Twilight Sparkle sets her elbows against one of the few bare spots on the book covered library desk, groaning. She rubs her eyes, the effects of not sleeping at all last night just starting to catch up to her. Too bad alicorn endurance isn’t as impervious as Celestia sometimes makes it seem. Though she’s seen the trash cans with the remains of her mentor’s foibles. Coffee cake, Celestia? Seriously? Though she wishes she had thought to bring coffee grounds with her. She should have known that the Crystal Empire wouldn’t have their own stores!
Maybe she could ask Celestia to send her some through Spike. After all, she could send tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala through dragonfire. Why not a few ounces of coffee?
“Hey, Spike?” Twilight Sparkle calls, her words only slurring the tiniest amount. Totally not indicative of her laconic static normally induced by lack of coffee.
Her about-to-lose-his-title-as-Best-Assistant-Ever-to-an-owl merely rolls his eyes as if he could read her mind. Or she made the request a minute ago. “It doesn’t work like that, Twilight. Remember the incident in July?”
“Oh, right. That. I forgot.” is what Twilight meant to say, but it comes out as a jumbled, “Orgleflarg.” Then she shakes what she thinks is a coffee mug but is actually a textbook on magical artifact enchanting. “Coffee!”
“They don’t have coffee, which is a shame because I know how much you really really like coffee and I probably should have packed more but I really needed a pick me up after that whole Sombra incident,” Pinkie Pie giddily states as she zips next to Twilight faster than the eye can blink. She can’t really stand still, bouncing up and down as her eyes simultaneously focus and unfocus. Plus her words come out far faster than normal, but still understandable despite Twilight’s state.
“Wait, did you have coffee and not tell me?” Twilight demands, perhaps stronger than she meant. But it isn’t enough to phase the pink mare.
“But they’ve got this tea they make that’s really strong.” Pinkie Pie whips a thermos out of her mane, offering it to Twilight with a wide smile. Her eye twitches, then her mane poofs out to twice its normal size, frazzled worse than Twilight’s worst mane day.
“How much have you had?” asks Spike suspiciously, taking the thermos from Pinkie Pie and wafting the fumes towards his nose. He gags at the acrid smell, though that doesn’t stop Twilight from waving her hooves at the container. She pushes against the table, straining to stretch herself as far forwards as possible. Her tongue sticks out of her mouth as she focuses so intently on the tea Spike almost thinks it’s going to pop out of his claws despite her horn remaining unlit.
“Six?” Pinkie Pie replies as a high pitched whine emanates from Twilight, practically laying her barrel against the table to continue her hoof waving. “Teen?” She waggles her hoof around. “Ish?” She giggles, jolting back and forth, unable to keep still any longer. “I don’t feel any different!”
“Maybe we should stick to one,” Spike says, reluctantly passing the thermos over.
Twilight whips the top off, relishing the steam that pours out. Her eyes widen at the initial burst of heat but she keeps guzzling until half of the container is gone. She lets out a most un-princesslike burp that morphs into a contented sigh, slumping against the table. Then she shudders violently, books toppling off the table, and stands up ramrod straight.
“What the hay is in that thing?!” Twilight exclaims, peering into the thermos. Rather than burn her, it now feels like the hot liquid is an icy river flowing directly into her soul, energy spreading to each of her limbs.
“Crystal. Berries. Apparently they have to be freshly squeezed to get that effect.” Pinkie Pie pulls out another bottle, offering it to Shining Armor. “Want some?”
“Huh?” Shining Armor says, rubbing his horn. His eyes stretch open, then clench shut, a hoof raising to ward away the dim lights. Pinkie Pie shrugs, putting away the bottle. “What happened?”
“Quite a bit, actually.” Twilight Sparkle grimaces at having drawn the short straw. “Do you remember King Sombra attacking?”
“Yeah.” Shining Armor sits up, his eyes narrowing as he looks outside. “He still out there?”
“Outside the city limits. We have a shield going, but we don’t know for how long.”
“Huh.” Shining Armor rubs his horn, a half smile at the lack of crystals impeding his magic. “Well, I’m feeling a lot better than before. How’s Cady holding up?” Shining Armor looks around, his smile disappearing. “Why isn’t she with us?”
“Well, about Cadance…” Twilight Sparkle lays a hoof on Shining Armor’s withers. “I know this is going to be hard to accept, but you have to trust me.”
