6 - Research is Relative
It's a dark magic. Remnant's of that colt's juvenile tantrums,” Chrysalis told Princess Twilight Sparkle as she shook her head. “But we shouldn't be discussing such matters. You're tired. You should get some sleep.”
The alicorn's neutral expression turned dire as her body became rigid. Nevermind that her changeling friend had just feebly attempted once more to deflect the topic. Twilight needed an explanation as to the individual that Chrysalis had just eluded to. She needed the name now.
“What colt?” the princess asked darkly.
Chrysalis looked one way and another, her face scrunching in reaction to the realization that she had said something that might upset her queen. But she couldn't get around it. She was trapped between Tom and a hard place.
“Chrysalis!” Twilight huffed. “You should have told me about this sooner. Much sooner! Like before-I-had-to-confront-King-Sombra sooner! What do you know about him?!”
The black one slumped her shoulders in defeat, the mare opposite her going into a fit. Twilight had assumed properly as to who the male was and Chrysalis would have no choice but to concede to her leader. “Earth pony, betrayed my grandmother, stole changeling magic, very good with vaporization and regeneration magic.”
Twilight Sparkle's brow twitched. “I suppose you were going to tell me all of this eventually!”
Chrysalis blushed but felt more chastised then embarrassed.
“Where do I even start?” Twilight sighed and backed away from her desk, a hard look still on her countenance. It was already shaping up to be a long night and the sun hadn't even completely set yet. It was still half visible over the mountains for Pete's sake. “I need those snacks.”
Owlowiscious launched from his perch for a quick trip into the kitchen. Twilight sat down roughly with an “argh” of frustration as Chrysalis looked around, noticed Spike reading some help book in a corner, and then sat down silently across from the alicorn. “You doused him, so I didn't think my knowledge was relevant,” the shape-shifter remarked hopefully. “That white prissy didn't inform me that Sombra had broken free and you hardly had the time to let me know when you faced him.”
“Doused?” Twilight inquired again with a dark tone. “Please tell me there isn't a particular reason you used that word rather than 'eliminated' or 'destroyed.'”
“Um...” Chrysalis replied with a rare reluctance.
The princess facehoofed. Keeping up with the changeling was hard enough. The prospect of Sombra still being around was the perfect killjoy. That was, of course, assuming there was still any joy left to kill.
The owl returned and dropped a bag of mint-chocolate cookies in her lap before returning to his perch. She gave a thank you as she ripped open the package and resolved to forget her dieting concerns for the moment. With everything she had gone through in the past forty-eight hours, a little comfort food was more than justified. Seriously, Discord wasn't even around at the moment and things were getting more chaotic then they had been when he had been going on his tirade. At least that was how she felt at the moment.
“He's not really that dangerous,” Chrysalis tried to offer, not knowing she was not helping matters. “I could take him on myself. After a decent meal, that is.”
“Not that dangerous?!” Twilight complained, even more upset. “My brother barely made it out! My brother, who's way,” the alicorn gestured widely with a hoof, “stronger than you, Chrysalis.”
The changeling opened her mouth but didn't get to say anything before the other continued.
“But putting that aside, I suppose you could just tell me everything I want to know about that black crystal. You seem to know plenty about Sombra as it is. So,” Twilight started to slow down as she made in-out motions with her hoof. It seemed to be some kind of breathing exercise. Chrysalis recognized it as she had seen the princess do it several times before whenever she was getting overly frustrated or excited.
“So,” the purple pony repeated.
“So, you can just,” she paused again, in and out with her hoof.
“Just explain everything while I shove these cookies down my throat and,” her voice wobbled, hoof shaky as it stretched outwards.
“And pretend,” her eyes watered up, hoof falling down to the snack bag.
Chrysalis stiffened at attention and in worry.
“Pretend,” Twilight said again as she took a cookie and bit into it, tears forming. “Pretend I've got everything...together.”
