As the memories reached their end, the changeling queen rested her head and prepared for death.
However, her eyes shoot open as she felt an arm entwine around her.
Looking up, Chrysalis was met with the sight of Tai Lung pulling her towards the harbor, alongside Urtica and Luna.
"W-Why...?" Chrysalis whispered out
"You sacrificed yourself for your children," Tai replied, lifting her onto the dry harbor. "You are not without redemption."
"And besides," another voice added, drawing Chrysalis' gaze. "If you're going die, wouldn't you rather die in the arms of your daughter?"
Chrysalis turned to Urtica, who knelt down and put pressure on her mother's injuries. Her horn lit up, trying to cast a healing spell.
Chrysalis stared at Urtica with shock. "Even... after everything I did...?" she whispered. "What a foal I have been...?"
Urtica simply looked up, an unspoken conversation passing between mother and daughter. Resting a hand on her daughter's cheek, Chrysalis noticed a spark in Urtica's eyes. A light show she thought she'd never get the privilege of seeing again.
"You... have your father's eyes," Chrysalis noted, giving a genuine smile of love for the first time in many years. "As well as his heart."
As mother and daughter reconciled, Tai backed up, unsure if he was to be involved. Turning to his mother, he tended to her, as her eyes fluttered open, and she pulled herself up.
"Oh, Tai," she whispered, cradling his head. "Are you okay?"
"Fine," Tai replied, before turning to Chrysalis with worry. "But she isn't."
But Chrysalis forced herself to a sitting position.
"It doesn't matter what happens to me," the changeling queen declared. "What matters is what 'she' can do now."
Chrysalis pointed, and the group turned.
Twilight had reached a large piece of driftwood, and stood defiantly before the remnants of King Sombra's fleet. Though she was battered, bruised and beat, she was far from broken.
"You wish for death, Twilight Warrior?" Sombra demanded.
Twilight said nothing, performing a motion that made Luna's eyes grow wide. Sombra, however, merely scoffed and turned to the yaks still under his control.
"Finish this," he ordered.
The ten remaining ships around Sombra aimed. Twilight shut her eyes. Unknown to them, the world faded away around Twilight, as she envisioned a pond in a field. Droplets of rain surrounded her.
"Fire!" Sombra's voice boomed, followed by the literal boom of one of the cannons.
But Twilight forced herself to remain calm. To think of the cannon ball as nothing more than raindrop.
'Inner Peace...'
Twilight drove her arm forward... and caught the cannonball.
Every jaw in the harbor dropped as she redirected it, sending it flying away harmlessly into the water.
But no one was more horrified than Sombra. As Twilight finally opened her eyes, a grim grin graced her features as she glared his gaping form down. She raised a flaming fist and clenched it.
Unfortunately for her, clenching her fist didn't extinguish the flames. And as the burning sensation registered to her, Twilgiht screamed and thrust her arm into the water, accidentally sending herself into the drink as well. A bright purple flash shined under the water before Twilight reappeared back on the driftwood, shaking herself off.
Sombra grit his teeth. "Again!"
Another cannonball fired. But Twilight was ready. Or, almost ready. As she redirected the ball, she lost her grip and sent it into the air. Briefly, she winced, as the others dove for cover. But the cannonball instead snapped off a chunk of one of Sombra's ships. No one was harmed.
"Oh thank Celestia," Twilight sighed... only to yelp as more cannonballs fired at her, forcing her to dodge before she could redirect another one.
"KILL HER!" Sombra wailed. "HOW HARD IS IT TO KILL ONE PONY WITH ELEVEN CANNONS!"
Apparently, much harder than he thought. As cannon after cannon fired, Twilight dodged or redirected. As she got a handle on the ability, she began to send the cannonballs back. Yaks jumped away yelping as Sombra's ships were destroyed.
Ten... nine... eight...
Sombra's head whirled back and forth as his fleet was smashed, and his yaks fled.
Seven... six... five... four...
"What?!" Sombra stammered. "N-NO!"
Three... Two...
He turned back to Twilight as she destroyed another ship. She formed a finger gun and aimed it at him. 'You're next' couldn't have been more clearly said.
"KEEP FIRING!" Sombra wailed, drawing his sword and swiping the fuse on his own cannon. "KEEP FIRING!"
Unfortunately, his cannon was the last cannon standing. And as Twilight caught his shot, the momentum sent her into a spin.
Sombra gasped. The spinning light of the cannon combined with Twilight's dark fur formed the image of a yin-yang.
The zebra's vision flashed across Sombra's mind. Worry as you might, If the prince continues down this dark path he will be defeated by a warrior of day and night.
