//------------------------------// // 15: Things Coming Together // Story: Alchemical Empire // by NineOneThree //------------------------------// "We're closing in on the Empire's border." Twilight turned to look at Template, giving her a little smile. "Good to know... Template, listen, are you... are you okay?" She beckoned her over to sit with her by the window. "You've seemed better after talking to Pinkie and the others, but I just wanted to be sure..." "I am, really." Template sat by her, looking down at the more familiar tropical landscape. "It's been a bit of a tough couple days, but working through it is the best thing I could have done... it was a little odd to learn that my feelings about Rarity are what's called a ... crush. Not quite ready to tell her about it yet... don't tell Spike, okay?" Twilight considered telling Template that 1) Rarity knew already and found it a little charming. 2) Spike knew already and was unconcerned, sure that Rarity had eyes only for him. 3) Spike was approximately right. ... However, she reconsidered. There was enough to worry about now that they were coming closer to the Empire. "I won't tell a soul, Pinkie Pie Swear." "... Pinkie Pie... Swear?" "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Twilight was careful to not actually whap herself in the eye with her hoof like the first time she'd done the little motions. Or the second time. Or the eighth. "... Pinkie takes promises really seriously, and she has this little thing she does and... it's really catchy, I dunno." Template giggled softly. "Well, it sure shows how serious you are about this..." She glanced out the window, her smile fading quickly. "I do have to admit, I'm still really worried---no matter how much you girls have helped me, it doesn't change the fact that my sister is dangerous enough to somehow kidnap a veteran goddess. I still don't understand how..." "Well, speaking of goddesses... I kind of have a thing to talk to you about." Twilight stepped a little closer, pulling out a deck of tarot cards and pulling over a small table. "Just as in a tarot deck there are Major and Minor Arcana..." --- Celestia sat up as she heard hoofsteps coming along the floor; Aleph (Alpha?) was back, looking at her with those dead eyes. "What happened over those years we've been apart, my little equinculus?" The goddess climbed off her cot to stand by the transparent barrier between them, watching the Empress. Aleph blinked flatly at her. "You didn't come for me, so I had to amass power. I've had long enough to work at it... I must admit, though, I had hoped that you might notice my increase in power." "I... I don't know why I didn't, I'm sorry." Celestia shook her head. "Perhaps it was too gradual and too far away... I wish I had noticed too. I would have come..." "Would have, but did not." Aleph's voice managed to be hard without changing her completely neutral tone at all. "And thus, here we are---you are centuries late and I rule an empire of golems. You are caged and helpless and your kingdom has fallen---if Nightmare Thelema is to be believed." Celestia felt her entire body stiffen, a cold feeling trickling through her. It started from her stomach and spread to the tips of her hooves, filling her veins with jagged ice. "Alpha... what did you do?" "That is a vague question to ask when there is so much to be referred to, Mother; would you clarif---" "What. Did. You. Do?" The goddess nearly pressed herself to the barrier, fear twisting to cold fury. The Empress finally had a reaction plain in her expression; she blinked, looking vaguely surprised. "... On credible counsel, I induced a psychological state in Crown Princess Template that led to her assuming the form of a Nightmare. According to her report, Canterlot is under the control of our other siblings; your sister and the Elements of Harmony are no longer in any state to pose a threat." "What does that mean?" Celestia found her composure falling away as she pressed her head to the barrier, breath quickening. "Whose counsel? How did you do this? Why? What did she do to them, are they---are they?!" Unexpectedly, Aleph reared up on her hind legs, pressing her chest to the window in the same place as Celestia's head. The goddess could hear the golem's heart---or whatever counted as a heart for golems---beating in the silence. "... She never specified." Aleph looked down at Celestia, almost smiling. "Look what you made me do, Mother. If you'd only come when you were supposed to, we all could have been so much better off." She abruptly turned, returning to all fours and heading off in silence. --- "So... so I'm a goddess now?" Template blinked, frowning. "But... that makes no sense! I screwed up, I let her break me---what I did should be a big red flag that says 'hey, look at me, I'm totally unworthy of godhood' and... and here I am and I am one anyway?" She shook her head. "I don't understand." Twilight sighed. "It's... complicated