The princess finally started bawling, at which point the other three occupants of the room had their eyes riveted on her. “Twilight,” the changeling called out, feeling the pressure of negative emotions emitting from the mare. “What's wrong? What happened?”
Spike stopped reading 100+1 Ways to Manage Your Gems but didn't get up from his spot yet. He, being the one who had been around Twilight the longest, saw this breakdown coming a hundred miles away. Twilight had a habit of blowing things out of proportion, especially when it came to things like tests and research. She had broken down before at the prospect that she might not get an A grade. The pressure she would inevitably feel from her coronation as princess was practically written on her schedule. The dragon knew she'd cry it out and be all right. He hardly even needed to pat her on the back anymore.
“I can't take this!” Twilight cried through her tears as she slumped to the floor. “You, the guards, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, everypony. I'm just a unicorn. A unicorn with wings! I'm not a princess!”
Chrysalis reached out and embraced the other, knowing the mare needed to just let it out. This was one more reason why she didn't want to tell the alicorn about what she knew. Because she knew it would just add one more weight on Twilight's delicate scale. In any case, the younger changelings often benefited from such simple gestures of kindness, such as physical contact, in moments of unusual stress. Such was a trait that many beings shared.
“I'm not!” the purple pony continued. “I can never be like Princess Celestia. I can never even be like Cadance. I'm just a pathetic egghead with no life!”
“No, you're not!” Chrysalis countered, seeing how the mare was crying over seemingly random and subject-disparate things.
The princess still sobbed, now against the other's black-carapaced shoulder. “The guards won't talk to me.”
“They're not really supposed to, Twilight,” Chrysalis commented confusedly. “They're just here to protect you.”
“Fluttershy doesn't trust me anymore,” was the next remark.
Where was she getting this stuff? “Of course she does. She's your friend.”
“Rainbow Dash thinks I'm lame,”
“Now that's just ridiculous,” Chrysalis argued with less certainty. The blue one could be rather condescending at times. But that was just from her own limited observations.
“You never talk to me about anything,”
“Oh, come on now,” the insectoid buzzed her wings faintly. “I very well do.”
“Nopony even cares about me!”
“Twilight!” Chrysalis shook the mare. “Snap out of it! None of it's true.”
Twilight's face was disheveled. A flushed mess marked with tears. “I...I...”
It was a good thing, Chrysalis thought to herself, that she had set up the ring with Fluttershy today. Twilight was buckling under the stress and she needed something more than a pat on the back to reassure her that everything was going to be okay. She needed something real and nothing was more real than the hivemind. One good sleep tonight would fix her self-confidence. Chrysalis was sure. More sure than she was of it helping herself because she hadn't gone through all her recent trouble for her own selfish reasons. She really did want Twilight to be Queen. To be something nopony had ever been before.
That's when Owlowiscious flew onto the alicorn's shoulder and snuggled against her face with a “hoo” of encouragement. A quiver raced at the corner of the mare's lip to tell the changeling that the princess in her arms just might smile again.
“Midterm for Critical Analysis of Ancient Magical Methodology and Practical Modern Applications,” Spike commented casually as he walked up from his spot in the corner of the room. He acted like nothing at all had happened. “You said nearly all of the same things when you got the test results back and found you only got an eighty-nine percent. It was your first B after Celestia started mentoring you. Only, the names were different. I believe you said that it was Shining Armor who didn't trust you and thought you were lame.”
Twilight looked at the dragon dumbly. Chrysalis smirked.
“I'll admit I was pretty young, but a dragon never forgets. Especially when you don't feed said dragon because you're so caught up in your own little world of self-pity,” he snorted smoke and put his hands on his hips as he had done earlier that same day. “Not like I put up with this sort of stuff often or anything.”
Something about Spike made Twilight's quiver turn into a small but very real smile. Chrysalis amazed at the special connection that the two shared. That Spike could be so indifferent and yet reach the mare's very heart said something about their relationship.
“Oh, Spike,” she regarded him, finally bringing a hoof to wipe away a tear on her face. Her sniffling lessened. “I never forgot to feed you. I just didn't get around to giving you your special dessert.”