"The Warrior of Day and Night!" Sombra whispered in absolute fear, as Twilight hurled the cannonball right back at Sombra, and his last ship went up in a flurry of sparks.
Sombra's eyes fluttered open. The ringing in his ear lessened. His fleet was destroyed. His yaks had fled.
He lay in the ruins of his ship, his armor torn and destroyed, his sword chipped, and his beloved cannon burned red, and resembling a flower in bloom.
Sombra lifted himself to his knees, as he heard footsteps behind him. He shook his head, unable to comprehend.
"H-How?" Sombra whispered. "How did you do it?"
"Master Luna showed me how," Twilight replied. "All about keeping my shoulders up. Elbows loose..."
"Not that, you foal!" Sombra snapped, turning back to the Twilight Warrior. "How did you find peace? I took away your mother! Your father! Your village?! I-I scarred you for life!"
Twilight merely held herself higher.
"Yes," she admitted. "You scarred me. You hurt me. But my beginning doesn't define me. And it doesn't define you either."
Sombra growled. "And now instead of killing me, you're lecturing me?" he grumbled, his grip tightening on the hilt of his sword.
"I lecture because I care," Twilight insisted. "Someone once told me... The past is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift." Twilight smiled as the words of Master Celestia came so easily to her. "So... all that really matters now is what you choose to do now."
Sombra nodded softly. "I see," he said, quietly drawing his sword. "Then I choose THIS!"
He lunged. His sword pierced a body. But... Twilight was jumping back onto a post. Who had he...?
Sombra looked down... and found a changeling glaring defiantly at him. Pushing himself further up the blade to get at Sombra's neck.
"You killed my brothers and sisters," the changeling growled, catching Sombra by the wrists. "You will pay... Sombra." Getting close enough, the changeling shot his head forward, and buried his fangs into Sombra's neck.
"AGH!" Somba wailed. "Filthy little...!" He head butt the changeling away, and yanked his sword out. But the changeling was only one of many.
Swarming up over the ship, crawling from the water with deep gashes or missing limbs like undead ghouls, the changelings overwhelmed the dark king. He desperately swiped at them, but they just kept coming, overwhelming him and burying him in a heap of carapaces.
"Get off of me!" Sombra screamed, before he heard a loud metal gong. Looking up, he saw a familiar changeling and yak jumping on his cannon, forcing it down towards him.
The impaled changeling rose, turning to Twilight. "Unicorn, get out of here," he ordered.
"But you'll die," Twilight protested, taking a step towards him before she noticed his smile.
"And we'll take this monster with us," he promised, as Tak and Roar leaped on the cannon again, eliciting another metal GONG! Twilight began to step back.
"Go, unicorn," the changeling said, enveloping her in a green aura. "And tell Princess Urtica... we are proud to call her our sister."
With those final words, he hurled Twilight off the boat... just as several of his siblings went flying from a beam of magic.
Sombra wrenched himself up, his horn flaring with magic as he started to struggle free... only for another beam of magic to slice right through his horn. Sombra whirled on the source, his eyes widening with rage as he saw Queen Chrysalis, supported by Urtica, her horn smoking from the spell she had used to break his horn.
"For my Wild Spark," Chrysalis said, looking up as Tak and Roar gave one final leap. "See you in Tartarus, Sombra."
As the cannon fell - Tak using her magic to carry Roar to safety - Sombra finally let the wounded changelings drag him down. And as the cannon crushed him down into his boat, and the last vestiges of cannon powder sparked, Sombra had one final thought:
'If I had any single regret for the countless horrific events that have transpired in my wake... it's that I'm dying.'
Fireworks exploded from the ship, eliciting a cheer from the ponies of the Empire.
As the ponies celebrated the end of King Sombra, Chrysalis slumped back against the wall, shutting her eyes in satisfaction. She had set her husband's killer straight to the depths of Tartarus.
However, one thing still awaited her before she joined him. She turned her weakening gaze to her daughter, and the leopard that stood beside her.
"Tai... Lung," Chrysalis got out, gaining the master's attention. "Do you... love... my daughter?"
Tai Lung didn't answer at first. But after gazing at Urtica, he turned back to the queen and nodded.
Smiling, Chrysalis reached into her armor, and withdrew a chain with a ring on it. Urtica gasped.
"I...Isn't that fathers ring?" she asked. "I-I thought you threw it away!"
"I don't have long," Chrysalis admitted, using her magic to change the ring's size. "But I wanted to be there with you on your wedding." She offered the ring to Tai. With it's size changed, it easily slipped onto the leopard's finger. "So let your Queen's final act... be to perform... a changeling wedding."