Shining Armor frowns at his sister’s serious expression. “Of course, Twilight. I’ll always trust you. BBBFF’s forever, right?”
“You said forever twice there,” Twilight points out with a grin.
“Heh, that I did.” Shining Armor pokes Twilight with a hoof. “You always loved pointing that out.”
“And you always loved saying it, just to annoy me.” Twilight’s smile fades as she takes a deep breath. “Princess Cadance, who you thought was Princess Cadance, is actually a changeling named Queen Chrysalis.”
Shining Armor’s breath catches in his throat. A panicked look comes over him, spinning to try to peer through the window up to the balcony. A raspberry aura surrounds him, which only serves to infuriate him as he whirls on Twilight. “Her!? Here?!” He gasps, his horn flaring but failing to push away Twilight’s hold on him.
Rage fills his eyes as he strains, boring into Twilight. A pink shield forms inside her aura, expanding from his skin to form a sphere originating from his horn and encompassing his entire body. She winces but holds him in place, his power weakening as it gets further away from his body.
“Let me go!!”
“Brother!” Twilight shouts as her horn winks out, taking a step backwards. “Please! You have to trust me!”
“How do I know you aren’t one of her changelings, then?! If she could overpower one alicorn, she can do it again!”
“Ask me anything!” Twilight steps forward, motioning to her unprotected neck with a hoof. “Blast me if you have to. Or just ask yourself, why would she have let you go and recover, just to let me tell you and raise your suspicions if she already controls me?”
After a long pause and tense silence Shining Armor sighs, hanging his head. “I should have known. I saw things, tiny things, that bothered me. But I just chalked it up to worries about the wedding, or about this mission, or about-” his voice catches in his throat as he wipes away a tear. “About our future together.”
Twilight stands, that awkward two legged stand she learned by mimicking Doug, and embraces her brother around the neck. It worked better before she was nearly his size. “I promise you,” she says softly, “I will do everything in my power to make sure that Cadance is safe and you get that future.” She pulls back, nuzzling Shining Armor’s ears. “But in order to do that, we need to pretend that we don’t know it’s her.”
“You mean…” Shining Armor trails off, gulping. “You mean we need to, I need to go up there, and let her drain my love of Cadance, to feed her lust? To let her influence me again?”
Twilight Sparkle nods, but with determination. “Yes. However, now that we know what she’ll attempt, we can work around it. I got a scan of you while her influence was still embedded in you. A pony will naturally break free of any enchantment, given enough time, but there’s a way to expedite it.”
Twilight pulls out a piece of parchment, illustrating and writing the spell instructions as she talks. “Think of your psyche, your ‘you’, like a person inside a room. Now, a mental influence, like a geas, will try to cover you like a coat of paint. Now, if you protect your entire person, your whole mind, she’ll know something is wrong. So, you need to compartmentalize a little.”
Twilight draws a box inside of a room. “Put your deepest self inside that box. And then, when her influence coats the rest of you, you’ll have a place to dig out from. It might take a while, but you’ll be able to break free a lot quicker than anypony expects.”
“I didn’t know you to have such a mastery of Kindness and Malevolence,” Shining Armor says, shaking his head. “It isn’t my specialty, but I guess we both have to try, right?”
Twilight nods, glancing at Pinkie Pie and Spike. Both look worried. “I’m sorry, you two. I guess we’ll have to hope she doesn’t try to influence you, or the rest of our Friends. She didn’t before, but that doesn’t mean she won’t start now. Or once we return to Canterlot.”
“Hey,” Spike says with a smile, “I’m small, insignificant, and easily forgettable. It’s like my superpower!”
“And I already have, like, forty different voices telling me what to do. What’s one- ooh! A balloon!” Pinkie Pie pronks out of the library, chasing a red balloon.
“Don’t sell yourself too short, Spike. I never forget about you.” Twilight reaches down to nuzzle her Definitely-Best-Assistant-Ever, drawing an embarrassed giggle.
“Which just leaves finding the real Crystal Heart, right?” Shining Armor says, looking over the history books Twilight has pulled out. He points to one of the many pictures of the Crystal Castle, the Crystal Heart levitating at the base. “Or do you still think you can fabricate another?”
