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// 4 - Many Questions, Few Answers 
// Story: Out of Cadance 
// by David Silver 
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When it came time for history, Tempo failed. She failed everything beyond what she had heard that precious single day of existing as Tempo. She had no idea how things worked, except when she did. She understood Celestia was the ruling monarch.

She understood what guards were and their function. She understood the idea of bad people and how they might be punished, though... "Arrest them. Maybe kill them?"

Celestia sat upright. "We do not... usually sort to such extreme measures. Only the very  very worst have been subjected to anything close to that... And even those could be undone."

Tempo blinked softly, looking a proper foal a moment in her confusion. "How do you undo that?"

Raven cleared her throat. "We're being distracted. It is not your position to determine the ultimate decisions of the law. All you need to know is that killing is bad. Hurting other ponies is bad. Taking their things without their permission --"

"--is bad," cut in Tempo. "Obviously. Um... What's next?" She dared to take her first cookie in her magic, bringing it up for little nibbles.

She didn't see, or perhaps notice, the crumbs she was dropping to the ground in the act.

Raven looked over her notes. "I think I have all I need to begin your lessons. You are an interesting case, with some sharp peaks and other deep valleys. It will be my duty to raise those valleys upwards, but I feel you are an eager learner. This shouldn't be too difficult for either of us."

She rose to her hooves. "I will begin tomorrow. When Cadance goes to class, you will return here, and we'll start your education."

Celestia nodded to Raven as she left the room. "Education can feel intimidating, but it's not there to measure your worth, as a pony. We want to help you be your best."

"Am I a pony?" Tempo set her cookie on the table. "You called me a doll."

"I apologize." Celestia inclined her head. "What you are... physically, is less important than what your heart sings. You feel ready to stand beside ponies, as one, and I won't stand in the way of that."

Tempo flashed a smile, but it was quite short lived. "Then what am I, really? Why am I? Raven will teach me Where and When. How am I?"

Celestia curled a hoof at Tempo, a kind smile worn. "Only you could answer that last one, but I would like to know. How are you?"

"A little confused." Tempo tapped her hooves together softly. "It was easier when I was just worried about Cadance..."

"I don't meant this in a bad way." Celestia's horn glowed as she pulled a sheet out and set it up on a tripod. On the sheet was a drawing of a pony golem, insides exposed. It was a very detailed, mechanical, drawing. "But constructs, like you, tend to work in directs and absolutes. Having one thing to focus on is where most would prefer to be, though most don't speak preferences."

Tempo frowned slightly at the anatomical drawing, a vague unease surfacing. Constructs and golems - was that all she amounted to? Just something pieced together by an outside will, bound to a single driving focus?

"I don't feel like an empty machine," she said quietly. "I have thoughts, emotions, questions..." She met Celestia's luminous gaze. "Does a golem dream of the future? Imagine new possibilities?"

Celestia inclined her head thoughtfully. "You raise an excellent point, dear one. Perhaps I speak too soon trying to fit you in a box."

With a flick of magic, the anatomical drawing rolled itself up to be set aside. "You are still unfolding, it's true. And I shall leave space for that growth rather than premature labels."

Tempo smiled back hesitantly. She supposed it was understandable for them to be suspicious. A mysterious new entity tied to sinister magics? Caution was warranted. 

But the way Cadance had embraced her so unconditionally echoed in her mind - innocent affection asking no difficult questions about Tempo's 'how' or 'why'. Just accepting the gift of her presence with joy. Could she earn that same wholehearted trust from Celestia in time? Or was she doomed to always be held at hoof's length as a potential threat?

She met Celestia's luminous gaze again, refusing to shy from it. "I don't fully understand myself yet either," she admitted. "But I hope as I learn, so too might you, Your Highness..."

It felt vulnerable opening up this way. But if she shut the mighty alicorn out, she suspected she'd always be gazing in from the fringes. Honesty and courage were her only paths forward.

But Celestia radiated only warmth. "You are that, but you are so much more. You have a heart. Golems do not have room for one of those, but you fit one." She leaned in, neck craning over the table towards Tempo. "You have room for questions, doubts... Worries. All things a simple golem would not have room for. You fit it all. It's no wonder to me you feel a bit... crowded." She nosed Tempo gently, nose to cheek. "You are a miracle, and one I welcome."

Tempo grabbed Celestia's snout between two hooves. "You're not scared of me?"

Celestia didn't resist the grab, allowing Tempo to hold her. "Should I be? As I said before, you love. You are loved. We both have questions, so many of them, but none of them are questions about that."

Tempo sighed as she released Celestia. "I feel like I should eat, but I am not hungry. I should drink, but I am not thirsty."

Celestia's horn glowed as she picked at Tempo as gently as possible, looking inside her. "Golems, dolls?" She frowned. "What term do you prefer? I don't want to make you flinch every time I speak of your body. It is just that, your body. You. You are more than that."

Tempo felt a smile breaking free, fleeting as it was. That she was more than her body felt so... encouraging... "Which is the most accurate?"

