Alchemical Empire

by NineOneThree

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Celestia, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Original Character, Adventure
Length: 26491

Something Celestia lost long ago seems to have found her again... but is this an occasion to rejoice, or something more ominous?

Equestria is celebrating the ascension of a new Alicorn. Nightmare Moon, Discord's brief return, the Changeling attack, and the battle for the fate of the Crystal Empire are all behind our heroes now; the future looks brighter than ever for Equestria... until shadows of the distant past make themselves known. An entire nation the Royal Sisters had only thought a vague possibility, an empire of golems hailing Celestia herself as their mother. Is this an opportunity for the Princess of the Sun to regain something she lost millennia ago, or is there a darker side to this?

Thanks to Alex Warlorn for letting me adapt certain mechanics of his POV work (I won't say what specifically just yet, lest I spoil events to come).

Published 2013-05-31 18:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-10-13 21:38:28 UTC

1: Memories (Resurfacing - Looming - Rediscovered)

1: Memories (Resurfacing - Looming - Rediscovered)

"Sister, I can't find my copy of The Tales of Bittle the Bard, did you borrow it?" Princess Luna poked her head into Celestia's bedroom, expecting her to be getting ready for bed as the sun went down. Instead, her sister was picking through a chest Luna hadn't seen for a very long time, smallish and low-slung. She already knew what it held as she quietly stepped over to stand beside Celestia, looking down at the little figures. Clear-glazed clay statuettes barely bigger than tangerines: dull brown Earth ponies, dark grey pegasi, and slate-blue unicorns.

Celestia didn't notice Luna was there until a dark blue glow converged around one of them and lifted it; looking over, she smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Luna, I didn't notice you there for a second... what was it you were asking?"

The book forgotten now, Luna turned the clay figure over and over in her telekinetic grip.
"Did you keep worrying about them like this while I was away, sister?" She hadn't seen this chest come out since the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony returned her to her senses; in the time between Discord's first defeat and her banishment to the moon, she had only seen it a few times.

"Yes, and it's been getting a little more frequent through the centuries, I'm afraid..." Celestia gave a small, sad little smile. "Ironic that the further time takes us from that day, the more I seem to think about it... did we fail them, Luna?" Her eyes dropped to the figure in her own grasp, this one made of carved white stone rather than molded and fired clay. "After they did so much for us..."

Shaking her head, Luna reached a wing around Celestia's back and shoulders. "If we could have done more, we would, but we had so much to do back then and so much to recover from... I understand how you feel, 'Tia. I miss them too, but we both know that no goddess can afford to regret.

After a long moment in silence, the Royal Sisters of Equestria closed the chest together.

Click.

Click.

Far away, a small blue filly opened a little chest, her horn sparkling with green light---the same green as her pupil-less eyes. Her cutie mark was that same color, a vertical stack of three horizontal lines (☲), solid lines top and bottom with a broken line in between. Inside the box was a trio of metal figures of Alicorns; one white, one dark blue, one a little smaller and pink. Turning her head, the blue filly picked up a new figure, the smallest of them all and painted purple, and set it in the box with the others.

"Sister, we're going to be passing over Appleloosa soon."
A stallion's voice sounded from outside the almost strangely sleek lines of the room, its muted blue tones. Turning, the blue filly trotted out. "Save me a good spot at the window!" Appleloosa had sounded interesting when her big brother and sisters had told her about it.
It would be really nice when they came back to take it.

It was a fairly normal day in Ponyville's library. The Bearers of the Elements were arranged around a table, with Twilight (she insisted upon going by just Twilight, largely eschewing the title of Princess) excited over some new spontaneous interest. Being a minor goddess had no bearing on one's ability to be a major dork.

Clearing her throat, she prepared to let loose one of her signature infodumps; nopony who'd known her for more than a week could miss the cues.
"You see, girls, alchemy began as the first step toward magic as a science long, long ago, flourishing after the oppressive reign of Discord was lifted from the world by the Royal Sisters. The most unique thing about it was that right from the beginning, it was a universal magic---that is, anyone with the materials and knowledge could use it, Unicorn or non-Unicorn, pony or non-pony. It has advanced significantly since then, though it has also become less common among ponies, but its principles remain the same: it is based in the transmutation and manipulation of matter, with the ultimate goals being the Azoth and Alkahest."

"Alka-what-now?" AJ voiced the feelings of the group, shaking her head a little.

"Alkahest. A theoretical 'Prime Solvent' capable of breaking down any substance to its component elements, its opposite being the 'Prime Healer' Azoth, capable of repairing structural damage to any object or being. The pair are themselves theorized to combine into the true end of all alchemy, the Cantamani or Philosopher's Stone."

Rainbow Dash took her turn to butt in. "Wait wait wait. All this Azoff and Alkawhatever and Canter-maney stuff sounds way too, y'know, not-scientific enough for you. But you don't talk down about this alchemy thing like you did about curses and hexes and whatever, what gives?"

Twilight nodded, mane bobbing. "While it's true I find those parts of alchemy to be somewhat too nebulous for my tastes, as a whole the practice of alchemy has produced many concrete successes, especially in medicine! Healing potions and tonics have been tested and proven enough that they can be used in hospitals, and our very own Zecora's work incorporates many elements of alchemical science. What's more, in recent decades the practice of golem-creation has been advanced to the point its applications to prosthetics have been undergoing tests."
Four blank stares (and one nervous yellow pegasus failing to speak up) led to a roll of the eyes and a little sigh. "Come on, girls, haven't you heard of golems anywhere? Rainbow, remember the eleventh Daring Do novel?"

RD blinked, forehoof scratching the back of her neck. "Uh... oh yeah, there were things in the temple pretending to be statues, ponies made of stone or something. That's golems?"

"Essentially so. A golem is an artificial replica of an organic form granted a semblance of life via alchemical means. These days, alchemists have been testing the creation of golem limbs that can be used to replace limbs a pony may have lost, and perhaps someday your grandmother will be sporting a brand new golem hip joint, Applejack!" Twilight's excitement rubbed off on the farming mare a little. Hip replacments were a very tricky business these days, and it might be much safer and easier with this golem business.

"Well, Twi, that's mighty int'restin' an' I reckon I'd best look into it fer Granny, but how the hay didja get thinkin' 'bout this whole golem an' alchemy deal?" She blinked, peering at her friend. "Was it just one 'a them things outta nowhere y'keep doin'?"

