Twilight groaned as she continued looking over her books. She had been studying over dark magic for a while and still not found anything she needed. She knew what she needed to do for Trixie’s treatment but she still needed more information of the amulet’s creation.
It was an ancient thing. That was for sure. At least one thousand years old and used corrupting dark magic to cause its host to do horrible things and as time passed it got worse. She groaned as she let her head slump against the table. ’Ugh. I’ll just take a break.’
The next time Twilight opened her eyes she found herself surrounded by a black smoke and through it, she could see the eyes of somepony she hoped to never see again. They were the eyes of Sombra.
“No. No! You’re gone! G-Go away! We got rid of you!” She shouted, only causing the set of eyes to chuckle. It was as if she was no threat to him. She charged her horn and fired a bolt of magic towards him. “Go away!” She screamed, only to go pale when the magic went straight through him, causing him to laugh loudly. A giant fang filled mouth appeared under the eyes and started to come towards her.
“No!” She cried out as she fired bolt after bolt of magic, trying each and every variety she could think of but none did anything. The mouth was just upon her and as she clenched her eyes tightly, she heard a new voice.
“Be gone phantom. Leave this dream and do not return.” Twilight’s eyes shot open and looked towards the voice. It was Princess Luna. Now things started to make sense to Twilight. All this study into something dealing with dark magic brought back memories of King Sombra and his magic, resulting in a nightmare. She shivered at the memories before admiring the blast of radiant and cold magic that struck Sombra, forcing him back and away. With a final cry of pain and a hiss, the smoke and Sombra himself dissipated into the nothingness of the dreamscape.
With a nod to her work, Luna quickly made her way to Twilight and helped her up. “Twilight Sparkle. Are you alright?” She asked; worry clear in her eyes and voice. If anypony knew how bad dreams could affect anypony, it was Luna. She had seen plenty of ponies in the past nearly driven to madness by their own mind.
Twilight took her hoof happily and dusted herself off out of habit. “Yeah. A little shook up but otherwise I’m fine. Thank you so much Luna.” She said with a smile as Luna helped her up. “That was a bit of a shock. I’m just glad it was only a dream.”
“A dream to a sleeping pony is a real as anything else and can affect them just as bad.” Luna said sagely as Twilight looked around the now empty dreamscape. “I saw you were struggling with your slumber and came to help.” She explained before Twilight could have a chance to ask.
“Oh? Well. Thank you very much Luna.” She says with a smile, blushing at the fact she needed help
Luna smiled and waved a hoof as she shook her head. “It is no problem Twilight Sparkle. But. May I ask, what brought about the dreams of such a… being.” She said with so much venom that it could have stopped Sombra on its own.
“What? Oh. Right. Because dreams are heavily influenced by daily events.” She said to herself before taking a soft breath. “Well. I was studying an artifact that he made all day.”
Luna’s eyes narrowed as Twilight spoke. “Artifact? Which one, if I may be so bold?” She asks as her mind runs through the many, many different artifacts she knew of and then narrowed the results by her knowledge of what had been created by Sombra.
“The Alicorn Amulet. I keep looking and looking but none of his notes have anything about how he made it.” She scratches her head. “It’s just so weird. Before he went completely mad, he was so good about keeping notes. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Luna wore a tense frown before she spoke. “That’s because he didn’t create it.”
Twilight was shocked to say the least. “Wh-what?! But every record says it was his creation. That it was what turned him so evil.” She says quickly, confused by this revelation.
Luna shakes her head and sighs. “No. I’m afraid that the tale of the amulet isn’t so simple. Would you believe, Twilight Sparkle, that the amulet was originally created out of love?” She said with a sad voice as she brought the attention of the curious alicorn to a peak.
“Love? The alicorn amulet was made out of love?” Twilight asked, shocked for the second time in a row.
