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// 3 - A Tempo For the Day 
// Story: Out of Cadance 
// by David Silver 
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Tempo hopped up, springing to her hooves with a lashing tail. Her sudden motions had stirred her sister with a mumble.

Even as Cadance struggled to awaken, Tempo jumped down and noticed a tall mirror. She trotted over and looked at herself. She was Cadance. Well, she was a copy of Cadance. She was pink, with her mane and tail showing other colors in long streaks. She ran her hooves through her mane gently, then brought her tail to comb along it.

"What're you doing?" Cadance hopped down, joining her. "We have to get ready, Tempo."

"For?" Tempo released her curious parts and turned to Cadance.

"Class, duh." Cadance rushed over to smooch her sister on the cheek, then vanished into a closet. "I'll wear..." She came out, adorned like a proper school filly. "Ta da!"

Tempo gave a single clap. "Not bad. Let me check." She reached with her horn. That was still a new thing, but so much less complicated than spells. She got a grip and turned the lock, then the knob.

Carefully, she peeked out into the hallway, looking left and right. "Looks... clear. Go ahead."

Cadance raised a brow at her sister. "You are very silly. I'm safe." She walked around Tempo to the hallway beyond. "See, no bad ponies here."

Tempo lowered both brows. "You were just taken, yesterday." She huffed. "Fine, trust your sister to keep you safe."

"I will." Cadance paused long enough for Tempo to get in range, then gave her a big hug. Just as quickly, she dashed down the hallway, giggling.

"Like it never happened." The worry of the day before, forgotten? Tempo walked along after Cadance.

A hoof came down on Tempo's back, right in the center. "I require--"

Tempo swatted the hoof away and bounced back, growling and ready to fight.

Celestia smiled gently. "You suit your name, little Tempo. A moment of your time? I have questions only you can answer, I feel. I have posted several extra guards at her classroom. She is safe, I assure."

Tempo glanced at Cadance, already turning a corner, set to get to class. "Alright... But if she gets in trouble..."

"I will accept full responsibility." Celestia stepped aside. "This way." She welcomed Tempo into a waiting room with a low table arrayed with snacks and steaming drinks. "Please, avail yourself." Her horn glowed as she closed the door. "Tempo, a fine name... Given by Cadance, was it not?"

"My sister gave me a lot of things..." Her entire body? Tempo shook her head. "Yeah."

"She loves you."

Tempo colored faintly. "You don't... need to remind me of that. I love her too."

Celestia sank at the table, floating up a cookie to take a delicate nibble of. "Do you? Little Tempo, you are a curious creature... I can see webs on webs of magic on you."

Tempo joined Celestia at the table, but didn't reach for a single snack, or any of the drinks. "Yeah? Then why am I still free?"

"Why would you not be free?" Celestia inclined her head. "You are Cadance's sister. She was quite insistent on that point."

"Yeah..." Tempo frowned. "But she's a filly. I bet she says a lot of wild things."

"You would not be wrong." Celestia snapped her cookie in half and floated the half not touched by her teeth towards Tempo. "Snack?"

Tempo didn't reach for it. "What do you see?"

"I see little more than a doll." Celestia leaned forward. "A doll that my niece loves very much. A doll meant to hurt my niece, but this doll cut its own strings. It now walks beside her and offers to be her shield. That is an unusual doll."

Tempo turned both ears back. "That sounds... scary... But you're letting me?"

"Should I not?" Celestia leaned in, sweet breath washing over Tempo. "You are loved. You love. The nature of this love... well, do we understand any love, truly?"

"You're getting philosophic..."

"That's a large word for a filly." Celestia sat up. "Which I don't think you are, truly. Doll named Tempo, you are loved, and you are welcome. I would wish to know more about you. Surely even you want to know about you, hm?"

Tempo shifted in her seat across from Princess Celestia, still wary even as the solar monarch gazed at her kindly. She had so many swirling questions about her sudden existence, but where could she even begin?

"I want to understand what I am," she started hesitantly. "Why I'm here, how I can do magic, everything. But it's all a confusing jumble." She met Celestia's ageless eyes questioningly. "Can you help piece together my origins, Your Highness?"

Celestia took a long sip of her tea before responding gently, "In time, perhaps my vision can uncover the truth shrouding your birth into our world. But creation magic leaves tangled trails that even I cannot easily unwind."

She set down her cup with a soft clink. "What I can say for certain is that powerful forces shaped you, dear Tempo. Great purpose stirring in your heart alongside young Cadance's love."

Tempo looked down at her hooves, struggling to grasp concepts still so abstract to her. Purpose and love swirled within, yes - but so did an aching unsettled feeling she lacked the words to express. Like she didn't fully belong anywhere yet.

"I want to protect Cadance, above all else," Tempo murmured. "But is that enough? Can whatever magic made me be satisfied protecting just one filly?" She met Celestia's luminous gaze helplessly. "What if that magic wants more than I can give?"

Celestia reached a wing across the table to gently envelope Tempo. "Have faith, little one. Your wings may still be unsteady, but your heart knows its way." She smiled softly. "Love and purpose shall guide your flight, if you let them..."

She sat back. "But, right now, I most wanted your consent. We can look, and discover. I will not give up on my niece's sister so easily." She winked suddenly. "That technically makes you my niece as well, and I shudder to imagine abandoning any niece of mine to the winds."