Twilight shrugged, putting some books away without even turning away from her friends. "Well, it's odd, but I remember Princess Celestia mentioned something about alchemy, possibly golems... not quite sure why, but I just had to read up on it when she mentioned it." The braniac alicorn managed not to notice Rainbow Dash's eye-roll.

"... I, um, I've heard there are a few golems around in Equestria... none here in Ponyville, but ponies say there's one or two in Hoofington, and a couple more working for some nobles up in Canterlot." Fluttershy spoke up after a pause, having been quiet all this time. "Maybe if you want we could see about talking to one of them..."

Rarity smiled a little, noticing Twilight's eyes brighten. "In that case, dear, I could see about contacting the nobles in question, since Canterlot's closer than Hoofington, if Spike will be so kind as to send a message for me..."
As always, Spike was only too happy to help the glamorous unicorn.

Author's Note

Hopefully the trigram symbol displays for people properly.

2: Meetings (Unexpected - Planning - Fleeting)

Word had come to the Sheriff's Office that there was a dispute on the outskirts of Appleloosa, a quarrel between some settler ponies and buffalo. There'd been squabbles like this in the past; Little Strongheart and Braeburn headed out as fast as they could. Yet when they reached the supposed scene, they found no raised hackles or angry words among the handful of ponies and buffalo. Nobody was even looking at one another, all too busy staring skyward.
"Now what in the name of Celestia's rays is goin' on here?" Braeburn began, but was interrupted as his companion tapped his shoulder, pointing into the sky as a shadow fell over them.

The ponies of Appleloosa and the neighboring buffalo tribes squinted up as the huge shape flew overhead, slow and smooth. In sillhouette, it looked mostly like an enlarged battleship but for the massive discs set into its bottom surface. The largest was more or less in the center, with the smaller two at the bow and stern; all three glowed with strange geometric designs. The whole design of the thing was clean-cut, sleek but for its angles, almost alien in comparison even to Equestrian and neighboring airship designs.

One of the town's few griffons flew up to investigate the airship, eying its gunports warily. When he could tell they'd seen him and the gunports stayed firmly closed, he chanced to fly up into the view of what looked to be the main observation deck. He was surprised by the size of the windows; most airships wouldn't have such great expanses of glass, tending toward smaller windows or even portholes. Hovering in sight of the ponies inside the airship's observation deck, he waved his claws in a semaphore sequence and hoped they knew the universal signalling code. If not, he could be sending them gibberish---or worse, a hostile message.

Luckily, they seemed to understand, giving him permission to land on the outer deck. As he touched down, he was alarmed to see a group of ponies approach... looking nearly all the same. Most of them were unicorns, all the same slate-blue color with dull navy manes. Behind them, a few dark grey pegasi and brownish-grey Earth ponies. Their eyes were all pupil-less, their movements too alike to each other.
Scariest of all, each group shared the exact same Cutie Mark.

Suddenly, meeting these ponies wasn't seeming so good any more.

Twilight had asked Fluttershy and Rarity to come over the day after their previous meeting to talk over the meetup with the golem pony. After having discovered that the noble in question was in fact Rarity's friend Fancy Pants and getting the message to him, Twilight wanted to ask a little more. "Fluttershy, you said you've heard about golem ponies a little before... is there anything you know about how they act?"

"Oh, um. Well, I hear they're... nice." Fluttershy glanced away.

"Nice?"

"Yes, nice."

Twilight's smile was a little strained. "... And that's all, just that they're... 'nice'?"

"Well, um... I also hear they're a little... different?" An expectant pause dragged out a little more. "... Something about them being very... placid, not very reactive. Um, just what I heard, I don't really know..."

Twilight turned to Rarity, not sure if she should be hopeful. "What about you, Rarity? I know you hadn't heard of golems by name until I brought them up, but..."

"Well, darling, I do seem to remember the odd Canterlot customer or two mentioning someone as having an uncommonly docile maid with odd eyes, teeth that seemed perhaps a little too uniform and white... I'm not really sure what to gather from it, though, dear, I'm sorry."

"No, girls, what you've told me is a good start." Twilight shook her head, smiling more genuinely now. "I at least understand what to expect in some form... "
But did she really? How accurate were these accounts anyway? If golems were so rare, how sure could she be that this pony they'd heard of was really a golem and not just a pony who acted and looked a little strange?

A small blue unicorn filly stood by the sliding doors of the observation deck, looking out the window to the exposed outer deck from which their visitor had made a hasty (perhaps frightened) retreat.

"Template, why'd Mister Griffon go away?" The filly looked up at the other with pupil-less emerald eyes. With the same lack of blackness, a pair of jade eyes met them; the cyan-grey Earth pony mare leaning down to nuzzle the younger softly, her teal mane bobbing slightly.

"I don't know, Beta. The welcoming squad didn't get to do any welcoming... perhaps he had an urgent reason to head back down to Appleloosa." Her cutie mark was similar to her sister's: three horizontal lines near the color of her eyes---but in her case, it was the bottom line that was broken (☴). "Or perhaps the welcoming squad was a bit much... maybe we should come out right away next time with only a couple guards. I'm sure we'll get to talk to someone soon..." The strange Earth mare smiled at her equally-strange sister. "Let's go find Big Brother and Sister, maybe have a nice game of Go."

Turning away from the windows, they trotted off toward the doorways that'd take them to their quarters. Guardponies opened the doors for them at each entrance, pupil-less eyes blank as their expressions.

3: People (Uncanny - Familiar - Cryptic)

Everything had been arranged as perfectly as Twilight could manage it. Spike was running the library, a friend of Rarity's was keeping an eye on the Carousel Boutique, and the other four Bearers had promised they'd tell them if anything went down that required them.
Yet here, sitting in Fancy Pants's elegant and airy parlor, the young alicorn couldn't help but feel a little... off. Perhaps it wasn't what was going on back home that she was worrying about; as much as she hated to admit it, the golem maid unsettled her just a little. Perhaps it was how she had no coat, just a smooth, muted cream-colored surface. Perhaps it was how her eyes, the same pastel lavender as her hair, had no pupils. Perhaps it was the strangely doll-like quality of her whole form, especially when she moved. Perhaps it was her cutie mark, a pair of horizontal broken lines in a circle, that didn't seem to say anything about who she was.

As Fancy Pants and his wife stepped out to leave their guests with the pony they called their "brilliant little maid", Rarity sat up a little straighter, clearing her throat. "So, er, Miss Agate, how long have you been in the employ of Mr. Fancy Pants?"

