//------------------------------// // And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way // Story: Stars Relit // by Rocinante //------------------------------// Twilight didn’t know what she had expected, but it wasn’t this. Devastation was the only word she could call it. The sparkling gem of a city; frozen, mangled. She had not dared to look behind her when she had fled the place all those years ago. It was a miracle five of her friends had made it out alive. The wall of angry ice that had chased them from the city was gone now. Instead, a thin veneer of frost covered everything. Crystal ponies were frozen in time, trapped in whatever pose they had been frozen in. The buildings fared far worse. “Are they dead?” Iris asked, looking at one of the frozen ponies. “No, they’re alive in there,” Discord answered, looking a crystal pony in the mouth before gifting it a woolly hat and scarf. “How?” Tranquility asked. Twilight stood over a family that had huddled together before the ice hit them. They had been lucky to be outside when the ice hit. A collapsed house nearby offered a much grimmer scene. “It’s part of the crystal ponies’s inherent magic. They can’t be damaged by cold, only put into a suspended state. A lot of these ponies were alive when Sombra took over.” Surprise stepped beside Twilight. The terrified family seemed to be begging her for help. “Can we wake them up?” Washing her magic over the ice, Twilight pondered the spell lingering on them. It reeked of dark magic. “The crystal heart should be able to fix this.” “Yes. That heart will fix everything.” Twilight’s blood ran cold. That was not a voice she had hoped to ever hear again, and certainly not this soon. “Black Heart,” she greeted her sister in law. Taking a few careful steps, Twilight placed herself between the dark alicorn and her friends. “Twilight,” Black Heart said, a wicked grin curling her muzzle. A flash of blue and green magic shredded Twilight’s saddlebag, sending its contents flying. Except for the broken heart that remained shrouded in Black Heart’s magic. “No!” Twilight shouted. Her horn flared as lavender magic churned the earth, pulling up tendrils of crystal that wrapped themselves around the heart, till it was secure within a protective cage.  Leaping forward, Twilight entwined more magic around herself. “Get to the city center!” she yelled to to nopony particular. “I’ll keep Cadence here.” Black Heart stiffened at Twilight’s words. Her magic lashed out not at Twilight, but over her head towards Morning and the others. Morning’s mind scrambled to weave together a defensive spell. She could feel Evening doing the same. It was a good effort, but far too slow. Moring could only gawk at the lavender aura that batted the dark magic aside. “Now!” Princess Twilight Sparkle ordered. Spike, Discord, and the five young mares ran into the ruins of the city. Dark magic lunged out at Twilight, reminding her that she had a corrupt alicorn to shackle. The wards she had already set around herself absorbed the blow. Taking wing to again place herself between Cadence and her friends, she let her own magic lash out. It was a real attack, but not one meant to hit home, just something to remind her foe that she was dangerous. Black Heart dodged the blow with grace. Landing a bit further back, she looked from Twilight to the gnarled spire that held the heart, and then to the pile of elements on the ground. “The heart and the elements are here, your friends pose no threat to me.” “Cadence, I know you’re still in there. Let him go. There’s been enough suffering already.” Black Heart paused her pacing, honest surprise on her face. “How did you know?” Twilight used the distraction to call the elements to her side. “I know when a pony dies. It’s my gift. I never felt Shining’s soul in the stars.”  Memories of her first best friend stirred the element of magic within her. Focusing on the twinkle, she fed it magic. “Let me heal the heart, let me heal you.” The element of magic called to its kin. Giving the magic will, Twilight commanded the gems to circle her. “I do not need healing, your brother does.” Black Heart’s expression softened. For a moment Twilight could see her old foalsitter. “I still have most of it. The magic I stripped from those monsters is still within me.” And the moment was gone. Twilight shook her head. “At what cost? You killed countless changelings gathering that magic. You killed your own heart ignoring Chrysalis’s cries for mercy.” “It is done.” Black Heart squared herself to Twilight, letting her magic crackle around her. “My actions have no bearing on yours. We will fight, and your brother will die. Or you can save him, and what happens to me will be my own doing.” This was wrong. Black Heart was a murderer more times over than any pony in history. The elements around Twilight hummed with magic, looking for a target to lash out at. She could banish Black Heart here and now. It would be a fight, and exactly what she sat out not to do, but it would end this. Sensing the fight in Twilight, Black Heart prepared herself for the attack. “What do you need me to do?” Twilight asked. “The heart,” Black Heart said, not taking her eyes off Twilight. “I will have to fill it with the power I stole from Chrysalis. Then I will use the heart to stop death. You brother will be as immortal as you and I.” “It’s broken. I had planned on using the elements to fix it.” “Oh…? I thought you had planned on using them to seal me within the ice for a thousand years.” “That was plan B.” Black Heart laughed, but there was no humor in it. “If you can fix the heart, simply staying out of my way will be enough.” A flick of Twilight’s magic shattered the crystal cage protecting the heart. Black Heart winced, and shrunk away from the rainbow blast that followed.