and vague, yes. But this is going to be gradual. Maybe what's supposed to happen is that you'll have to learn how to measure up to the power you're coming into." "I hope I learn fast..." Template turned to look out the window. "It's... just so strange, being this silly little mare and then knowing I'm a goddess, or becoming one, or something..." Twilight set a wing around her shoulders, smiling gently. "Trust me, it's a familiar feeling... but Tempate, do you want to know what makes it easier? Knowing you have people who believe in you, the way my friends and Princess Celestia believe in me---the way we, your friends, believe in you now." "Thanks, Twilight." The equinculus mare let herself lean on her friend a bit. "I promise I won't let you down." For a good long while, the pair who would be goddesses looked out on the azure waters and white sands below. --- "I had wondered when you were going to check in." Noonday Sky blinked; she thought the Empress's chambers were empty, but she could hear her talking to someone in there. Curiosity dragged her to the door, ear to the crack... "Yes, I have her. Had I not stayed in practice as you have encouraged me to do for so long... well, I doubt it would have been quite so successful." Noonday couldn't hear anypony else responding, so she put her eye to the small gap between door and doorframe. Luckily for her the Empress was visible from there... but if there was anypony else with her, she couldn't see them. She continued to listen, confused and more than a little unsettled. "Yes, and Template is returning as we speak. Most likely she will dock around noon tomorrow, so I will prepare an official welcome for our Crown Princess... yes, I am aware of that possibility. If that is the case, I do not suspect I will have very much trouble, though precautions will be made in advance." Noonday listened harder, and found she was detecting unfamiliar notes of... something in her Empress's voice where there had been so little before. "I always enjoy our conversations too. Perhaps you will come visit once I have brought my designs to fruition?" There was actual feeling there, even if only a little. Noonday had always thought she'd be happy to see her strange, awkward Empress emote, but here and now it scared her a little. She made as quiet and quick an exit as she could, not wanting to think about what was going on. -------------- HIMS Inner Truth loomed over the airship dock, casting its shadow over the rows of soldier golems as it started to dock. From her place on the observation deck, Template could see the Empress herself walking down the long grey marble promenade. Aleph seemed as devoid of feeling and connotation as always---not the big sister proud of what she was told Template had done, not the lofty empress-alchemist who had planned the schematics of this airship as much as the schematics of Celestia's capture, nothing but an entity making her way from Point A to Point B. Template sighed, remembering those hurried moments just a few minutes ago. "Let's review the plan one more time," Twilight said. "Template, you'll have your unicorn soldiers fire off a little flare spell---say it's for celebration of your returning or something---to provide some magical activity. That'll cover me when I teleport myself and the rest of us down to the water dock directly below the airship dock, which... you're absolutely sure it'll be unguarded?" Template nodded. "Yes. Marine craft only rarely come to the dock that's below the main airship dock, so normally nopony's there---it's figured that the airship dock guards would see a marine craft coming if there was one and head down to receive them. For an occasion like this, I can't see Aleph putting any guards there. If we're very unlucky, maybe one." "Okay." The violet alicorn nodded. "Now, listen---you'll be keeping Aleph and as many guards as possible occupied, maybe try to get her to walk with you in the gardens or something---keep your sister out of the palace, especially with how dangerous she might be. While you're working on that, we'll be looking for that cell you said you remembered seeing built---I triple-memorized the map you made for us, so we'll know where to go. We'll work on getting it open... then comes probably the hardest part for us, getting out and to the yacht." The yacht, HIMS Dispersion, was a fairly small airship Aleph and her top engineers had made for Template's latest birthday several months ago. Able to comfortably hold eight to ten, the sleek little craft would be a much better escape vehicle than the massive Inner Truth---stealthier, able to be crewed by several ponies rather than requiring dozens, and easier to justify going out in as soon as possible ("I'm going to go out in the yacht for a bit" vs "I'm going to take the warship... somewhere..." Template smiled a little. "Okay, then the hardest part for me will be stalling her, I think. Once you're out and safely in the yacht, you'll need