The creamy-yellow golem's smile was certainly there, but it was sort of... bland, slight, and yet it seemed entirely genuine. "Three years, five months, one week, and four days, though it would suffice to call it three and a half years, I believe." She took a sip of her tea before continuing. "I was built two years before then by a group of Zebrafican alchemists, then relocated to Columbia six months after becoming conscious."

Twilight blinked in surprise. "You're only five years old?" Rarity's disapproving glance went unnoticed; the braniac would have to be admonished later. "You look, well, around my age at least..."

"I am indeed five years old in chronological terms, but as early as one week from my creation date I had the mental profile of an adult pony. After all, golems are built with adult bodies from the beginning, so giving us adult minds from the outset is the logical choice." Agate nodded, still smiling blandly.

Sipping her tea, Rarity stepped in before Twilight could say anything else that might come off as impolite (though she had to admit, Agate was quite docile). "How did you first meet Mr. Fancy Pants, and, if I may ask, dear, do you know of any other golem ponies in the area?"

Blinking (and somehow underlining the fact that she didn't blink quite as often as most ponies), Agate seemed to think about the questions for a heartbeat---did she even have a heartbeat? "For the first question, I was in the employ of an old friend of his in Columbia, a griffon who was also a former vice president of that nation, and upon his passing away I was taken in by Mr. Fancy Pants, for which I am most grateful." She smiled just a little more, it seemed. "I have stayed with him and Madam Fleur from that point on, and hope to remain in their employ as long as is possible.

"As for the second question, I believe there is at least one golem currently residing in Hoofington; all confirmed reports indicate them to be a mare built in the pegasus frame. Here in Canterlot, Mr. Classy Clover has had a golem unicorn stallion as his butler since before I arrived. I believe there may be a higher golem concentration in Columbia, and one gentlemare known to my previous employer actually had a golem wife."

Twilight swallowed some tea the wrong way, coughing for a few seconds as Rarity held a napkin to her mouth. "A pony m-married a golem?! How---why---" She caught Rarity's wince this time and began backpedaling frantically. "Um, not that I'm implying anything's wrong with golems or that there's a reason ponies wouldn't want to marry golems, I'm sure you're just as eligable as any mare---not that I'm trying to ask you to marry me, of course..."

Thankfully, the young alicorn's bumbling was met with a slight change in Agate's smile and little else. "I understand that it may seem odd, especially given that you may be unfamiliar with golems in general. I believe the qualities some individuals find attractive in golems are consistent docility, a naturally pleasant disposition, and an almost total lack of the negative effects of aging. Having never faced romantic propositions of any kind, however, I do not know for sure."

Blushing at her veritable trainwreck of social blunders, Twilight gave the golem mare the most grateful smile she could. "Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us, Miss Agate, it's so kind of you."

"She's trying to pull you into a ladder, Beta..." A copper-brown stallion with a darker mane whispered into the small blue filly's ear, pupil-less blue eyes matching his cutie mark (☶). Across a gridded wooden board on the table sat a pegasus mare so dark grey she was nearly black, sporting those same golem eyes in red and another strange golem cutie mark (☳). Frowning, the red-eyed mare placed down another round black stone.

Clack.

Smiling, Beta picked up a white stone. "Chassis, you tried that the last three times. Do you really think I'll keep falling for the same thing?" They hadn't had all that much to do since the HIMS Inner Truth left the capital several weeks ago.

Clack.

Beta's other sister, light grey and teal-maned, giggled softly as her winged older sister scowled at the brown stallion.
"Drawplate, don't go giving her hints! Template, tell him not to do that." Chassis glanced over, her navy mane swishing.

Template giggled again, jade eyes bright. "Drawplate, you know Beta doesn't need any help. She's more talented at Go than Chassis anyway!" Chassis rolled her eyes, grumbling and setting down another stone.

Clack.

"By the way, Drawplate, how are the crew doing? They're not upset over that griffon running away, are they?" Template decided she might as well draw her older brother's attention from the game at hand lest he continue to advise Beta. As usual, she earned from him a somewhat indulgent smile.

Clack.

"Of course not, Template. They're only golems, not equinculi---they don't really get upset like we can. They're usually okay with most things, it's just the way golems are." He shook his head, mane bobbing. "Sometimes I wonder if you worry about them a little more than you need to."

Clack.

Beta giggled as she caught Chassis in a bad spot, removing several black pieces from the board. Template sat up, smiling still. "I think I worry just enough, brother. I am Crown Princess of the Empire, after all. It's my responsibility to worry about my subjects."

Clack.

Click.

The golem shut off the radio, double-checking the message before handing it to the courier. He had no idea what the symbols meant, but he had no need to know---the Imperial Equinculi could read them, and they were the only ones who needed to know.

⋊∃⊩ ∫∫∦⋔ ∦ ⋊∃⊩∓∅⋔ ∟∟∃∓

4: Pasts (Heavy - Uncovered)

Thousands of years ago, in a land that looked very little like it did now, a goddess bled on the sundered checkerboard ground, gasping for breath.

Celestia.

"Sister," she panted, one eye sealed shut with blood dried black, the other half-hidden with tangled pink locks. "Where are they?" Struggling to lift her head, she could see the dark blue shape heaving with gasping breaths.

Celestia.

After what felt like hours, she was able to haul herself up just enough to agonizingly turn her head, looking at the ruin around them. She saw a few shattered pieces of dark grey and slate and dull brown standing out against the checkered ground, but far too few.

Celestia.

Thousands of years ago, in a land that looked very little like it did now, a goddess wept.

CELESTIA!

In the present, a goddess nearly fell over in surprise, taking a full dose of Royal Canterlot Voice to the eardrums. Luna frowned, worry all over her face. "Sister, what were you doing?!"

Wincing, Celestia rubbed her neck with her forehoof. "I'm sorry, Luna, I was just... I was lost in thought, I'm sorry."

"Thinking about them?" Luna's voice became more gentle. "I remember it too, but you're much too hard on yourself about this. There was nothing we could do. Remember, you and Twilight are going to meet soon. She said she had something to talk to you about, so please try to clear your head."

Nodding, the personification of the Sun shook herself a little, like a dog shaking water from itself. "I know... thank you, Luna. I wouldn't know what to do without you..." She closed her eyes, collecting hereself before standing up straight. "I'll be heading to Ponyville now, sister."

The smaller Alicorn nuzzled her sister before she left, smiling just a little. "Be well."

