//------------------------------//
// 5. Treachery 
// Story: The Alchemist 
// by bkc56 
//------------------------------//

Even after all the changes over the years, Ann was still a farm filly at heart. So it was no surprise that, despite her weariness, she awoke just before dawn. She stretched and felt how unusually smooth the sheets were. Suddenly, she sat up and looked around the room. This isn’t my bedroom, this is the castle. She closed her eyes for a moment, then her hoof covered her mouth as she remembered. She rolled out of bed and was ready for the day in minutes. She put on her saddlebags and exited the room.

As she walked down the hallway, she noticed that it was empty. There should be a couple guards standing down there... She shrugged it off. Still, she walked a little faster. Her ears constantly swiveled. Occasionally she would glance behind her.

"First stop, food," she said aloud as she trotted down the stairs towards the guard's mess hall. Ann stopped in the doorway. The room was completely empty. She pawed at the floor. There should be at least a few guards here this time of day. She walked towards the entrance to the kitchen. Even the on-duty cook was missing.

There was a little food left out, so she grabbed a muffin and some juice. The whole time her eyes scanned the room and watched the door. Her bites were rather large and not well chewed. A distant noise made her stop mid-bite and listen. Her tail flicked nervously. Once finished, she trotted to the exit and began to make her way up the stairs and towards the throne room. As she walked down a hallway, she heard a distant sound. She stopped to listen, ears forward and alert. It was the sound of galloping hooves, and they were getting closer. Ann took several steps back, and lowered her head. Her tail flicked nervously. 

Suddenly, a pony skidded around a corner just ahead, bounced off the wall, and started to gallop towards her. "Thunder Surf!" she called out.

He slid to a stop in front of her. "Miss Ann. We need your help. Princess Celestia has been poisoned."

She reeled at his words. "What?"

"There's no time." He turned around. "I'll explain as we go."

Ann bolted forward and paced with him as he started to trot. Once around the corner, they broke into a gallop.

"We had a spy in the castle, a member of Celestia's private guard.” He snorted angrily. “We believe he slipped something into her tea. He was captured trying to leave the castle."

She shook her head to get her mane out of her eyes. "I don't understand. Don’t they need the princess to bring Nightmare Moon back?" They galloped on for a bit. "I haven't been this way before. Where are we going?"

"To Celestia's private chamber. It's just ahead."

The hallway was full of guards who stepped back to make a path as the pair galloped by. Ann was starting to pant by the time they slowed to a walk and entered the chamber. Princess Celestia was lying on her bed with several guards positioned around her. Her eyes were closed, but she was still breathing. The chief medical officer stood next to the princess, his horn glowing with magic. Hearing the pair enter, he turned to face them.

"Thank you, Thunder Surf. Miss Ann, we are in desperate need of your help."

She stared wide-eyed between the officer and the princess. "I... But I... I have nothing to work with. Nothing I can analyze. I can’t wake up the princess. I'm not a healer. I'm not a doctor." She retreated a step.

The officer matched her step. "But I am, and I've examined her very carefully. This is not magic, nor is she simply sick. This is organic in nature." He signaled one of the guards to approach. "We apprehended the traitor as he tried to escape. Fortunately, he was dumb enough to still have the mixture on him." The guard held up a half empty container of powder. "Miss Ann, we need you to figure out what this is, and, hopefully, prepare an antidote."

He levitated the container from the guard and floated it in front of her. "I'm not an alchemist. This isn't my field."

"And I guess the mixers in the lab are all evacuated..."

"Correct. Even if they were still in the castle, they also aren’t trained alchemists. They just create the mixtures and potions we use in the castle. We haven’t had a true royal alchemist for many years. And your master is not here."

Ann stood, frozen in place, staring at the container floating in front of her. She swallowed hard. After a quick glance at Thunder Surf, she took a deep breath and slowly let it out. My master has had me do this exact exercise hundreds of times. She looked back at the officer. ”You're right. I will do what I can." She took the container, slipped it into her saddlebag, then spun around and galloped out of the room retracing the route back to the lab. Thunder Surf followed hot on her heels.