“Aha!” he exclaimed triumphantly. “So you finally admit it.”
“I admit nothing,” she spun away suddenly from the reptilian and coincidently out of Chrysalis' grasp with a look of renewed determination on her face. She grabbed the bag of cookies that had fallen over onto the floor. “And you shouldn't be keeping a grudge over one tiny cup of sapphire sauce.”
Spike rolled his eyes. His job to get Twilight back on her rails was already over so the rest of his words were muttered low enough that the others couldn't hear him as he walked back over to his reading spot. “And you shouldn't flip out all the time.”
“What were you saying about Sombra being an Earth pony?” the princess questioned her larger friend as she put the cookies up on her desk opposite the crystal. She rubbed at her face again, as if trying to erase what had happened. But her face remained flush and her eyes were still glowing faintly, which probably meant she was fighting herself back into a calm.
She recovers rather well, the changeling mentally recorded. “I only know what my grandmother told me and she was rather old,” she disclaimed. “Sombra was originally a prince from some kingdom beyond the eastern desert. An Earth pony.”
“But he had a horn, which makes him a unicorn,” Twilight added in counter-fact as she resorted the items on her desk and situated the dark crystal on a scope slider. It was small enough to actually fit. If it was a remnant then it must have either been very old or else far away from the point of origin because there wasn't much of it.
“Was it unusual for a horn?” Chrysalis asked pointedly.
“Uh,” Twilight stopped herself and then decided. “Yes, I suppose it was.”
“It wasn't a unicorn's horn. It was something he created using dark magic. A magnification point to make his magic more powerful.”
“Wait,” Twilight turned her head to look Chrysalis in the eye. “Magic doesn't work that way. Earth ponies can't-”
“After all you said before about making assumptions regarding ponies you've never even known?” Chrysalis interjected with grin, taking Spike's tactic and not pushing the mare on the matter of her brief breakdown.
Twilight sighed as if to let out the last of her pent-up emotions. “I guess I like to think I have everything down to a science. I know that's not how everything works, though,” she looked back to the microscope and remembered Pinkie Pie's unusual Pinkie Sense.
“All I know is what grandmother told me,” Chrysalis relented. “I wasn't there so it could all be made up as far as I know.”
“And yet you've seen these dark crystals before,” Twilight countered as she turned her head to regard the shape-shifter with a raised brow. Science mode had been successfully re-engaged.
“My hive came across them in the northern wastes when we were on the move. I assume that was Sombra's prison before he broke out,” she explained with a nostalgic tone. It felt odd to speak of her former hive, even a bit distasteful if that made any sense. “It made me realize that grandmother might have been telling the facts rather than some spun up story. It was just mild curiosity though because I didn't have the time back then to do any investigating. I had a hive to feed.”
Twilight nodded minutely as she looked through the microscope's lens, gears turning one after another. “So Sombra was supposed to be some Earth pony prince? Why would your grandmother know?”
“He came to her. I guess he thought a hive would be able to help him find somepony he was looking for.”
Twilight looked up from the lens and back to Chrysalis.
“He came to her with some weird prophesy,” the changeling shrugged her shoulders. “Said he had a dream about finding a princess of great power, marrying her, and ruling an empire of immeasurable prosperity.”
Twilight must have looked like the most skeptical pony in all of Equestria at that moment because Chrysalis felt the need to disclaim once again. “Well I didn't come up with this stuff. My grandmother did. Assuming it wasn't real, which I now think that it was.”
“Alright,” the princess admitted and turned back to her desk. “Tell me everything. There might be something useful in there.”
Chrysalis frowned slightly in return, partly for trying to remember and partly at Twilight's skepticism. Not that she had ever been skeptical herself. “This princess was supposed to be waiting for him on the horizon. Only, he never found a horizon with her on it. So he started getting others to help him look. He, as my grandmother believed, was rather charming for a pony, so she went along with his requests. Even started teaching him things that were normally kept between changelings. If I recall properly, the transformative magic was the last straw.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight mumbled as she jotted down some notes from her observations on the crystal under the lens.
