Twilight Sparkle, as just near everypony can tell you, likes being in control.
Everypony agrees that Friendship is Magic. In fact, some would argue that Control = Magic = Friendship. Some, though certainly not most, might make the audacious claim that Magic ≡ (is defined as) Friendship, or at the very least Magic ≣ (is equivalent to) Friendship. It is the sort of argument that might be argued in the annals of Annual Anal Analysis. (The analretentive kind, not the gastrointestinal kind. That’s a whole different subscription, which Twilight claims she gets for the articles. That that is her standard claim for many such publications leaves one wondering how she retains that innocent aura about her.)
But regardless of how many lines are between Friendship and Magic (except one, because that would equal zero) it’s easy to see why ponies might claim that Magic is just another way for ponies to control the world around them. And, as other creatures occasionally inhabit that world, sometimes a little… mental conditioning is called for. Hence the (perhaps not as spurious as it sounds) claim that Friendship is (Mind) Control.
Given Twilight Sparkle’s propensity and prodigiousness with certain mind-affecting spells, this may not be too far off the mark. And she would certainly not give up control of her own faculties, not without a long and prolonged fight that, especially with her new power as an alicorn, would leave her and likely her opponent as a burned out husk, depending of course on any number of factors, including your ability to factor factors.
Queen Chrysalis is not a master of control, as defined above.
Queen Chrysalis is a master of manipulation.
It would have been neigh impossible for her to override Twilight Sparkle’s mental barriers that control her actions and thoughts. It would take a particular set of spells that Twilight has collected and, perhaps more conveniently than advisable, spread through a few different books. Spells that Queen Chrysalis, while she might know of them, hasn’t quite put together the effects should they be cast together. Instead, she merely changed a different variable.
So when she tells Twilight Sparkle, “Go on. Take it,” it isn’t as a command, though it might seem like it. Instead, it is the gentle request of a close friend and herdmate with both of their best interests at heart (she couldn’t quite get herself up to Lover; Twilight isn’t that open (yet)) who has already figured out all the relevant factors and done the complex analysis. And all that remains to be done is Twilight doing, well, whatever it is that Chrysalis is requesting her to do.
Twilight Sparkle hears this request, and complies, because why wouldn’t she comply? There’s no obvious danger or anything, despite King Sombra’s propensity for traps, of which she has run into between four (4) and nine (9), depending on how you count each stage of the bookshelf, book, door, and tower(s). She merely flies down, and grabs the Crystal Heart with her hooves.
King Sombra is a master at magic, though perhaps his definition of ‘Friendship’ is a little warped compared to Twilight Sparkle’s. His adeptness at crafting spells that read a pony’s intent and modify themselves accordingly is certainly unsurpassed. And so, when a pony touches the Crystal Heart, the first thing his trap does is read their intent, in order to better contain them. If they were to fly away, or teleport, or try to escape on hoof? Well, he would need to anticipate how and where they are going, and spring the trap on them there. Or, using the connection made to them when they grabbed the heart, balefully teleport them into his dark cage.
And if a pony is falling, relying on gravity? Well, it’s an easy matter to reinforce a cage on the floor, especially when they are just above the center of the room.
It’s hardly King Sombra’s fault that gravity isn’t working quite right for Twilight Sparkle.
The lavender alicorn is struggling, as anypony who has played with a large ball in a swimming pool can attest, to not drop the Crystal Heart that weighs probably half as much as she does. It’s not the weight that bothers her, so much as the fact that, from her perspective, it keeps trying to fall up, and she has to hold it down.
Lacking any further instructions from her close Friend and BBBB (big bug best buddy, or B-four, also spelled B4, or Q-B (short for quad-B, not queen bee)), Twilight does what comes naturally: completely ignore her surroundings in order to study the fascinating phenomenon in front of her.
It really is a work of art, the way each individual shard molds itself to be a part of the whole. Wrapped around each other like strands of hair, individually weak and easily broken. But together, not even the concussive force of a thousand shouting stallions could break it! Unless they are Our Harmony and hit just the right note, but what are the odds of that happening?
She barely even notices the black crystals that close around thin air like a manticore’s maw, exactly where she would have been standing if she was in fact a normal crystal pony and not currently standing on the ceiling. Her mastery of magic can feel the dimensional anchor that attaches itself to her when she grabs the Heart, though, and knows that if she flies too quickly, or teleports, or really does anything faster than a moderate canter then the magic of the room will teleport her directly into that waiting maw.
But why would she need to do that? She has a cool new toy* to play with!
* - not a toy. Twilight is* cognizant of this.
Okay, King Sombra’s gaseous form bursting through the seams of the walls in order to find out who sprung his trap, that does get her attention. Most of it. Okay, some of it. And then when he transforms into his pony form in order to gloat over whatever unfortunate soul is trapped in his crystal cage? The look on his face when he realizes nopony is there is priceless. At least, she assumes it is, based on Chrysalis’ snickering laughter. She’s too busy scanning the Crystal Heart for clues to its construction and how it serves as a magical conduit, powering a supercharged shield that keeps not only the cold and snow out of the Empire but also the predators, while simultaneously letting in things like trains and random ponies instead of stranding them outside to the mercy of said predators and snowstorms.
Priorities. You know how it is.
Well, one might guess, Chrysalis’ laughter gives away their clever hiding spot on the middle of the ceiling. Now they’re shouting stuff back and forth. Conspiring against her. Plotting their sudden, yet inevitable betrayals. Debating finer points on world domination. Arguing whose name comes first on the wedding invitations? She can’t really be bothered to listen in. After all-
Wait, have ponies really had trains for over a thousand years? That seems like an unreasonable stretch, given how frequent advancements in train technology are happening. She heard of a new engine obsoleting ponies pulling trains, for Celestia’s sake, and that happened in the last decade! Surely ponies weren’t pulling trains into the Frozen North for years!