Sometimes a goddess just needed to get away from things, and being able to just trot down a small town road without everyone pointing and gasping and bowing was a great help to that. A white-coated, rose-maned Earth mare sighed in relaxation, coming to the library tree. As she stepped in, she was imagining Twilight's face, first mild surprise, then puzzlement, then realization...

"... Princess?"
Or maybe just recognizing her right off the bat because she's an alicorn too, remember? Get it together, Tia. She quickly closed the door behind her before her cover was blown.

"Yes, Twilight, it's me. Could we perhaps head to the basement, away from prying eyes?" Not malicious ones, but innocent curiosity could be bad enough. Thankfully, the young alicorn shook off her confusion and nodded, taking the disguised goddess down into the well-lit, cool depths of her basement laboratory and archive, where Celestia could return to her true, majestic shape.

Sitting across from her most brilliant student, she smiled again. "Now, Twilight, what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, Princess, I remembered our conversation last week and since the beginning of this week I've been thinking about it and..." Twilight pulled out a few books. "I wanted to talk about golems!"

Oh.

The excitement in the young alicorn's voice wasn't lost on Celestia as she forced herself to maintain her smile. "... Golems? I suppose I may have indeed mentioned them when last we spoke... what about them did you want to talk about?"

"Well, I know golems are generally not very common these days, and not in Equestria especially... but I wondered about before, perhaps even before Princess Luna... before Nightmare Moon was sealed away." Twilight smiled awkwardly. "You and Princess Luna are fantastically magically powerful even on an off day, so if you wanted you could probably create golems by yourselves with ease instead of the labor it takes a group of alchemists for just one golem... did you ever create any?

Celestia nodded slowly, taking care in her choice of words. "Once... very, very long ago, yes. Unfortunately they're... no longer with us." Her smile took on a sad tinge as she glanced away for a moment.

"Oh, I... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up..." Twilight winced, having been about to ask something else. The goddess of the sun could see it in her face (what kind of teacher would she be if she couldn't?) and shook her head, bolstering her smile back up to normal. Twilight hesitated, then went for it.
"I, er, I was going to ask, Princess, if you could tell me anything about Equinculi..."

"Equinculi?" Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Well, it seems your hunger for knowledge is no less acute, my faithful student... go on, tell me what you know about that subject already."

Twilight sat up a little straighter, smiling a bit. "Well, Equinculi are a theoretical 'super-golem' of sorts, with a more normal emotional capacity akin to a regular being. This is combined with the benefits of golem nature, mainly their durability and much lower requirments for sustenance as compared to natural beings. However, there has been no confirmed sighting of one, ever, due to the creation being much more demanding than the process of producing a standard golem.

"I did the math and I would estimate that a five-person team, more or less regardless of the species of the team members, could produce a batch of perhaps four of the same model of golem within one month... if they were all highly-skilled, worked diligently, and had a minimum of setbacks during the process. With alchemy not especially common these days, even less so in Equestria, that sort of efficiency is itself fairly uncommon, with most golem batches taking several months.

"But equinculi? Just one could take a skilled five-person team a year at the least, if they knew how to make one, which evidence suggests nobody does! If anyone would be able to make them, it'd be highly powerful beings like Dragon Queen Tiamat (though I doubt she'd have any reason to), several Griffon Crypt-Kings (assuming they ever existed, which is unlikely), or an Alicorn..."

There was a pregnant pause as she looked at Celestia, wondering if it was her place to ask. At least, until the goddess gave a nod and a small sigh. "Yes, Twilight, I did create an Equinculus, but as with the golems I made long ago, she is gone..."

Twilight was a little surprised as Celestia came around the table, nuzzling against her as she would her own child. "I know I've talked a lot about things that are gone, things I've lost, but know this, Twilight. While we must strive with all our hearts to preserve and protect those things which we and others have, once a thing is truly lost, we cannot dwell on it any longer. This is truest for you and I, my student; a goddess cannot afford to regret."

5: Arrivals (Sudden - Unexpected - Anticipated)

"HIMS Inner Truth, we read you. Complying with request for aid, guidance team is en route, please hold position. Over."
Canterlot's airship docks had received a hailing beacon and a request from a vessel they'd never heard of before; due to the unfortunate but necessary high-riding fog scheduled that day, they couldn't even see the distant ship except for winking lights.

Heading for those lights, a group of pegasi flew through the mist, working on clearing a navigable passage. Squinting through her goggles, Slipstream turned to the mare at her right.
"Grape Soda, take over for me for a sec. I'm gonna board the ship and help them get through once the path is workable."

As she drew nearer to the winking lights and vague shape, she blinked. This ship was way larger than the usual pleasure-yachts and such the airship docks usually dealt with; so far it looked more like something military, a battleship perhaps... well, she'd be able to see what it really was once they got the thing out of this fog. Raising her voice to be heard over the swooshing din of her team's fog-clearing efforts, she hovered in place before the hazy, shadowy hulk.
"GUIDANCE PEGASUS SLIPSTREAM REQUESTING PERMISSION TO BOARD!" She hoped they could hear her, since the fog would make attempts at visual hailing nigh-useless. Thankfully, she got her answer promptly.

"PERMISSION GRANTED, SETTING UP GUIDANCE LIGHTS FOR YOUR LANDING!" A stallion's voice rang out, and indeed she thought she saw a group of unicorns arranging themselves and lighting their horns as a sort of impromptu landing strip. Even in the mist, she thought their movements to be deliberate, precise, military perhaps. As she landed, she found herself marveling at more than just their drilling practice.

She'd only been seeing the vague outlines of half the ship at first; now she saw the looming, huge-windowed observation deck and glimpses of the ship's stern extending far back. Glancing over the side of the pointed bow, she saw a huge wheel-like device turning slowly, lit with strange symbols. There seemed to be an even bigger one farther down the ship's strangely sleek but angular length... and now she looked at the unicorns who had so helpfully guided her. Four stallions, four mares, all the same dull slate blue color and with all the same muted indigo manes, the same grey-green eyes with no pupils, the same blank expressions. Slipstream had never felt so uneasy around another pony before, and the sound of hooves approaching made her jump.

A nearly-black pegasus, navy mane swishing, blinked her strange red eyes. Looking past Slipstream at the team working away at the fog, she smirked a little. "Looks like your people could use some help." Without another word, she took off; from some unseen ports below, a squad of pegasi came out looking very much like her, perhaps duller in coloration. However, the unsettled green mare had no time to watch the strange ponies help her team, as three more trotted out toward her: a copper-brown earth stallion, a grey earth mare, and a blue unicorn filly.

