Alchemical Empire

by NineOneThree

16. Things Falling Apart

The Bearers and their goddess stared as Empress Aleph stepped toward them, her smile looking wholly out-of-place even to those who had never seen her face before. It just felt wrong.

"So, Mother, these are the six that my sister told me about, your Bearers of the Elements? I was hoping to meet them, and I suppose it is a nice surprise to know that they are in fact not as dead as Template claimed." The dead-eyed mare looked at each in turn, her gaze settling on Twilight. "Of course, feeling your favorite student's aura spoiled the surprise... well, entirely."

Twilight bit her lip; she'd been trying to subdue her aura this whole time, but if Aleph could still pick her out like that, and had been able to since she arrived... well, Aleph was a lot more powerful than they'd thought.

"W... Where's Template?" She spoke up, seeing the others starting to edge away out of the corner of her eye. "What did you do to her?" Her wings bristled and her stomach clenched, thinking of what this sociopath might have done when she realized Template's treachery.

Aleph's eyes glowed; as if to answer the question, the harsh sound of a forced teleportation tore through the air, dropping a grey mare on her side between empress and Bearers. Template quickly scrambled over to the group, panting a little. "S-sorry girls, I... I guess she saw through the plan way quicker than I thought. I-I think I'm okay, though..."

Applejack leaned in towards Twilight. "Twi, Temp'n I c'n hold this'n off while y'all get the Princess outta here. Don't you argue," She cut off an objection before Twilight could finish opening her mouth. "We'll be jus' fine. Y'all on board with that, sugarcube?" She glanced at Template, who nodded. "Good. Now Twi, git goin'!"

Twilight and the rest of the group broke and retreated, Twi leaving a cloud of smoke to at least try to cover their escape. Applejack grinned tightly as Template straightened up, watching Aleph. The empress made no attempt to pursue the group, still smiling. As AJ started to advance, she blinked once.

"You have been given evidence that I am a formidable opponent, and yet you intend to fight me two-on-one, a mere Earth Pony and a foolish mare not even having taken the first stumbling steps toward divinity? I would ask if this were bravery or idiocy if I did not find the two synonymous."

AJ spat on the floor, starting to charge. "I've had enough 'a yer smirkin', an' I've barely known ya fer five minutes! Put 'em up, china doll!" Template was right behind her, hackles raising.
When she was about a body-length from the off-white mare, AJ planted her right forehoof and lifted the rest of her body up, letting momentum take over. Her hindquarters swung around to face her opponent, rear legs bunched up and ready. The moment her left forehoof connects to the ground, her muscles unload like a spring, all her force directed at the empress.

The empress kept smiling and, with a speed she simply wasn't supposed to have, ducked.

---

Twilight and the others were having no easy time of it; glancing at the map, she knew how to get to the stairway to the roof, where they could make some sort of stand... but getting there as the guards started to pour upon them was feeling more and more like a pipe dream.

Fluttershy and Pinkie focused on helping the exhausted goddess keep a decent pace; Rainbow Dash was everywhere at once, ramming and bucking and lashing out at any guard who came near with her signature speed. All the while, Rarity worked on keeping the path ahead clear with Twilight's help, the purple alicorn mostly trying to keep the last cracked bones of this plan from falling apart. Throwing up a shield to block unicorn guards' magic bolts, calling out to Rainbow Dash to warn her of threats in her blind spots, her brain worked madly to carry this through.

Everything felt painfully slow as they continued their advance, and the guards just seemed to come faster by the second. It would be so much easier if they weren't concerned with leaving the guards alive, but... they just couldn't! The fact that it even crossed her mind twinged in Twi's gut as she tore a chandelier from the ceiling and reformed it into makeshift chains to bind a group of pegasi and unicorns. Even with her ridiculous mana reserves, this was starting to get tiring; poor Rarity was probably worse off, she thought, not having the perks of being a goddess-in-formation or even significantly above-average mana levels---but her fine-motor skill with telekinesis did allow her to make the most efficient use of her power, Twilight reminded herself, and her creativity allowed her to find the most mana-conserving ways to keep the guards out of their manes as they pressed on.

Finally, the stairway to the roof! As Rainbow Dash flew up to make sure it was clear, the group hurried to the doorway, Rarity and Twi putting their shields up as they heard the echoing sounds of fighting up above them. As a few guards rolled and tumbled to slump in panting heaps against the wall, they knew the coast was clear as it would ever be and started to flee. Rarity in front, Twi in back, the goddess and her supports safely in between.