"You are a golem." Celestia reached for that diagram. "You began 'life' unthinking and unfeeling. Most golems never change from that course. Something changed that." She unfolded the diagram. "And made you a creature instead."

"Creature?"

Celestia perked an ear. "My apologies. A creature is any animal that speaks. A critter is any animal that does not. A monster is an animal that may or may not speak, but is dangerous regardless. You are a creature."

"Not a monster?"

Celestia reached with both hooves, scooping up the little filly that was also a golem. "Not a monster," she assured in a whisper.

Tempo relaxed into Celestia's embrace, some knot of tension easing its grip inside. She was still piecing together so many mysteries about herself, but Celestia's unconditional acceptance echoed what Cadance had shown her too.

Maybe she didn't fully understand the how and why of her existence yet. But with loved ones like these believing in her... "If I'm not a monster, what am I for then?" she asked softly, not pulling back from Celestia's hooves just yet. "You called me a miracle before... But was I meant for anything special?"

She thought of the cultists that had pulled her into being - their cruel plans to copy Cadance and infiltrate Canterlot. Tempo had turned on them, yes. But were more sinister threads woven into her origins?

Celestia gently stroked Tempo's back as she pondered the question. "I cannot claim to read every riddle in your making, little one," she eventually replied. "But I believe each creature comes to life with a purpose waiting to unfold."

Her horn glowed, summoning the anatomical diagram again. "What others intended hardly matters now. You chose your own path - just as your heart and talents shall guide whatever destiny awaits you." 

She smiled down at Tempo warmly. "Stay true to who you are, dear Tempo, as you continue to discover her. The rest shall follow in time..."

Tempo nestled closer, gazing at the complex artwork. Once a blank template, now complex inner workings were revealed. Much like her own dawning soul.

"I'll try my best," she whispered back.

She noticed the pile of crumbs where she had been sitting. Who left that mess!? Oh... She did... Tempo colored, realizing it. "I... don't think I can eat."

Celestia followed Tempo's gaze. She swept up the crumbs and tossed them away with her magic. "Perhaps not. Could you taste it?"

"Yes." Tempo jumped down and grabbed that cookie in her magic. "I remember tasting it." She went over to the same trash Celestia had used and took a bite over it, allowing the crumbs to fall into it.

Celestia turned to keep Tempo in focus. "What does it taste like?"

"Buttery, sweet, light... It's a good flavor, I think..." Something about it tickled at some hidden past. But she had no past! She had just been born. Created? "I can taste it."

"May we do a little experiment?" Celestia sliced a thin portion of cake onto a plate and slid it towards Tempo. "Press that against your lips, but don't bite it."

Tempo looked confused a moment. What a curious experiment! "Okay..." She took hold of the plate with her magic and brought it over to touch her lips against. Flavor. She could taste it. "Oh... Carrot cake?"

"Carrot cake," warmly assured Celestia, wings unfurling. "Wonderful. What a lovely little trick we've discovered."

Tempo's eyes widened with fascination as she realized what Celestia meant. Her lips and tongue still had all the taste buds and receptors to savor flavors it seemed. Even if consuming food itself was pointless, she could still experience that simple joy.

"It's like kissing the memory of a meal," Tempo murmured after pulling back from the delicate cake slice. Already her mind raced ahead with this new discovery. "I wonder if it works for other senses too? Like smell, sound...感觉..."

She trailed off, nose scrunching in confusion. Had she just slipped into another language unexpectedly? The words had spilled out unthinkingly, yet felt oddly natural on her tongue.

"What was that last bit, dear one?" Celestia asked gently. "You appear to have tapped into something new..."

"I'm...not sure." Tempo's horn glowed as she summoned some jasmine tea to her nose, inhaling gently. The soothing floral scent filled her senses, memories flickering like heat lightning in her mind. "It was something about...sensations? I can't grasp it fully, it's too slippery..."

She looked up at Celestia almost pleadingly. "What's happening? Are there hidden things locked in my mind too?" Saying it out loud made her tremble slightly. Just how much had been written into her newborn soul without her even knowing?

"Calm... You are fine." Celestia stood up. "But overwhelmed, as any pony would be in this situation. Let's just be pleased at what we've learned today."

"What did we learn?" Tempo put the tea and desert down on the table. "That I'm not a pony like Cadance?"

"You are a pony." Celestia circled the table towards Tempo. "Whatever you're made of, you are a pony. My niece, in fact. And why would a pony have a niece that is not a pony as well? That would be quite absurd, don't you think?"

Tempo snorted at the strange logic. It didn't work like that, and she knew it. But that Celestia insisted felt like a soft balm on her confused heart. "Thank you... Aunt?"

"Aunt." Celestia sat before Tempo. "You may call me that. Aunt, Auntie." She smirked impishly. "You can get away with silly names like Celly. Auntie Celly. That'll make it quite clear we are close. I am no princess before you, just an aunt."

And Tempo was no golem, just a foal, in return... "I have so many questions..."

"And so few answers." Celestia kissed the top of Tempo's head, just beside her horn. "But we'll find them. Have patience, and know that we welcome you, even with the thousand riddles you represent."