The grey mare smiled, jade eyes bright and teal mane bobbing. "Oh, another visitor! You're not going to run off like the last one, are you?"

Fifteen minutes later, the observers at the dock towers saw their team returning... and the Inner Truth. The thing was comparable to a full supercarrier in size, but almost alien with its clean-cut angles and strange megadisk structures turning along its length. When the call came asking for permission to dock, it took a few heartbeats for them to react.
"Er, er, Dock Five is open and ready for you, Inner Truth. Day Guard w-welcoming squad will arrive soon, do not allow anypony to exit until they have assembled. Er, over."

"Affirmative, Traffic Control. Urgent notice, please transmit following encoded message to proper authorities. Approximated time of successful dock, ten minutes. Over."

As the encoding machine churned out the paper, the hapless observers' eyes widened.

Celestia looked out over the hills to the east, taking in a wondrous sunrise---her work, of course. She'd never been the type to toot her own horn, but when an entire kingdom (more or less) of subjects tells a goddess her sunrises are beautiful, what room does she have to argue?

Unexpectedly, a green pegasus mare was flying up towards her with a courier tube in her saddlebag; she looked frazzled and jumpy as she came to a hovering stop and saluted, panting. "M-message for you, y-your Highness, ma'am..."

Frowning, the goddess gently enfolded the pony in her horn's grasp and guided her to rest on the balcony. "Sit down, my little pony, catch your breath. Now if I may..." She took the message tube and opened it, unrolling the paper within to read it.

"Let's see... The Alchemical Empire sends its warmest and most cordial greetings to Her Majesty of Life and Flames, Princess Celestia Amaterasu Solaris Equestria, and to all of her people. To better embody this spirit of friendship and honor, the Dynastic Empress Aleph IV has sent the airship HIMS Inner Truth with a standard crew and the Impirial Family, the Princesses and Prince of the Empire, to personally give adoration to the Mother Sun herself..."

"Th-they're docking right now, Traffic Control cleared them and they checked out fine on all scans... they've got a Day Guard squad forming at Dock Five to make sure nothing go-goes wrong." Slipstream stammered, wings locked tight to her sides. She watched the goddess go still and quiet for several moments before a smile spread gently across Celestia's face.

"Thank you, my little pony... now, if you'll excuse me, I have a sister to wake and a welcoming party to lead." She departed from the balcony toward her sister's chambers.

Behind her smile, Celestia's mind was still churning over that message. An empire she'd heard only vague hints and rumors of sending four fifths of its royal family seemingly apropos of nothing was one thing, but there were details that just seemed... unsettling. That name, the 'Alchemical Empire', and being called the 'Mother Sun'...

"Luna, wake up." She nuzzled her sleeping sister, brushing aside the hooves that tried to nudge her away. "There's a whole airship of ponies we need to welcome."

The huge airship hung there at Dock Five as ponies stared, trying to see into its windows from afar as nopony was coming on deck yet. When the Day Guard arrived with the Royal Sisters themselves, their murmuring rose to a confused chatter, then fell silent.

Everypony watched as strange, near-identical sets of golem ponies trooped out onto the deck, the boarding ramp yet untrod and the path toward it left open. In what must have been perfect synchronization, they saluted the twenty Day Guard pegasi that stared impassively out at them, the two Princesses watching. Celestia finally broke the silence, wings opening.

"Equestria welcomes the Imperial Family of the Alchemical Empire, the vessel Inner Truth, and all its crew!" A bit grand, but not an extravagent greeting. She'd given similar ones to other ambassadors (usually ones that were actually expected). The response, however...

"Hail the Mother Sun!" A mare's voice rang out; a group of four golem ponies stepped toward the boarding ramp, clearly different from the crew with their hints of silvery finery. It was the grey mare at the head of the four who had spoken.
"HAIL THE MOTHER SUN!" The crew called back in perfect chorus.
"Hail her sister the Moon!"
"HAIL HER SISTER THE MOON!"
"Hail to Cadence, the preserver of hearts!"
"HAIL TO CADENCE, THE PRESERVER OF HEARTS!"
"Hail to Twilight, the new-risen star of magic!"
"HAIL TO TWILIGHT, THE NEW-RISEN STAR OF MAGIC! HAIL! HAIL! HAIL!"

The four Imperials walked down the boarding ramp, the mare in front walking right up to the goddesses before bowing low; her white-gold circlet, hooflets, and collar glinted, as did the silver collar and hooflets of her siblings. Every golem on the decks bowed with her, still in perfect synchronization, as Celestia stared. It took her half a heartbeat to recompose herself, to bolster her trademark calm smile.
Bowing her head in return, she looked into the pupil-less jade eyes, golem eyes, of the grey mare. "You do me more honor than I deserve, Princess...?"

"Template, Crown Princess Template. It's a blessing to finally meet you, Mother."

6: Mothers (Found - Lost)

Celestia had acted quickly, taking the Imperial siblings up to her chambers and summoning for the Bearers of the Elements with a hastily-provided slew of teleport scrolls. While some semblance of conversation went on among five of the six Bearers and three of the Imperials, Celestia and Luna took Twilight and Template aside.

Managing to look calm as usual despite her inner turmoil, the white alicorn smiled at the grey Equinculus. "Please, Crown Princess, tell me why it is you call me 'mother' and 'the Mother Sun'. I have known many titles, but few have referred to me in ways like those for a very, very long time."

"It's simple, really." Template smiled right back, rather closer to Celestia than most would stand. "The Empire is ruled by us Equinculi, Princess, and for centuries---milennia, even---it has been said that the first Equinculus was made by you. Not only that, but your defeat of Discord allowed alchemy to flourish once again, and thus allowed for the creation of golems to be a possibility and not just a pipe dream. That is why my siblings and I, and our whole empire, see you as our mother. And if you allow me to, that is what I would most like to call you."

Luna's eyes narrowed. "I fear you make yourself too familiar unto the very embodiment of the Sun, m---" She cut off at her sister's shaking head.

"Luna, it's fine..." She smiled down at the undaunted Equinculus. "I know there are many in Equestria who see me as a maternal figure in some way, but it is a rare experience---perhaps even a pleasure---that someone would state it outright. If you wish to call me your mother, Crown Princess Template, then you are welcome to."

Twilight felt her wings tighten a little when Celestia mentioned ponies seeing her as a maternal figure; she knew she couldn't be honest with herself if she denied that she was among them. The Princess had filled that role in her life during the many years spent under her tutelage; after all, her parents had so often been unable to reach her except for mail.
Somehow, the way Template was so blunt and plain about it without having ever met Celestia before was a little unnerving... and yet she couldn't really feel angry at the strange mare. She just seemed so earnest, so happy to be with the Princess...