Urtica held her hand to her mouth, tears spilling over her cheeks. "O-Of course... Mother."
Using her hive mind Chrysalis began to speak to her remaining children.
"Come Children. It is time to crown your new queen"
Pulling themselves up from the water like they had done with Sombra, the remaining changelings - and one yak - gathered to their Queen and Princess.
"Tai Lung Solaris..." Chrysalis got out. "Do you take... Princess Urtica Spark... to be your queen?"
Tai twisted the ring, securing it to his finger. "I do," he said.
Chrysalis nodded and turned to her daughter, trying to remove a ring on her own finger. "My Precious Daughter..." she winced as her hearts protested, but carried on, even as her voice weakened. "Do you take... Tai Lung Solaris... to be your king?"
"I do mother," Urtica promised, helping her mother remove the ring and placing it on her own finger.
"The....crown..." Chrysalis tried to pull her crown off, but her hands shivered. It was all she could do to stay awake.
But just before the crown could fall from her hands, Tak caught it, before presenting it to her sister with a bow.
"Lead them... into... a better life," Chrysalis got out, before her head slumped down, and everything went dark.
A bright light glistened before her. Chrysalis steadied herself as best she could without a body.
'It's time to accept my punishment' she thought somberly. 'And I'm ready.'
But, to the queens surprise, it was not the fires of Tartarus that awaited her. Instead, a shadow stepped from the light. A shadow that couldn't block out a set of very familar eyes.
Chrysalis gasped, tears of sadness and joy spilling from her eyes.
"You miss me, Chrissy?" Wild Spark asked with a coy grin.
Chrysalis immdiately wrapped her arms around the pony and cried
"With all my hearts and more," Chrysalis cried as she looked into his sparkiling green eyes. "Oh, Wild Spark..."
Wild Spark smiled, and rested his head against hers.
"Time to go, my Queen," he said. And he directed the Changeling Queen into the spirit realm.
Meanwhile, Urtica and the changelings bowed their heads. As while Chrysalis' smile did not fade, her eyes did not open, and her body did not move again.
"Mother?" Urtica asked, feeling her mothers presence leave the hive mind. "Mom?"
The changelings began to cry as they gathered around their mother's body. Tai tried his best to comfort his new queen, but when Luna tried to approach him, he waved her off with a sign that he was okay.
Accepting her son's word, Luna turned back to her other students, as Rainbow Dash pulled a soaking Twilight from the wreck.
"Now that?" Rainbow Dash asked with pride. "That was pretty hardcore!"
Twilight smiled. And whether it was due to the changelings' own sorrow or her own relief, she grabbed Rainbow Dash and pulled her into a hug.
Just down the harbor, the other masters went wide eyed with shock. Even the blinded Fluttershy's jaw dropped, sensing what was happening.
Sensing the awkwardness, Twilight quickly set Rainbow Dash down, accepting a more expected hug from Pinkie and even Rarity.
"Please never do that again, Twi," Pinkie whimpered, before Luna stepping forward drew their attention.
"Congradulations Twilight," Luna said. "It seems you have mastered Inner Peace." Her smile turned into a grimace. "And at such a young age," she muttered grumpily.
"Well... I had a great teacher," Twilight replied, bringing Luna into a hug.
Together, the masters gazed at the ruins of Sombra's ship. The fireworks continued to flash, as fire spread across the ruins, dispelling any possibility that Sombra might have survived. Luna sighed.
"I'd say it's time we return home," Luna said before turning to Urtica and her son. "But first, somepony deserves a proper burial."
Days later, at the Jade Dragon Library...
'Fantasy Fiction... Historical Fiction... Science Fiction...' droned in Spike's head as he sorted through a pile of books.
The creak of a door jarred him from his work, and he raced to the front.
"Twi...?" he started to say hopefully... only to deflate. Standing in the doorway, glaring at the outside before shutting the door hard, was a familiar red dragon.
Spike sighed, causing the red dragon to jump. "Hey, Garble," he said, his voice far from enthusiastic. He jutted a claw at the back. "There's a cubby in the back with rhyming books..."
"I'm not here for that," the red drake lied through his teeth. "I'm just here to pick up some stupid book for Smolder."
Spike raised his hands. "Look, Garble, just relax. Okay? I'm not one of your other dragon friends, but that doesn't mean I'm going to mock you for something you enjoy." Spike turned back to his desk, while Garble sighed, and followed after him.
"Thanks, pipsqueak," Garble muttered, before flinching. "D-Sorry... 'Spike.' Old habits."
Spike huffed out a laugh as he worked on his books. "At this point, I'd consider it weird if you didn't call me that."
Garble tilted his head at Spike's beaten down posture and the defeated tone in his voice. He whistled.