Twilight frowns. Did Celestia have something to do with that? Suppressing advancements in technology for her Sister’s sake?
Well, at least Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra have returned to glaring at each other. Those two would never work out, much less work together! She shakes her head, going back to her scans.
And, just like every single Mission-Neighpossible flick, they just have to interrupt her when she’s seconds* away from unlocking everything.
* - Time estimates may not be accurate but they are precise.
It starts with that feeling deep in her gut that some seriously powerful magics are powering up, and not just from Sombra. Her B4 is probably using some of that borrowed* power to enact a bright green shield around herself, leaving Twilight to fend for herself.
* - She was gonna give it back, honest!
A set of three crystals sprout from the points of an equilateral triangle around her, simultaneously as a second set appears around Chrysalis. Hmm, remembering what happened to Shining Armor, it’s probably best not to use a shield against these. Getting trapped inside a cage of crystal is right out, as is teleporting or flying away with such a large burden. A loud hum, but not from Twilight, fills the air as she deliberates; maybe she could-
The crystals explode outwards, Twilight Sparkle only barely able to get her hooves up to defend her head by dropping the Crystal Heart. Jagged shards lacerate her forelegs, her short scream of pain drawing a bemused smirk from the unicorn. Queen Chrysalis fares better, though the dark crystals embed themselves into her shield, bright sparks flying as they try to bore in. The shield fades, the crystal shards dropping to the floor.
A loud clang echoes through the room as the Crystal Heart slams into the floor, bouncing about like a die before it comes to rest, teetering on the edge of the portal.
King Sombra grins, his horn charging a crystal blockade around himself as Queen Chrysalis releases a blast of her own. It shatters straight through his barrier, King Sombra roaring in pain as the beam slams him backwards.
“Hah!” Queen Chrysalis shouts, smirking as she advances. “Not so tough now, are you?”
Twilight itches at the shards stuck into her coat, gasping as she realizes. “Quad B! Watch out!” She furiously scratches, trying to remove the shards continuing to grow, noticing that same hum in the air. “They’re going to explode again!”
“What?” bellows Chrysalis as she looks to her hooves, dozens of the small shards continuing to grow as they leech off the power of the Crystal Heart. “You fiend!”
King Sombra, his plan to lull Chrysalis foiled, rages as his horn glows a sinister black. Two more crystal formations form a bubble around himself, which he then fades into. All around the castle walls and throughout the Crystal Empire outcroppings of black crystal are popping up, heedless of existing structures and sending many toppling to the ground.
Twilight grimaces; no wonder King Sombra used this spell as his opening salvo - it will trap them inside after just a few more chains, assuming they aren’t crushed first! Her furious scratching fails to remove every shard, finally deciding to risk a teleport. Her horn flares; every shard that was on her falls down. She makes it next to the Crystal Heart, but her hooves swipe at nothing as the power of the cage immediately teleports her inside. Queen Chrysalis throws up a second shield, already looking drained.
Her only solace is the solid crystal walls of the cage provide an adequate barrier as the crystal bombs explode again, showering the entire room with flecks of razor sharp crystal. The Crystal Heart, blown by a nearby blast, skids into one of the walls, but otherwise looks undamaged. Crystals form on each of the exits, jagged spikes promising to skewer anypony unfortunate to wander near.
King Sombra fades out of the nearest crystal wall, laughing as he goes to pick the Crystal Heart up.
“Oh, no you don’t!” shouts Twilight Sparkle, going on the offensive. She attempts to fling King Sombra away, only to lock the unicorn in a battle of magical might. The two charge their horns, stronger and stronger as they both glow with power. Twilight concentrates as hard as she can, grinning as she feels his hold slip.
Queen Chrysalis flies down, snagging the Crystal Heart from next to King Sombra. “Yes!” she calls, bathing in the stored love of the crystal ponies, any exhaustion she was showing earlier disappearing. “It is mine! All mine!!”
Only for King Sombra to smirk, fading into mist.
All the power of Twilight’s telekinesis slams through his incorporeal form, straight into the changeling queen. She hits the wall with a sickening crack, lines of hemolymph oozing from her carapace. Only the recent infusion of love keeps her going, her focus locked on stabilizing herself.
“I’m so sorry!” Twilight shouts as a loud hum fills the air again, competing with King Sombra’s mad cackling echoing about the room. Twilight throws a shield up around the defenseless changeling, cowering down as the spikes of her crystal cage grow even larger, barely giving her any room to maneuver.
Her shield works, if barely, leaving Twilight feeling far more drained than she ever has before. Dust fills the air from the shards exploding, seeing their surroundings made even more difficult by King Sombra’s smoke form. A skittering comes, the scrabbling sound of claws scraping against crystal, that disappears just as quickly as it appeared.
“Save yourself!” yells Twilight Sparkle, coughing out flecks of dust. No wonder Princess Celestia told her that she and she alone needed to be the one to find the heart and confront Sombra! She couldn’t bear the thought of one of her Friends being injured in a battle like this! “Find the Heart and get out!”
“That is mine!” bellows King Sombra as he coalesces back into his pony form. He callously pushes Queen Chrysalis’ limp body out of the way, his eyes narrowing as he searches her yielding form. Nothing. “What?!” King Sombra roars, spinning about to try to find the Crystal Heart. “Where did it go!?”