Luna gave a slow nod as she sat down upon one of the two pillows she had materialized and motioned for Twilight to do the same. “In more ways than one.” She began as the two sat upon the pillows. “The alicorn amulet is true to its name as its original goal was to turn a normal mare into an alicorn.” She lets out a heavy sigh “She really was a nice mare. Truly. Stubborn as any pony I’ve ever met but…So very kind…”
“You- you know who made the amulet? You personally knew them?” Twilight asked as she tried to hide her excitement poorly. This was fantastic! Luna personally knew the mare that created the amulet. This could put her study far ahead of her initial projections.
“I did. She was my personal guide whenever I visited the empire. Ideals and ponies were much more…traditional back then.” She explains with a sigh.
“Traditional? The only things I can think that took a big change were ideas toward- Oh…S-so she? A-and you?”
Luna answered with a deep nod. “Indeed, Twilight Sparkle. We were lovers. However, law would not allow anypony but fellow royalty to even imagine courting my sister or myself. So she decided to turn herself into the one thing that is always considered royalty with little to no question.”
“An alicorn…”
Luna nods in agreement, her face starting to allow some joy into it. “She was a wonder to watch while she worked. Can you imagine, Twilight Sparkle? An earth pony designing a magical amulet?”
Twilight was running out of energy to be shocked. “She was an earth pony? How could she be and still create the amulet? It works. I’ve seen it.”
“She used the same style that was used to create the crystal heart itself which was created by earth ponies. She then used the only magic available to every race…” She says slowing down and her joy disappearing. “Dark magic.” She nodded as Twilight gasped. “Indeed. She performed the most powerful ritual available to earth ponies to power the amulet. Unfortunately, as you can imagine dark magic isn’t an easy thing to contain or control. It took over the amulet without her even realizing it. Then. When she used the amulet to attempt to become an alicorn to publicly gain my love…” Luna trailed off as she spoke, memories flashing through her mind.
“Then what?” Twilight asked. Her inquisitive mind needed to know what happened.
A tear began to form and leak from the eye of the moon princess as she turned to fully face Twilight. “It worked.”
“Sh-she became an alicorn?! B-but I haven’t heard of any-“
She waved her hoof and wiped away the tears. “Dark magic always has a catch my dear Twilight. It took her need for love and…turned it literal…along with turning her mind into a pit of fear and dispair.”
Twilight worked the words in her mouth. “Turned her need for lover literal? But that doesn’t make any sense.” She shakes her head again. “I don’t understand. What happened to her?”
“Her name was Crystal Stage. She was a crystal earth pony. Her skill in painting was wonderful and she could act like no other…the name she goes by now however…is Chrysalis. Queen of the changelings.”
That was when Twilight temporarily broke. The pony who created the alicorn amulet and the former lover of Princess Luna…was the Queen of the Changelings. Luna gave Twilight time to fully grasp everything she told her as she looked out at the dreamscape. “I-I need time to think. This- This is huge. B-but what about when the changelings invaded? What happened then?”
Luna drops her head. “That was my own fault. I was unable to see through the disguise of Cadance even though she had obviously not done any actual study into her character or anything of the sort. She placed a powerful sleeping spell on me. I knew of nothing happening until I came down after the events had already been taken care of.” She sniffs and stands herself up straight, attempting to hide her current feelings. “But I must bid you farewell. I have things to do still this night.”
Twilight nodded without question. Luna may have tried to hide it but she had a much worse poker face than Celestia. Thanks to that, Twilight could tell that she definitely needed time alone. Besides. She got what she needed to learn. The alicorn amulet was connected to both changelings and the crystal heart. Which both had connections to emotions. Which means, quite obviously, that the source of the magical infection must be hiding somewhere in the emotional center of Trixie’s brain. However, she shook that thought off for a moment. It’d be rude to not see her off. “I understand. I hope you have a good night Luna.”
Luna nodded and was about to take off when in the spur of the moment, Twilight spoke again. “And-!” She fidgeted for a second as the princess’ eyes settled on her. “I-I’m sure there’s still a part of Crystal left in her.” She said weakly. Nevertheless, it seemed to be the right thing to say as Luna nodded.
“I agree.” She said simply before nodding and taking flight. Tonight – or what was left of it- was sure to be a busy night for the princess of friendship. She had so much to look through since she had been looking in all the wrong places.