After a few strides, Thunder Surf moved up next to Ann. "We don't believe they intend to kill the princess since they need her to restore Nightmare Moon. But by disabling her, she can’t help defend the castle.” They exited one hallway, galloped through a gallery, and turned down a different hallway. “We think the spy was supposed to tell them when to start their attack. Without the help of the princess, we would lose the castle. Catching the spy will buy us some time.”

Ann was starting to pant. "What if... there are more spies?"

"We've doubled all the guards, and everypony at a station or on patrol is in teams of three ponies selected at random."

"Except us?"

"There are already guards waiting for us at the lab. Nopony should be able to get away unseen."

They turned the final corner into the hallway leading to the lab. Ahead they could see the three guard members waiting for them. A pegasus opened the door, allowing the pair to enter. The three guards followed them in and arranged themselves by the door. Ann gave them a quick glance. She shuddered. All three were in full battle armor. There was an earth pony with a metal-tipped spear, a unicorn with a sheathed sword, and a pegasus with gleaming wing blades. Her eyes lingered on the cutting edge of the blades. She had never seen anything so... deadly.

Thunder Surf spoke low, "Don't fear, Miss Ann. They are here to protect you, as am I. Focus on your task."

She glanced at him, nodded once, and moved to one of the open tables. After removing her saddlebags, she levitated the container with the poison onto the table. With absolute certainty she moved from cabinet to cabinet, collecting the glassware and tools she would need.

Thunder Surf walked to the table she had selected. “Miss Ann…”

“Hmm…?” She took a moment to organize everything on the table, pulled up a stool, and sat down.

His eyes scanned the row of equipment she had lined up. Softly, he asked, “Can you explain what you’re doing?”

She glanced over at him. “What? Oh… sure. I get it. Private guard. You need to know what’s going on.” She grabbed the container with the leftover mixture and removed the top.

He nodded. “Yes, if you would, please. I’m also just curious about what an alchemist does.”

“Sure, no problem. It’ll be just like when my master tests me and demands I explain every step I take.” She placed a piece of filter paper over the open container and inhaled. She closed her eyes as she sniffed a couple more times, then set the container down. "No odor. Probably tasteless too if they expected the princess to drink it undetected."

Thunder Surf pulled out an available stool and sat down.

She looked over at him. “So, I’m going to run a series of simple tests on the mixture. I doubt any of them will tell me what it is, but they will help tell me what it isn’t. Like not having any odor rules out a lot of things right there.” She put the used filter paper in a tray positioned well away from everything else.

Ann poured some of the powder into a small dish and studied it. “It’s too finely ground to see any specific colors. And being a mixture, a flame test won’t tell me anything.”

Thunder Surf pulled the dish closer to take a look at it.

“Careful, not too close. You don’t want to accidentally breathe in any of the powder.”

He glanced up at her, then poked at the dish with a hoof to scoot it farther away. “I wasn't very good at science in school. I couldn't ever do this. And you seem so good at it.”

Ann smiled. “I could never do all the things you do as a royal guard. But science is my life.”

She levitated a glass tube, added some distilled water, and dropped in some of the powder. "Dissolves rapidly with no color or residue. Again, as expected if being added to a drink. So again, what I see here rules out a number of additional possibilities.”

She slid a metal stand over. It had a broad flat base and a vertical bar. Two cross pieces were clamped to the bar at different heights. She secured the tube to the lower one. She removed a thin strip of paper from a container and hung it from the top bar using a small alligator clip. The top bar was adjusted until the paper just touched the liquid in the tube. Every movement was precise, practiced, the result of years of repetition.

Thunder Surf leaned closer and lowered his head to look at the contraption. "What’s that for?"

Ann looked at him. “How shall I explain this… You know how a prism allows you to see all the colors that make up sunlight?” He nodded. “This will allow me to see some of the ingredients that make up the mixture. That’s not totally accurate, but you get the idea…”

He nodded, “I guess...” He squinted at the contraption.

She sat back on the stool. "Each soluble ingredient leaves a unique signature on the paper. If you know what to look for, you may be able to identify some of them. The more ingredients you can identify, the easier it is to deal with the ones that are left."