Template turned her bright jade eyes on the youngest of the three alicorns, still smiling. "Princess Twilight, you have been my mother's student for years, am I right?" Her question caught Twilight off guard; she stammered a little before answering.

"U-um, yes, well, that's right, I---"

"What's it like?" Leaning in, Template wore what might be called a dreamy expression. "Being with her all the time, learning from her, growing under her wing..."

"P-Princess Template, I think maybe you're a little too enthusiastic about this..."

The Equinculus giggled, even closer now. "You even smell like her, Princess Twilight..."

Celestia gently shifted Template back with a forelimb around her shoulders, then glanced at the door with a smile. "My little ponies, it's a lot easier to hear what's going on if you're on this side of the door." Almost immediately, three very familiar little fillies burst through the door.

"Thanks, Mrs. Princess y'r Highness ma'am! ... Wait, um... oh." Apple Bloom's grin faded as she glanced around, realizing that 1) their cover had been blown to the moon and 2) AJ looked like she was going to fall over twice before she even got to give her the talking-to of her life.

Rarity, flustered beyond belief, stammered. "I-I-I---y-your Highnesses, I'm so sorry, I don't have any idea how they got here---"

"Extra teleport scroll!" Sweetie Belle piped up 'helpfully' as Rarity looked apologetically at Celestia, who smiled, even giggling a little.

The goddess's eyes shone warmly down on the Cutie Mark Crusaders as Princess Beta trotted over to them, excited, and set off a round of introductions.

"My little ponies," Celestia leaned down to them with a smile, "I think Princess Beta would prefer to spend some time with you three rather than listen to your sisters talk. Grownups can be so boring, can't they?"

The Crusaders all nodded, both in excitement and agreement. "That's what I've been saying for years---'cept for Rainbow Dash, she's never boring!" Scootaloo glanced over her shoulder at her exasperated hero and occasional mentor. Taking the young Equinculus, the fillies gave the Princesses a little salute before trotting off, bursts of giggles blooming among them.

As Celestia watched Rainbow Dash challenge Princess Chassis to a race, she smiled and wondered if maybe this was for the best, having someone who wanted her to be their mother.

ARCHIVED HISTORICAL FILE
CATEGORY: EARLY PERIOD
CLASSIFICATION: TABOO. NOTE THAT READING ANY FURTHER WITHOUT EXPLICIT AUTHORIZATION WARRANTS IMMEDIATE DISCORPORATION.
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FILE BEGINS
Day 1.
My head is still so clouded, but I have to be strong for my mother and for all my soldiers. I don't recognize where we are, but it's not anywhere near any place I've seen or been told about. No checkerboard ground here, lots of little sandy islands and salt water. We're going to be okay for a while, but we still need to find fresh water and edible foliage soon.

Every time I look at the troops I have with me, it feels so strange. At first I feel like they're being strong because they're not panicking, but I remember that they probably can't panic in the first place---I'm the only one who can. If I do, they'll follow me as much as they can into that fear. And because of that, I must be strong for them, because I'm the only one capable of being truly strong in that way.

Mother, if you ever read this, I'm trying so hard to be strong and kind and calm like you are.

~
Day 5.
We did it! We found the place we've needed so much! There are two islands side-by-side, joined with a shallow patch of water; we have taken the westmost one, where there is a clearing by a clear pool. The east island will be looked at later, but for now we have our place.

We've started to work on shelters; after all, it could be a little while before Mother finds us again and takes us home. Not that I'd mind coming here again, since it's a beautiful place, but what's important to me is being with Mother and her sister again. We have a lot of work to do for the poor ponies in that wretched land; maybe they could do with some time spent here.

Anyway, the most important thing now is shelter. We've got a few decent huts up already, and since we don't have to sleep as often as a regular pony would we can work through the night sometimes. Hopefully soon we'll have a roof over everypony's head.

7: Discussions (Hypothetical - Familial - Conciliatory - Cryptic)

Twilight's alarm clock buzzed, waking her in a comfortable but not-very-familiar bed. It had been a few days since the HIMS Inner Truth arrived; Twilight had remained in Canterlot with her fellow alicorns, but the other Bearers' duties called them home to Ponyville before long.
These few days had been... strange. Generally nice, but very strange in some ways. Drawplate, Chassis, and Beta talked with her now and then, but it was Crown Princess Template with whom she ended up spending the most time---whether she liked it or not, she thought with a wry face.

She found herself feeling a little too harsh on that point in a moment, though; after all, the Equinculus meant no harm and was very sweet, if a bit clingy. Twilight felt she might be starting to get over the whole "uncanny valley" aspect of golems by this point, but still Template was just a little unsettling... but Celestia seemed quite taken with her, so could there really be anything bad in her?

'Yes,' she thought, 'there could. After all, the Princess selected me as her personal student and has no qualms about letting me know how much I matter to her, and I've got flaws upon flaws to spare. She focuses on the good she sees in ponies, it's what she does. She shines her light on my creativity and diligence and intelligence instead of my paranoia and ego and obsessiveness.'

Dragging herself from bed, she stumbled into the shower with a yawn. Even as an alicorn, she was still the same old Twily, not always the biggest morning pony. Letting the hot water wash over her, she smiled. No, Template was no more perfect than she herself was; she was clingy and naive and occasionally clueless. But she was curious and honest and cared about others, especially her subjects. "Not a perfect pony," she found herself saying out loud, "but a nice one, a good one. Perfect ponies don't exist, after all..."

... Not even Celestia? Oh boy, this was gonna be fun to rationalize, and since she'd started talking out loud, well...

"Okay, no, no, not even Princess Celestia... if she'd been perfect, she... she would have stopped Nightmare Moon from happening in the first place, and she would have stopped Discord's escape, and she would have seen through Chrysalis's schemes right away... but but but." She paused, hoping nopony could hear her debating herself in the shower. "She is not perfect, but she is as close as I've seen any pony get, and that means a lot. She tries her best like we all do, and it's just that her best is very, very, very good. In fact, I don't think we need a perfect princess. I'm happy with the one we have already, thank you very much!" Debate over! Twilight Sparkle gets all the points, all of them! Yay Twilight, you're so smart, you're gr---

"Princess Twilight, is there... anything you might need?" Horseapples, why did the maids have to have such good hearing? One was at her bedroom door, and somehow had been able to hear her over the white noise of the shower water.