to sit tight a while before I arrive---but then we're basically home free." The boarding ramp lowered to the dock with a clank, and the two rows of unicorn golems sent up a volley of small firework spells in unison. Aleph blinked once, her reaction the barest possible. Template felt relief; her sister didn't seem agitated or in any way suspicious. "Sister, I have returned from our conquest of Equestria! Our soldiers and siblings hold Canterlot, and their rulers lie in chains!" Aleph nodded simply as Template descended the ramp. "So I read in your preceding message, sister. You have done so very well." She lightly nuzzled the grey mare as if imitating something she had seen but never done herself. A little surprised, Template nuzzled back. "Thank you... how have you been while I was away? The others send their love and want to know how you've been doing as well." Template started walking, the route to the luxurious garden terraces mapped out in her head---every little meandering, time-wasting detour while she stalled as well as she could for her friends's sake and prayed that any guards were very, very unlucky. --- A lone guard, bound and gagged and hidden in a tall coil of mooring-rope, contemplated his place in the universe as the six strange mares walked away. Most likely, he was thinking about how he was neck-deep in being very, very unlucky. Twilight had no time to fool around; she had to get herself and her friends in and out with the addition of a goddess in a sorry state at best. Without letting anypony sound an alarm. She'd be terrified if she weren't so focused on the task at hand, driven by urgency kept simmering by the low fires of anger. Aleph would not be skipping out of this untouched, no---something as serious as this could not be ignored, and the response would be severe. But not today. Another time, the Empress would have to answer for her actions to the Sun and Moon themselves---but not today. The six stopped at a corner; Rarity's compact mirror let her peek around the bend to see a guard facing the other way. They would have to act swiftly and decisively, but fortune smiled upon them in that he wasn't looking in their direction. Twilight craned her neck out to get visual confirmation of her target before hitting him with a sleep spell. Applejack and Rarity moved in to bind and gag him tightly, and Rainbow Dash helped get him into the closest storage closet before the spell wore off---normal ponies would have been out longer, but something about golems reduced the potency of sleep magic on them. These halls were so strange, sleek and angular and muted grey and white---they felt so similar to each other, though the map Template had made for them was holding true. They still had a ways to go, though. --- Celestia heard hoofsteps coming along the corridor, but... far more of them than usual. Listening hard, she knew it was more than two, more than three... at least five. Six? Six. She nearly collapsed in relief as she saw the Bearers of the Elements, her six little ponies, come into view. The shock was clear on their faces, the concern, as they realized this was her. "P-Princess?!" Twilight pressed herself against the clear metal, worried. "Is it you, are you okay, w-what happned?!" Celestia smiled, kneeling and laying her head against the barrier. "I'm alright, especially now that you're here... my mana is being kept low by this cell, so I've been stuck like this." . "We'll get you out, don't worry---we came with Template." Twilight explained the plan as quickly as she could, managing to keep it nice and succinct. "... So all we need right now is to get you out and to Template's airyacht." She knelt by Celestia, the metal between them. Celestia tapped the barrier with her hoof. "It sounds like as good a plan as we'll ever get, but I don't know how you're going to get me out quietly---I'm sure any breach of this clear metal will set off wards, probably the same with the walls and floor and ceiling..." "We really don't have the luxury of time, so... this metal will probably be quickest to get through, especially given that all the wards appear to be on the inside." Twilight sighed. "We'll just have to get away and back to the airship docks ASAP once you're out, as much as I hate how rushed this is..." Rarity and Twilight worked as quickly as they could to cut a suitable hole for their goddess's escape, avoiding as many wards as they could detect. Within about five minutes, they had her out and promptly mobbed her. She could have stayed that way forever, it felt like---bumped and nuzzled on all sides by happy, warm bodies. But... "My little ponies, I'm so glad to see you again... I've missed you all. But we really need to get going right now before anyone sees us." "Oh, mother, I assure you that is an issue you no longer need to worry about." Every head turned as Empress Aleph dissipated into view, the trademark look of a cloaking spell being dispelled. She was smiling.