She leaned forward again as her horn began to glow. "Using magic, I can accelerate the process, saving us a few minutes." The paper began to glow, and they watched a smear of color climb the strip. The magic faded, and she squinted at the strip. "Looks like two main ingredients that I need to figure out, and some trace stuff. Probably just impurities."

“Wow, it just looks like a smear of color to me. You really seem to know what you’re doing. I hope you can figure this out.”

“I’m doing my best. At least I only have to figure out two things.” She slid over a petri dish and put a tiny bit of the mixture in it.

“This mixture is like dumping the pieces from two jigsaw puzzles in a bowl, mixing them together, and throwing away the boxes. I need to assemble the two puzzles with no pictures to guide me.” Using the spatula she spread it out into a thin layer. “I can use magic to essentially look at each grain of powder as another puzzle piece. The more of them I look at, the better image I have. And if I'm lucky..."

She looked at the guards, and then at Thunder Surf. "This is a hard spell, and I'll need to keep it going for a long time. I need to focus, so please, no talking, no distractions."

She turned back to the dish, closed her eyes, and started the spell. Her horn began to glow, and little twinkles could be seen in the dish. It was as if individual particles were enveloped in magic for a few moments, and then went dark again.

Time marched on. The room was as quiet as a graveyard. Quieter. The guards controlled their breathing to keep silent. Nopony moved or made a sound. Thunder Surf glanced at the three guards. One shrugged. What else could they do?

Ann sat motionless. She barely breathed. Sweat formed on her brow and ran down her face. The only difference between her and the various statues in the royal garden was that Ann appeared to still be breathing.

A drop of water fell from a spigot and splashed in the bottom of the sink. All four guards turned to glare at the offending sound, then back to the apprentice to see if she had been disturbed. The unicorn guard reached out with magic to give the valve an extra twist to stop any further droplet incursions.

More time passed.

Suddenly, Ann called out, "Got one!" All four guards startled. The earth pony almost dropped his spear.

"Miss Ann--"

"Shh." She held up a hoof. "Almost done..." She was so focused that she forgot to lower her leg.

A few more minutes ticked away. Ann opened her eyes and sat up. "Got the other one." She spun on the stool to face Thunder Surf. "The first one is a simple general anesthesia drug. The other is a more complicated compound that interferes with a unicorn's ability to cast magic. Neither is a poison. The princess’ life is not in danger from this mixture."

"Whew, that is good to hear. Can you make an antidote?" Thunder Surf asked.

"For the first one, yes. For the second, no pony has found anything to counteract it yet."

His brow furrowed in worry. "But... what does that mean for the princess?"

She stood up from the table and went to the shelves of ingredients. "I'll explain it when we get back to the medical officer. I just need a few more minutes..." She levitated several containers to a different table equipped with a scale and mixing equipment. With speed and efficiency, she measured ingredients, mixed them together, and poured the results into a small container. She slipped it into her saddlebag and headed out the door. "Let's go!"

Within moments all five were galloping down the hallway back to Celestia's private chamber. The three guards remained in the hallway as Ann and Thunder Surf entered the room.

The chief medical officer spun around. "Did you find something? Can you help the princess?"

Ann trotted up to him. Thunder Surf hung back a bit. "Yes, I figured out what's in the mixture." The officer let out a relieved sigh. "It's composed of two things. The first is a general anesthesia. If the container was full to start with, and based on how much is missing, it would probably keep her asleep for close to a full day. I mixed an antidote."

The officer perked up. "So, you can wake her up now?"

"Yes." She levitated the container out of her saddlebag and sat it on a table next to them. "Dump this under her tongue. It will be absorbed directly into the bloodstream. I would expect her to awaken within minutes."

He glanced at Thunder Surf, who nodded once. He then opened the container, walked to the princess, and did as instructed. He turned back to Ann. "And the other?"

"It's similar to an anesthetic, except that it specifically interferes with a unicorn's ability to cast magic. The magic is still there, they just can't focus so they can use it."

"Is there an antidote?"

She shook her head. "No, there isn't. It will have to wear off as her body breaks it down naturally. Again, it will probably last about a day."

The princess let out a soft moan and shifted her position in the bed.