Tempo dared a little smile. "T-thank you. Um..." She rubbed at her cheek. "This will sound funny... But I'm younger than Cadance, and older... I don't think I'll fit in her class."

"I should imagine not. You are a special case." She reached, slowly stroking down along Tempo's mane. "You have special needs. For you, I suggest a specific tutor. But don't think that gets you around meeting other ponies. I will not raise a hermit." She had no idea she'd raise Twilight in her original state. "That job I will place in Cadance's eager hooves. Listen to your sister."

Tempo's smile grew. "I trust her." She rolled her eyes. "Unless it's about being safe. She's clueless."

"Entirely." Celestia threw one of the two halves of cookies into her mouth to crunch softly a moment. "Do you remember Miss Inkwell? Raven Inkwell? She will oversee your education."

"Ma'am?" A door behind Celestia opened, allowing Raven to poke her snout in.

Tempo pricked at the unicorn. "I remember her. Hello?"

"Hello." Raven stepped inside, sitting next to Celestia. "I normally attend to Her Highness' specific needs. She has instructed me that you are her needs for the foreseeable future."

Tempo glanced between Celestia and Raven, understanding dawning along with a spark of excitement. This poised unicorn would help uncover her origins and purpose? Finally, some real direction instead of swimming through endless uncertainties!

"I'm ready to learn whatever I can about myself, and this world," Tempo said, sitting up straighter. Raven gave an approving nod.

"We shall have to start from the very beginning, I think," Raven mused, levitating a fresh sheaf of parchment and a quill pen. "Have you any concept of history, mathematics, science? Can you read and write as of yet?"

Tempo blinked slowly, a creeping heat rising to her cheeks that she pushed back down. Of course she couldn't read or anything else Raven listed - she was born yesterday! But letting embarrassment take root would get her nowhere.

"I don't have any knowledge beyond recent events," she responded levelly. "But I'm a fast learner when it comes to skills, especially with magic I think." She lit her horn, levitating a nearby empty teacup just long enough to prove her point before letting it settle back onto its saucer.

Raven scribbled some notes down before flashing Tempo a Mona Lisa smile. "Well then! We shall start at the very beginning. I do so look forward to unraveling this little mystery here..."

She pointed the feathered end of her quill at Tempo, who couldn't help but grin back eagerly. The prospect of deciphering her existence suddenly seemed thrilling instead of terrifying. With mentors like these in her corner, perhaps she could earn the right to stand alongside Cadance after all!

Celestia cleared her throat. "Whatever her skills may be, that she is keeping up with this conversation should be taken into consideration. An 'old soul', as they sometimes call it. I think it applies here."

Raven tapped at her chin in slow motions. "We should start with a proper assessment. Your words could be concealing the truth, even from you. Math and reading levels." She tapped her hooves with each topic. "Philosophy and creative thinking. Puzzles and..." She could see Tempo was becoming intimidated, shrinking back.

"My apologies." She used her glowing horn to pet over Tempo. "We will start with the basics and see where you stand. You can't fail this. We are simply seeing where you stand."

Tempo leaned into Raven's reassuring touch, catching herself quickly and straightening back up. Seeking comfort still felt oddly unfamiliar, as natural as the instinct was.

"I understand this is an assessment, not a test," she murmured, meeting Raven's eyes. There was patience there, and academic curiosity instead of judgment. Tempo clung to that lifeline now extended to her.

"We shall begin simply, gauging your capabilities more than drilling hard facts," Raven continued gently. "Can you write the alphabet from memory, for example?"

She slid Tempo a fresh piece of parchment and an inkwell, likely a trivial task for any school-aged pony. But for Tempo, this would be a first glimmer into how readily she could absorb new information.

Brow furrowed, Tempo grasped the quill awkwardly in her telekinesis, tongue poking from the corner of her mouth. Letter shapes swirled half-formed in her mind, but like smoke they resisted capturing clearly. Still, she put ink to page, determined to impress her new mentor.  

The results were shaky and blotted, misshapen at times. But when she finally set the quill down, every letter was represented, from A to Z. Tempo met Raven's gaze anxiously, praying she wouldn't find disappointment there...

Raven floated the paper in her magic, bringing it up where both she and Celestia could see it, and judge it. Several tense moments of quiet passed.

"Fascinating." Raven set the paper down and pointed to the P. "What is this?"

"P? Paul, Persimmon... Pole?" Tempo went through the first P words that came to mind.

"And this?" Raven pointed to Q.

"Q. Quit, Quill, Query?"

"I see." Raven glanced sidelong at Celestia.

Celestia popped the other half of her cookie in her maw. "It would seem your vocabulary is quite good, but your writing is... curiously off. You are saying the letters, but not writing them correctly."

"Easily fixed." Raven smiled, as if everything were fixed. "Let us move on to numerals and their functions."

She breezed through addition and subtraction, foalishly simple. Technically, Tempo was one of those. She blew past that.

"And now..." Raven led the way towards multiplication, then division. She began adding variables as they got into quadratics. "Enough."

Tempo jerked, surprised. "Enough?"

"Enough." Raven tapped the paper where the last equation was. "You know enough math for any pony not attempting a more specialized career. You may further pursue it, but that is beyond the guidelines I've been given. You have officially graduated school, at least in terms of math. I look forward to teasing out your other strengths, and weaknesses."