Twilight Sparkle shakes her head. “It’ll take too long to infuse the new one, and more power than the ponies here are able to give on such short notice. But that’s all estimates and guesswork, when we need something concrete to go with. If I can’t find the real one, that’s the backup plan. Hopefully we’ll be able to find a crystal librarian or something soon, and-”
“Somepony ask for a crystal librarian?” a sparkling crystal pony with a cutie mark of a scroll says as she walks up. "I remembered when I was at that Crystal Faire you all are putting on! Splendid work, indeed!"
“Perfect!” Twilight exclaims, rounding on the smiling mare. “I need every reference or book on crafting a crystal heart, and the process to empower one.”
“Oooh,” the librarian (the crystal one) says with a frown. “I’m afraid King Sombra took those away and locked them up.”
“Do you happen to know where?” Twilight asks, hopeful.
The crystal pony shrugs. “Where else? His throne room. All the way up at the highest room of the tallest tower.”
“Of course he did,” Twilight says with a sigh. She unfurls her wings, giving them a stretch. “Alright, Spike. If I’m not back in-”
“Whoa whoa whoa,” Spike interrupts with a shake of his head, resolutely crossing his arms as he stands in front of Twilight. “No way. I’m coming with you.”
“But Spike,” Twilight says worriedly, “what if something happens to you?” She dances on her hooves a little, remembering Celestia’s warning about her Friends.
“Hey, I’m small and insignificant, remember?” Spike grins as he digs a claw into his chest. “Besides, what if something happens to you? This way, somepony will be able to sound the alarm.”
A long whine rumbles from the back of Twilight Sparkle’s throat. She finally acquiesces with a brief, “Fine. Just, you have to be very careful. At the first sign of trouble, I want you out of there, or hiding. Got it?”
“It’ll be just like Winter Wrap Up.” Spike grins as Twilight lifts him up and drops her on her back.
“Need a lift, BBBFF?”
“Nah, I got myself covered.” Shining Armor forms a shield, delicately resting his injured but healing foreleg, then laying down on it entirely. The whole apparatus levitates up and follows Twilight outside. The Crystal Faire is in full swing, with many of the crystal ponies starting up booths of their own, though the jousting arena looks in dire need of some knights.
They barely spare any attention to the Faire, though, quickly making their way up to the balcony. Doug and Rainbow Dash are still there; the pegasus looks livid, but not at anything in particular, while Doug’s head limply lays to the side, barely putting any effort into his strokes along Rainbow’s side.
“Well, I’m glad to hear your headache is doing better,” Twilight says as Shining Armor disembarks, Chrysalis looking up at her wearily.
“Yeah, let’s hope it stays that way.” Shining Armor turns to Chrysalis, putting his best smile forward. “You doing okay, love?”
Queen Chrysalis gladly meets his nuzzle, but refrains from anything too overt. “Much better now that you’re back with me.”
“I thought I’d give you a bit of a break.” Shining Armor’s horn lights, charging his own shield.
“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Queen Chrysalis says, her jagged horn winking out, the bright green shield along with it.
Far off in the distance, a black cloud experimentally places two shadowy hooves where the shield used to be, grinning madly.
Shining Armor’s shield instantly fills the spot where Chrysalis’ shield used to be, lopping the hooves off. Twin black armored shoes drop to the ground, sinking into the lush green ground. King Sombra stares at his two smoky stumps, then at the pink shield in between him and his shoes. His smile widens as his hooves reform, small crystals sprouting inside the shield and slowly doubling in size.
Twilight, Spike still on her back, smiles at Shining Armor’s success. “Just make sure you stay safe. L-love you.”
“Love you too,” Shining Armor says with a smile. He closes his eyes, meditating.
Twilight launches off, her unsteady wings slowly taking her higher and higher. She chances a troubled glance backwards, only to see Chrysalis staring right at her. She turns back, hoping to conceal her grimace, and heads towards the throne room. Odd, though, that it isn’t as high as the castle goes.
Queen Chrysalis fumes. Did that know-it-all Twilight Sparkle somehow figure it out? She was far too suspicious back there, and her little mistakes have finally added up. She’ll need to corner the alicorn and find out. Good thing she is mostly bluffing to the ponies on how much power this is draining.
“I think I’ll go stretch my wings, too,” Queen Chrysalis says with a nuzzle to Shining Armor. Her own wings spread out, carrying her up faster than Twilight.