Ann glanced at her. “That was quicker than I would have expected.”

The medical officer moved in close to the princess. “Princess Celestia, are you awake?” After a few moments he reached out and gave her shoulder a gentle shake. “Princess Celestia, can you hear me?”

She moaned again, and opened her eyes just a crack. “Yes, but we are… What happened?”

“You have been drugged. What’s the last thing you can remember?”

She squeezed her eyes shut, and then opened them a bit wider. “We were taking a short break in our chamber and having some tea. Our magic… The teacup fell to the floor and broke. We looked down at it, and the floor rushed up… We don’t remember…”

“You were given a drug to put you to sleep. That was a few hours ago.”

She lifted her head and took in the room. “That doesn’t seem long enough to be of any value.”

“It was supposed to be closer to a full day.” The officer looked over his shoulder at Ann. “But we had a skilled alchemist in the castle who was able to identify the mixture and prepare an antidote.”

The princess looked at Ann. Once again, Ann felt… small. Though her breathing was steady, and her heart did not race. Ann did not avert her gaze.

The princess smiled. “Windflower, we…” Her voice softened. “Thank you.” Ann bowed.

The princess turned back to the medical officer. “What of our magic?” She closed her eyes for a moment. “We cannot feel it.”

“The other drug in your tea blocks your ability to cast magic. There is no antidote, but Miss Ann believes it will wear off in about a day.”

Celestia’s eyes went wide. She looked at the guard standing by the foot of her bed. “Captain, what is the status of the attacking forces? Be brief.”

He moved up to the head of her bed. “Their forces are advancing towards the castle. Observers say all the camps outside the city are empty. We believe the spy accomplishing his treachery was to be their signal to start the attack. Since he was captured, they don’t know if he was successful.”

“What of our defenses?” The princess sat up in bed. Her eyelids no longer drooped as she held the captain’s gaze.

“With your status in doubt, we selected a previous plan that had been rejected in favor of one that relied more on your ability to intervene. The outer gate will be only lightly secured, allowing the forces to breach it with little damage. The layout of the courtyard will force them into a choke point to approach the inner gate. If we are very lucky, we may be able to hold our defense there with our limited numbers.”

“A wise strategy, Captain. You have done well.” She kicked off the covers. “We must get to the observation balcony.”

The medical officer stepped forward. “Princess, you need more rest.”

“We will rest later.” She put her legs over the edge and slipped out of the bed. Almost immediately, she collapsed onto her knees.

“Princess!” The medical officer rushed to her side.

Princess Celestia shook her head. “It would appear we may need some small assistance.”

The captain scanned the room and pointed at two unicorns. “You two!” They stepped forward and saluted. “One on each side, aid the princess.” They saluted again and moved into position. Their horns glowed as they helped the princess back to her hooves. Her first steps were shaky and tentative, but the guards kept pace supporting her.

The captain barked, “Everypony, to your stations.” Most of the ponies in the chamber and hallway galloped off. Each step Princess Celestia took was a little quicker and more confident. She raised her head up. As she exited the room, members of her private guard fell in step behind her. Thunder Surf and Ann brought up the rear.

Ann glanced at Thunder Surf. “What is this balcony the princess mentioned?”

“About halfway up the tower we are going to is an ornate room with a large balcony. It’s used to host social gatherings for visiting dignitaries. The balcony provides an impressive view of Canterlot as well as the lands in the distance. And like so many things in a castle, it also serves in its defense.”

As they continued on their path to the tower, two guard members galloped up from behind.

“Captain! Captain!” one called out.

The procession stopped, and the captain moved back to meet them. “Report.”

“The attacking forces have breached the main gate. It was undamaged, as anticipated. The pegasus observers have retreated to the inner wall. The forces are moving into the courtyard now, but are not attacking yet.” He stood at attention.

The captain nodded once. “Thank you. Return and inform the commanders that the princess will soon be in the observation balcony and to await further instructions.”

He broke his rigid pose to look at the captain. “So the princess is okay?”

“You have your orders,” the captain barked.

He saluted. “Yes, sir.” The pair turned and galloped away.

The captain returned to the princess. “We must hurry. Time is short.”