“Well, energy transformation is a very powerful thing to learn. Especially when fused with other magics from other cultures. One can do just about anything. Like, for example, construct a new magical medium.”
“What?” Twilight brought her face back up from the telescope and looked over to her friend once again, focus broken as soon as she had acquired it. “Mediums are fundamental. They're foundational systems of magic. You can't 'invent' them.”
“Ah, language. I suppose in your terms I should say he 'discovered' the medium of dark magic,” Chrysalis waxed in an eloquent tone indicating her distaste of arguments relating entirely to semantics.
“King Sombra, evil dictator of the Crystal Empire,” Twilight gestured wildly with no small amount of sarcasm, “was the founding figure of dark magic?”
“The Crystal Empire is old, Twilight,” Chrysalis countered. “A thousand years ago, dark magic was not as it is today. It existed then as lesser magics spread amongst many beings and cultures. Sombra brought it all together into something new and powerful. Practically made it a science unto itself. But those are grandmother's words, not mine.”
“I know,” Twilight sighed and turned back to her notes. She wasn't about to blame some incredible story on Chrysalis' recent boost in free time. “But wasn't he looking for this princess?” she asked to get things back on track. “Why did he get so obsessed with collecting magical abilities? How did he even interact with magic in the first place?”
“Hm,” Chrysalis hummed as she laid onto the floor to get more comfortable. “Was it before or after he left the hive? It's been a really long time since I heard the stories, so it's hard for me to remember it all.”
“I can't expect much more,” the princess admitted as she observed the crystal and took more notes down onto her paper. “Just tell me what you can remember.”
The shape-shifter nodded and put her head down onto her forehooves before her. “I think she said he lost hope. He eventually gave up on finding the princess himself but he didn't give up on the prophecy. So he decided to have the princess come to him instead. It doesn't meld with the dream so I can only assume he was making it up at that point. Or else grandmother was recalling it wrong.”
“Going so far just over a dream? Sounds like he wasn't very stable to begin with,” Twilight remarked sourly in passing.
“That's how things were back then, Twilight,” Chrysalis explained sternly, not having expected her queen to make a fallacy relating to modern projection. “If the tales are to be trusted, the griffons were some of the worst when it came to ritual extremism. They'd do all sorts of crazy things based on nothing more than bad weather and a stomach ache.”
Twilight shook her head. She had a hard time grasping other ways of life that didn't involve her hard and seemingly trustworthy science. “So Sombra made his own empire?”
“Yes. It wasn't hard for him to start because he was already a prince and his kingdom was apparently well built. The crystal ponies became his first choice because of their talents in gems and precious rock. The dark magic he 'discovered' made use of crystal as a control amplifier.”
The more scientific terminology caught the alicorn's interest. For another time, she turned from her desk and regarded the changeling. “Amplifier?”
“Yes, like his artificial horn that enabled him to interact with magic directly. That part of his dark medium was derived from the arachnes of the far West. Grandmother was very adamant about that point. She'd always go white at that part, as if she'd seen one for herself,” Chrysalis shivered.
“I've never heard of them,” Twilight said with a flat tone. “Spiders? Are they supposed to be special in some way that they use magic?”
“I don't know, Twilight,” Chrysalis raised a brow. “This is just stuff that I was told. And all she ever said on the matter was that they were only half spider. She never said what the other half was.”
That gave Twilight the chills. “Perhaps, you should just go on with Sombra,” the pony quickly turned back to the familiarity of her work desk and the microscope.
“Indeed. If you ask me, Sombra didn't really come up with much of his own magic. He just got around and stole techniques from others. Blended it in whatever way suited him, which is probably why dark magic is so twisted. It sickens me to think that he incorporated changeling magic within it. Practically taints my horn.”
Twilight giggled at that for a reason she could not entirely place. “You said he betrayed your grandmother. How so?”