"U-Um, no, I mean, um... I'm fine, thank you..." Or, she thought, maybe it was her own loud mouth to blame. Yeah, okay, it was definitely her loud mouth.

Celestia took a deep breath, inhaling a wonderful mixture of cool morning air and the aroma of the exotic tea blend the Imperials had brought; it seemed their country was based in an island group southeast of Neighsia, though their almost total lack of contact with other nations explained how they had so long been only a vague rumor to the sun goddess herself. But now the isolationism was over, it seemed; hopefully they might start commerce with their neighbors, establish good trading relationships... especially if it meant being able to get this tea regularly.

She took a long sip before speaking, not needing to turn her head or even look to her left. "Trouble sleeping, Luna? You really should be in bed..."

Her sister sat beside her, rubbing her eyes a little. "I will, but first I think it best we talk."

"If I were not always ready to talk with you, Lulu, what sort of sister would I be?" Celestia turned, glad to see at least a brief smile from her sister. "... I have the feeling I already know what you wish to talk about."

Luna sighed just a little. "Celly, do not tell me this matter has nothing of alarm in it for you. The princesses and prince of an empire we only thought a vague rumor until just now arrive at our doorstep, hailing you as their mother, and one in particular can't stop fawning over you and Twilight? By the stars, their empress's name is apparently Aleph... there is no room for coincidence in this."

"I understand your concerns, and I do agree that considering this a coincidence is naive at best... but that doesn't mean one cannot be optimistic about this situation, Lulu." The sun goddess leaned over to nuzzle her younger sister. "If this Alchemical Empire does indeed have some connection to those we lost so long ago, then have we not some reason to be glad now that we have found them again---or rather, that they have found us?"

The smaller alicorn frowned just a little. "Yes, but your optimism may be colored by your gladness in being so openly called 'mother' by somepony, Celly. Frankly, the amount of attention the Crown Princess devotes to you borders on unsettling."

"Well..." Celestia had to think about that. It was true, she was so happy when she heard that voice calling her 'mother' like an echo of the distant past... but was it such a bad thing? She smiled a little. "True, but Template isn't exactly snubbing you either, 'Auntie Luna'."

Luna blew a strand of her starry mane out of her face, rolling her eyes. "I will admit I find her disposition... pleasant, her affection perhaps endearing... though I do not envy Twilight Sparkle. Does Template not understand how easily most of her actions toward our newest Princess could be interpreted as expressions of romantic intention? Even after a thousand years away from society, I never reached such depths of cluelessness." She huffed.

"I may have to talk to her about that... the first few times were honestly kind of cute, but at this point it just seems to reflect a problem with a culture so heavily golem-dominated, and perhaps the remaining social awkwardness of a certain violet alicorn." Celestia winced slightly, then noticed her sister's yawn. "Come now, Lulu, back to bed with you."

Twilight ate her breakfast in the dining room of the royal quarters as she had the past few days, enjoying the beautiful view of the mountains. Template usually would be here by now, being her innocently unnerving self, but so far she was nowhere to be seen. Twilight found herself awash in calculations, finding the average time of the past three days between her starting breakfast and being accosted by the Crown Princess, then comparing the resulting number to the current time-since-breakfast-start... it seemed Template was fourteen minutes late and counting... and there she was.

The jade-eyed grey Equinculus walked over rather than trotting, looking a bit less excited than usual---perhaps a little nervous. "Twilight?" She asked, shifting on her hooves a little.

Twilight's eye was briefly caught by a blink of white by a corner, but she turned her attention back to Template rather than letting her squirm. "Er, good morning, Template..."

Template took a breath before speaking. "I'm sorry about the way some of my actions have made you uncomfortable, like how I'm always nuzzling you, or how I walk and sit so close, and especially that kiss... oh, sorry, I'm rambling. Uh... I'm sorry about how all that made you feel uncomfortable, and I never wanted to make you feel that way, I didn't understand those things had romantic implications and, um... I guess I hope you can forgive me for being so clingy and inadvertently flirtatious."

Twilight needed a moment to take the whole mess in. She'd kind of guessed that Template wasn't really trying to hit on her in the first place, and the idea of golem culture being deficient in its understanding of romance sounded fairly logical. It was nice to hear the Equinculus come out and own up to it all, though, even if it sounded half-rehearsed with a certain solar deity's guidance ('inadvertently flirtatious' was a bit of a giveaway). The violet alicorn smiled, nodding. "I forgive you, Template, and I understand... though let's try to keep our hooves and lips to ourselves, okay?"

"Oh, thank you!" Template smiled back, relieved. She got her own breakfast and sat with (but not too close to) the young alicorn, slipping into a fairly comfortable conversation. Inside, she was so glad to have someone to talk to besides her siblings; she loved them, but nopony could survive talking to their family alone. Thinking of that, she wondered how their big sister was doing back home. Was she lonely, would she need them back soon?

Her Imperial Majesty Aleph IV was smiling today.
For a ruler like Celestia, that was the status quo. For one like the fearsome Dragon Queen, it was something to hope for---a pleased mega-dragon monarch was generally preferable to an angry one. For Queen Chrysalis, it would mean she was up to something nasty and it was going her way.

For this Empress in particular, though, it was almost unheard of. She had not smiled when they conquered their neighboring islands, nor when she had almost entirely cut off her nation from all others. Three years ago, upon the redemption of Princess Luna, she had been said to smile for a brief time. Now, however, she had been smiling since her handmaids had woken and attended to her.

Even in her platinum greaves, collar, and crown she didn't look particularly regal; her surface was so pale grey as to nearly be white, her dourly straight mane and tail a faded indigo, her eyes pale cobalt with dull, flat black pupils. She was an Equinculus in the standard earth pony frame, no bigger than the average, nor was her trigram (☵) Cutie Mark more ornate than those of her siblings or subjects. But today, smiling, she looked perhaps a little more impressive.

"What brings such a smile to your face today, Your Majesty?" A pegasus mare---normal, not a golem---asked, checking that the obsidian set in her Empress's collar was shined to a perfect finish as always.

Aleph looked at her, those flat eyes taking too long between blinks. "The Mother Sun will be coming before long. I have been preparing for her since before you were here, Noon Sky."

The blue pegasus was a little confused, but smiled all the same. Her Empress was often a bit cryptic, after all. "Princess Celestia herself will be coming? How soon, though? It did take the Inner Truth several weeks before they sent back a confirmation of arrival at Canterlot, so won't it take that same amount of time before they can return with her, even if she went with them right now, Your Majesty?"

