happened to the monsters?
"A while ago, a mare came into this city, took your princess, and broke the Heart, right? Does anyone know the full story? I'm working back from what I know."
Looking at the confusion in several of the closer ponies start to shift to embarrassment, he chuckled as several even hid behind others.
"Look, I know speaking in public sucks, but I kind of need to know the full story here. Can someone walk me through it?"
Eventually a stallion stepped forward, a few odd scars showing through the fur around his legs. Looking at him and seeing the lack of armored ponies in the city, he took a guess.
"A guard?"
The stallion nodded.
"When the...when the Princess's sister attacked with the changelings, the guard was disbanded. She left a bunch of the drones here, along with a few Equestrian soldiers to keep them controlled."
The pony snuck a quick glance at the crystal queen before looking back to Cimmerian.
"I will tell you, but who are you?"
Looking around at the gathered ponies, some showing fear while others showed curiosity, he smiled before beginning his tale. After all, if one wanted a story, you sometimes had to be willing to tell one.