“He was supposed to use his knowledge of changeling magic to help the hive align with his own kingdom. Hive's need food after all. But he didn't. All he used it for was his own ends to build his own empire. Enslave its citizens at that!”
“Hmm,” Twilight brushed her quill against the paper in a purple magical grip. “Slavery doesn't appeal to changelings?”
It was really more of a wonderment than a question but Chrysalis answered it anyways. “No. What you ponies understand as slavery is actually many different kinds of relationships. The kind that Sombra had with his subjects is not acceptable to our way of life.”
“Interesting,” the princess looked up from her papers and stared ahead. “I've read in some sociology books that different cultures can view the same thing very differently. Not one necessarily being wrong and another being right. I know this is rather off-topic but I'm curious,” Twilight finally smiled, back in her familiar world of learning. She even grabbed a cookie from the snack bag and started munching on it, relishing the minty flavor. “What do you mean when you say that slavery is actually many different relationships?”
Chrysalis knew that the princess wasn't really up to any more lines of conversation from the weariness in her voice. But the changeling humored her for the moment. “That's not really what I meant but it does prove my point. It's as if to see one chamber amongst many. It is not wrong to force one to move from the hatchery to the watering chamber. In fact, it would be the worst cruelty not to.”
“Huh?” the alicorn was lost.
“Forgive me,” Chrysalis turned her face away sadly. “I'm not speaking in ways you yet know. To satisfy your interest, it is acceptable to use 'slavery' as long as it serves a purpose for the hive.”
Twilight had resumed her work and just made a critical observation with the black crystal. So she started speaking in a much brighter voice. “Let me guess. Changeling culture accepts slavery only in the context of a pony or similar being that is held for the purpose of feeding the hive. But only should the being's physical and mental requirements be fulfilled, sans their knowledge of the reality of their situation.”
“I'll have to admit that sun-flank is right about one thing,” Chrysalis worked in a sideways nickname as she grinned. “You can be frighteningly accurate. And, yes, you're right.”
“Some things are not as complicated as they seem,” Twilight explained as she decided to ignore the manner in which the changeling had referred to Princess Celestia. She was too tired for that argument. No, she couldn't be tired yet. “In some matters, I've noticed that changelings are very logical in their way of life. When it comes to feeding off another's love, the subject cannot be hurt or degraded in such a way that may affect the future level of extraction. It's just the simple logic of survival. 'Your chickens are your children' as the saying goes.”
“I've never heard that one,” Chrysalis deadpanned.
Twilight laughed lightly with a blush. “Fluttershy said that to me once. She takes it literally, but what it means is that you take care of the chickens as you would your own child because they are the ones providing you with the eggs.”
“Ah,” the shape-shifter noted mentally as she noticed a change in Twilight's posture. “Tired?”
The princess nodded faintly and leaned back from her desk, sighing. A quick glance showed the owl to be resting peacefully on his perch. He had a long flight so he was probably tired as well. Spike was more awake but drooping enough for her to notice. He had probably exhausted his own energy quicker than usual today thanks to the shelf work. Twilight had gotten some rest earlier in the day as had her black companion, but both of them had also spent more energy than usual doing things they normally didn't. In example, Chrysalis constructing a sleep ring and Twilight flight training.
“Yes,” she relented. “Rainbow Dash had me flying miles and I don't usually exercise so much. Not that I'm so easily drained!” she tried to cover any indication of physical weakness out of embarrassment.
Chrysalis giggled with a buzz. While Rainbow Dash and Applejack were certainly more physically able than the bookish princess, Chrysalis minded none of it. She didn't judge others on such shallow terms of absolute might or mind. She herself, after all, had not led her previous hive through survival with only one or the other. It was determination from the heart that lasted her as long as she had. With any manner of slim luck in the night, she would no longer have to rely so much on shear will. There would finally be a deep seated peace of mind...
