//------------------------------//
// Contradictions 
// Story: That Which was Lost 
// by LadyRFC 
//------------------------------//

   Twilight often thought herself to be above grudge holding. But her slightly shaky hooves after retelling the tale of the changling invasion of Canterlot said otherwise. 
“After my brother and Cadence expelled them from the city, we didn’t hear of them again… Until recently, anyway.” She looked closely at her listener, but his face remained calm. She could easily tell he was paying close attention from the serious glint in his eyes, but no other emotion crossed his face. “There were some sightings of what may have been a changling at the nearby village we just came from. And when we came across an old text claiming a return of these… darklings, we thought it best to investigate.”
Silverline was silent a moment, blinking slowly, before speaking. “I fully admit that your experience with these creatures does indeed clash quite horribly with our own, however…”
“Howweweh?” Pinkie attempted to shadow, the umbrella handle in his mouth as she rummaged through her shoulder bags for more candy to munch on.
“From your descriptions, I can’t see any way to deny them as a different creature from our darklings.”
“So, they are the same,” Applejack muttered as she walked up to the cart, her flank covered in deep green fabric with tan accents that draped to the ground like a cape. “Shoot. Ah was hopin’ it was somethin’ else.”
Putting her amazement for Rarity’s genius aside –as the unicorn was still busy with the other ponies’ outfits to be spoken to at the moment- Twilight let out a sigh. “I was hoping that too, but…” Looking imploringly at Silverline she asked, “Can you please tell us your own side? About these darklings and why they are… good?”
“Yeah!” Rainbow called over, struggling with a piece of fabric that had caught on one wing. “How does that work?”
“Rainbow, stay still!” Rarity chided, using her magic to right the fabric so that her wing could break through a specially cut hole. “Honestly, you pegasus just can’t stay still for a minute!”
Silverline kept his eyes away from the still “dressing” females and instead focused on a point above Twilight’s head. “Most of what I know is what has been passed down to me in story form, although there is enough proof for much of it within our oldest records.” 
Taking one last breath, he plunged in, eyes closed in memory. “During the beginning of our nation, back when our own wondered this vast desert, homeless and weary, our first emperor, the Emperor of Fortune, stood on a rock and prayed for our survival. He prayed that help might come. That it might bring us to a land where water flowed and our own would find rest.” 
His eyes opened. “That’s when they first appeared to us. Dark forms, riddled with holes. A creature that should not have the means to fly, to live, yet does. A contradiction of logic.”
Twilight’s back stiffened.
“Are you alright, Twilight?” Spike whispered.
The alicorn nodded, unable to answer. Logic was something she felt she couldn't be attributed to her current condition either. Born a unicorn to be magically made into an alicorn later… No. Logic did not fit her at all. She allowed a ghost of a smile when she reckoned to herself that raising a baby dragon wasn’t exactly normal either.
Silverline continued, unaware of the princess’s pondering. “They led us to the land we have now. Deep streams and valleys. Paradise hidden in a desert. They assisted us in building homes and taught us to be weary of the dragon grounds that were in the mountains around us. They were our allies. Our… friends…”
“Wait a minute!” Rainbow strutted over to the wagon, her own flack covered in light blue and silver. “That doesn’t make any sense! The changlings feed off of love!”
Silverline blinked slowly at the interruption, a sign Twilight was beginning to connect with a lack of comprehension for a given reaction. “Yes, they do. What is the problem?”
Twilight shook her head, unsurprised, as her friends gave the stallion gaping expressions. 
“Uuuh, sugarcube… Ah don’t think yer on the same page with us…” Applejack murmured.
Silverline’s eyebrows knit in plain confusion this time. “What’s a ‘sugarcube’?”
Applejack blushed as Twilight jumped in. “Please continue your story, Silverline.”
The stallion gave an unsure nod and picked up again. “The darklings did indeed need love, but our people had it in such supply that we easily provided what they needed of that. We lived side by side-“
“A symbiotic relationship,” Twilight breathed, her mind swirling with possibilities, oblivious that the stallion was being interrupted once again.
Silverline nodded again, this time firmly. “Yes. We needed each other and so we lived with one another for some time. We gave them love and they gave us the tools to survive this harsh land. We lived and fought side by side for decades…” His jaw set and an angry glint lit his eyes, the first Twilight had seen of the emotion on his face. “Until the emperor who shall never be named came to power.” 
At the strange looks given him, he explained. “This emperor did many shameful things… Even enslaving some of our own, creating harsh class systems.” He hung his head slightly. “To this day some of that system remains, though it controls lives less and slavery,” his eyes hardened, “is no more.”
Sighing, he rose his head. “So ashamed of him are we, that we have erased his names from our records. No longer will his name have power.”
“What’d he do to the chan- I mean, darklings?” Fluttershy asked softly.
Twilight nearly jumped at the mere’s voice. The shy pegasus had managed to sneak up to the cart without notice, her flank covered in spring green and pale pink.
For a few moments Silverline was silent. When he spoke his voice was distant. “He killed them.”