---

Aleph ducked AJ's hooves, slipping her body under the orange mare's and and rearing up on her hind legs; Applejack was bodily lifted and fell flat on her back with a grunt. Template, charging just behind AJ, found herself running straight into the empress's lashing forelegs, catching a backhoof and stumbling to the side. Aleph fell back toward Applejack, nearly catching her with a foreknee-drop that could have broken ribs had AJ not rolled out of the way. Weakly flicking out with her foreleg, the earth mare hit her foe in the shoulder as she started to rise; only shaken a little, Aleph dove under Template's double-forehoof stomp, bucking her forward over her head to land hard on the smooth floor and slide.

AJ bites her lip, starting to circle. Everything is going wrong. It would be oe thing for Aleph just to be a powerful mage, but did she have to be a good fighter too? She just needed to stall her a bit more for Twi and the girls, she just needed to hold on... Template was circling too, flickers of green light passing over her as she tried to tap into that latent power she was still just dabbling her hooftips in. Aleph just watched them.

Every advance they made ended with nothing if they were lucky, and a vicious counterattack more often. Bruised and bleeding but luckily feeling nothing broken, AJ and Template glanced at each other. Could they make a break for it? Had it been long enough?

"If my input matters at all," the empress cut into their thoughts, "Mother and your friends have most likely made enough progress now. Retreat if you like."

AJ's knees nearly buckled. "H-how didja---?!"

"Because," Aleph smiled that unfitting smile again, "it is obvious that your intentions were to stall for your friends. This encounter is going very badly for you, and you understandably want to rejoin the group for the safety of greater numbers. It is the simplest and most sensible explanation." She shrugged, still smiling. "I am not impeding your progress, nor do I intend to. Go on."

They fled, following the trail of unconscious and incapacitated guards.

---

Twilight cursed as she saw that pegasi were already heading for the roof as soon as she emerged onto the smooth, sun-warmed white stone surface, flat and bordered by a raised edge all around. They couldn't seal the door behind them because Template and AJ still needed to come with them, they were going to be surrounded...

But they were in the sunlight, and that was what they had counted on. As Celestia came into the warm light of her property, the thing that she embodied, she started to stand straighter. Breathing in, the drained goddess closed her eyes. "I can feel my strength starting to return... girls, you've done so well so far. All I ask now is that you buy me a little more time..."

Guards closing in from the air, the five ponies looked around and nodded. While Fluttershy kept by Celestia, the others went on defense; Twi kept up a shield, Rarity kept the flyers at bay with projectiles pulled from the stone around them, Pinkie dragged a Party Cannon from wherever she always got them and started firing, and Rainbow Dash bucked anything that came close. All the while, Celestia drank in the warmth and light; wings came into being on her sides and unfolded to catch just a little more sunlight, then a horn. A flicker of yellow light and the stone under her hooves became like a mirror as she reared on her hind legs, all to maximise how much light she could gather. Her horn, eyes, and mark started to glow as she began to lift from the ground, then her whole body shone. Her figure became longer, more elegant, her wings bigger, her mane flowing and growing as color returned to it, blue and green beside the pink.
-
Template and AJ sprinted, looking back now and then to see Aleph behind them. She looked like she was barely trotting, but she was keeping pace with them barely five yards behind. They kept following the path lined with knocked-out guards, panting and foaming as the empress pursued.
-
Power flowed into Celestia as she started to glow like a miniature sun herself, too bright to see any details but a vague shape in golden-white light. Rays like sunbeams started to lance out at every guard coming near; golden chains bound them on the spot, and those in the air found themselves sinking slowly, unable to move. The five Bearers watched in awe as their goddess took back what was hers.
-
The entrance to the stairs! AJ ushered Template in first, then dragged herself up after the grey mare; Aleph wasn't far behind, and unlike them she wasn't even breathing hard. They pulled themselves up and up and up and finally out and into the sun's incredible brightness... or rather Celestia's brightness, her light hurting their eyes as they scrambled to rejoin their friends.
The light shattered into fading shards and Celestia landed neatly on four hooves, wings open and mane flowing. She looked like she always did, tall and slender and glorious.

Aleph emerged from the stairway and stopped smiling.