The alicorn may have wanted to stay up late studying the crystal, but Chrysalis was more interested in getting the mare to her queen-fitted sleep ring. That was, after all, the crux of the entire day (or night). “Research can get muddy late at night,” Chrysalis got up from the floor and nudged the princess on the side. “You'll focus better tomorrow. Let's get you to bed.”
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Another good chapter! I like how the plot thickens. One can only wonder where this talk of black magic will lead us readers.
So Sombra was running around looking for Twilight?
Twilight finally getting to bed? Oh yea this is going to be good.
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Or Nightmare Moon...
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No, see, the horizon is time, and the princess is Cadance. And the prosperity thing is really in spite of him, and, I dunno, the marriage bit was just wish fulfillment? Anyway, his empire only became prosperous because he became the bad guy and a princess rescued it from him. Prophecies can be tricky like that.
>>>“Sombra was originally a prince from some kingdom beyond the eastern desert. An Earth pony.”
“It wasn't a unicorn's horn. It was something he created using dark magic. A magnification point to make his magic more powerful.”>>>
Yep, I've had the same notion. Only I'm using it in a semi-farce pony version of 'Dr. Horrible": "Dr. Helix' Rant-A-Long Blabbering". Cqan't fully explain, don't want to give away the twist.
>>>The dark magic he 'discovered' made use of crystal as a control amplifier.” The more scientific terminology caught the alicorn's interest. For another time, she turned from her desk and regarded the changeling. “Amplifier?”
“Yes, like his artificial horn that enabled him to interact with magic directly. That part of his dark medium was derived from the arachnes of the far west. “I've never heard of them,” Twilight said with a flat tone. “Spiders? Are they supposed to be special in some way that they use magic?”
“I don't know, Twilight,” Chrysalis raised a brow. “This is just stuff that I was told. And all she ever said on the matter was that they were only half spider.>>>
Spiders... crystal amplifiers... uh-oh. Time to call Doctor Hooves! The Eight-Legs and the Great One are back!
images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110514142708/tardis/images/2/27/Great_One.jpg
That means... EQUESTRIA IS REALLY METABILIS 3!!!
Though, the spiders prolly eat changelings, so that's kinda good...
I do like the lore of Sombra, as well as the myth making behind dark magic, but my favorite part was how easily Spike countered Twilight's emotional breakdown. Gonna continue reading now.
I've just started reading this story, but that claim that Shining is stronger than Chrysalis... Twilight must be pretty tired to actually believe that one.
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maby in raw power?
im hearing this
in my head. Chrysalis's ulterior motive is sounding that alarm
If this chapter didn't go up long enough ago that it may have predated the comic's Reflections arc, I'd say Sombra was looking for alternate-universe Celestia.
Canon-Sombra and Alt-Celestia dated (or were prophesied to hook up) around the same time as Canon-Celestia and Alt-Sombra were having their fling behind Canon-Starswirl's back. Then Alt-Celestia went evil, Canon-Sombra followed suit when she didn't show up, and both worlds went to pony hell for a while.
6907802 you probs know this now as its 31 weeks later but the answer was in the prophesy
he was looking for a princess on the horizon
so out of the princesses
celestia
luna
twilight
now which one has a connection with horizons
well celestia is the day
luna is the night
twilight is the time between day and night :ie when the sun and moon sit on the horizon
imma shut up now
Was honestly half expecting Chrysalis to try to incorperate Fluttershy's chickens into this ad-hoc duct-tape and bailing wire 'hivemind' she is setting up after a honest misunderstanding on the Pony biology vs the Changeling one. Assuming the hens were part of the pony lifecycle somehow. Then being too embarrassed to ask for clarification because it is such a sensitive matter.
I am a silly horse.
>Hive's need food after all.
Hives*
So Sombra was really a poser!
My brother, who's way,” the alicorn gestured widely with a hoof, “stronger than you, Chrysalis.”
I wonder how strong do you think Chrysalis is.
No you're not, you're a wonderful mare, Twilight, one worthy of the title of princess. I have faith in you, always.