"No wonder Smolder's been down," he muttered, before moving to Spike's desk and leaning before him. "You're worried about your sister, aren't you?"
Spike looked up at him, surprised, but the sincerity in the red dragon's eyes caused Spike to sigh. "Yeah," he admitted.
Garble nodded, frowning in thought.
"Alright, look," the red dragon began. "I'm going to say this to you once." He pointed threatingly. "And if you tell anypony I said this, I'm going to dip you head first in our lava pool." Spike raised an eyebrow, before Garble lowered his claw with a sigh. "But it is okay to worry about your sister. There are plenty of times where I've worried about my sister."
"Really?!" Spike stammered, looking up in surprise. "But every time I've seen her, she bounces back. She's always been so tough..."
"That's not what I mean," Garble elaborated. He shook his head with a grin. "Before you finally got the hint that she liked you, Smolder tried to fill her heart with others that weren't you. And while all of them could be bigger or stronger than you, none of them had your... compassion. And kindness." Garble spoke of the words like they were foreign; something he didn't fully comprehend. And yet, he grinned like they had potential. "You're easily the only dragon beside my sister who cares about somebody other than themselves. You go against the very nature of most dragons." He crossed his arms. "And I think that's why you make me so mad. Because I know I'll never find myself a dragoness that's like either of you."
"Garble..." Spike whispered in shock, only for the red dragon to breeze by him.
"I meant it by the way," Garble growled, his original tone back. "Tell anyone I said any of that, and I'll throw you head first into our lava pool." Then he strode to the back of the library, and started reading with a quiet grin.
Spike watched the red dragon with a soft smile, before turning back to his work. After what felt like a few hours, Spike heard the door open again. Stamping down his hope for Twilight, he tried for his more usual greeting:
"Welcome to the Jade Dragon," Spike said, focusing on his books. "Home to every book within the dragon's... hoard?"
Spike noticed a burned pony doll with a quill and notepad enter his peripheral vision. He looked up, and was met with the sight of...
"Twilight!!" Spike yelped, practically jumping over his desk to hug his sister.
As the two embraced, Spike noticed a group of changelings outside. All of them looked beaten down and depressed, pulling a cart with a coffin. The coffin had a glass lid, and inside, a larger changeling lay, smiling peacefully.
"Uh..." Spike pointed to the coffin, drawing Twilight's gaze.
"Queen Chrysalis," she explained. "Urtica's mother."
"Urtica?" Spike muttered. "Tai Lung's girlfriend?"
"Now his wife," Twilight admitted with a shrug, before looking to Chrysalis. "Chrysalis died protecting her children. Urtica asked if we could bury her in Ponyville."
Spike nodded. "Well..." he admitted. "It's not a bad resting place."
Twilight nodded, her eyes following the coffin before she turned back to Spike. "Spike," she said, her tone having a sterness to it that made Spike's heart jump. "While I was in the Crystal Empire... I found the village where I was born. I also found out how I got into your delivery." Spike started to pale as Twilight straightened. "I know who I am."
Spike swallowed. "And... who are you?" he asked, trying to sound supportive. Twilight merely gazed at him with a loving smile.
"I'm your little sister," she said, her voice cracking with love.
Spike held back a gasp, and threw himself into her arms again. For a moment, they simply embraced, glad to have each other back. However, all too soon, Twilight started to notice the state of his library.
"Oh, my goodness," Twilight mumbled.
"What?" Spike asked, breaking their hug.
Twilight resisted zipping over to the books flooding the many tables. "Who's organizing these? Just dumped here and left all alone? Books have feelings too!"
Spike chuckled. "Well, I don't have quite your dexterity or timeliness," he admitted, walking up next to her. "Care to help a brother out?"
Twilight chuckled at his teasing tone. "Always," she agreed.
And together, brother and sister started to re-organize the library. Just like the good old days.
Meanwhile, unknown to Twilight or Spike. Far far away, past mountains and forests, through snowy plains and up a waterfall, a village sat, withdrawn from the world. In a small shrine, a white unicorn bowed in front of an old family portrait. Twilight Velvet smiled out from the portrait, her family and little Baby Twilight all around her.
The white unicorn raised his head, staring at the depiction of baby Twilight next to the younger depiction of himself wistfully... before his horn glowed softly, and he lifted himself up with a gasp of alarm. He raced out, following the thrum of his horn as a pink alicorn noticed him run to the edge of the village.
"Shining?" she asked, walking after him with a lighter pink alicorn filly in her arms. "What's wrong?"
"It's my sister, Cadence," Shining whispered, turning to her with a smile. "My little sister is alive."