Shaking her head slightly, the Empress continued to smile. "She'll be here sooner than that. I'll be fetching her myself, after I help Template coordinate a sendoff spectacle for her."

Noon Sky found herself no longer very keen on asking questions; for one thing, that smile was becoming more than a little unsettling.

8: Rulers (Guiding - Accusing)

Twilight sat at the table as she watched Princess Celestia look through her desk. "Thanks for taking this time with me, Princess... I'm lucky to have a veteran Alicorn like yourself here to help me, I'd be so lost without your guidance."

Smiling as always, Celestia returned to the table with a smallish box. "My brilliant student, you are always welcome. Especially so in matters such as these; I understand you must feel pressured by your new position as an Alicorn, and I'm always happy to help you. Now, I'm sure you know what this is." She opened the box, drawing out a deck of cards.

"Cards... wait, those are tarot cards." Twilight frowned a little, confused. "But you told me yourself that tarot divination is like astrology, misleading and inexact at best."

The sun goddess nodded. "True, but I don't plan to read anyone's future with these cards. They're part of a lesson you need to learn about what we are and what it means to be an Alicorn... as much as you may not be fond of tarot, go on and tell me what you know about it."

"Well," Twilight sat up a little, "tarot cards date back centuries or more and consist of twenty-two 'Major Arcana' and fifty-six 'Minor Arcana', the latter group being divided into four suits of Cups, Coins, Wands, and Blades. The Major Arcana have no suits." She watched Celestia separate the two groups, set aside the bigger stack, and start to lay out two rows of eleven cards facedown. "But what do these cards have to do with Alicorns?"

Celestia's horn glowed as she selected a card to flip face-up: XIX, The Sun. "You see, Twilight, the original creator of the tarot deck long ago chose the cards of the Major Arcana based on visions they had. Being a unicorn situated over a high crossing-point of leylines, what they were actually experiencing was a glimpse into the realm of deities, concepts. Thus, these cards correspond fairly well to the truths embodied by us Alicorns, as well as those not yet embodied---I'll explain that bit, don't worry." She turned another over, The Moon. "It's not exactly hard to reason that these two cards point to myself and Luna, of course. Pick any one of these and we'll see if you can put a name to a face, so to speak."

Twilight's violet aura surrounded one card, turning it over: XIV, Temperance. It showed a Unicorn holding two goblets and standing on a riverbank, one hoof on land and one hoof in the water. "This one isn't so easy as the first two..." She noticed a booklet within the otherwise-empty card box and pulled it out, relieved to find it gave summaries of the meanings ascribed to each card. Finding Temperance's entry, she read aloud. "Temperance, representing harmony, moderation, and unification... I... I would guess that might be Princess Cadence?"

"Exactly right!" Celestia smiled. "Now, some more of these currently have Alicorns corresponding to them, but others are laying dormant. But a pony, or any being, can take on the mantle of a concept if they have proven themselves truly worthy..." She turned over another card, The Star, and gave her student a meaningful look. It took a second, but...

"... That's me?" Twilight stared, then looked up at her teacher. "I didn't just get a horn and better magic, I'm actually a... a deity?" She blinked, looking at her forehoof. "But I don't really... feel that different."

Celestia shook her head. "A pony does not become a goddess in a day, Twilight. This is something that you will grow into bit by bit, until finally you assume its full power and responsibility." Her smile lasted a bit, then faded slightly. "But there is a darker side to this... Nightmares, Twilight. What is a Nightmare?"

"Um..." The young Alicorn started to feel an odd tug in her stomach. "Well, in this sense, I've only heard of Nightmare Moon. Princess Luna... was overcome by her jealousy and unhappiness and became a twisted shadow of herself... but I know it's not permanent!" She smiled a little, swallowing. "We were able to make her better, right?"

Celestia nodded. "That's true, a Nightmare can be redeemed... but what a Nightmare truly is, Twilight, is somepony so crushed under the weight of despair and negativity that they cast aside all parts of themselves except for one. My sister is an artist of the night skies who takes pride in her beautiful work, but she's so much more---guardian of dreams, a princess who keeps safe those who must face the dangers of the dark, a loving sister, a mare with a special place in her heart for the young. Nightmare Moon cared about her night and nothing more." She turned the Moon card around, inverted it. "A Nightmare is fundamentally broken, an incomplete being. When you and the others used the Elements on Nightmare Moon, you were healing Luna, making her whole again." She paused before going on.
"However, and this may shock you, Alicorns are not the only ones who can become Nightmares. Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, or potential Bearers, are among those who can as well."

Twilight felt her wings fold tighter against her sides as a cold tightness formed in her stomach. "You mean... you mean my friends could become... that? Applejack could become a Nightmare, or Rarity, or Rainbow Dash?" A realization chilled her even further. "And if they did, then we wouldn't be able to fix them with the Elements... we'd be finished."

Celestia came around, her warm wing settling around her student. "That's not quite true. It would be a terrible thing if you or one of the other Bearers were to fall into such despair and become inverted, but there are others in this world whose hearts are attuned to the Elements. You would need to find them and wake the Element sleeping within them, but it could be done... however, there is another point." She gathered the Major Arcana in a pile and set them aside, pulling over the Minor Arcana. "When a normal being becomes a Nightmare, they gain a great deal of power---not as much as a true deity, but not far off." She pulled out the Queen of Blades and set it face-up, inverted. "But when you and your friends came and used the Elements upon that pony, their power would not simply go away. Instead, it remains and they are... fixed." She turned the card right-side up. "From then on, they are a minor deity, and with that power comes heavy responsibility. In some ways, that pony's struggle is still ongoing."

Template sat up, blinking. She looked around; she was alone here in her room, just as she had been when she had laid down for her nap. But that voice...

"Aleph? Aleph, how are you talking in my head? You're hundreds, thousands of miles away, neither of us are even built in the Unicorn frame..."

Template frowned. 'Okay, I guess that makes sense... what did you want to talk about?'

'Chassis checked on them before I went to take my nap. She says they're fine, some of them are going out into Canterlot to meet the local ponies.'

'No, I'm in Canterlot Castle with Mother and Aunt Luna and Twilight and the others. The crew's staying on the ship and Chassis can fly down to the docks way quicker than I can walk, so...'

Template bit her lip. 'I'm not neglecting them, they're happy and safe and they don't need me to hover over them 24/7. And... and I've spent all my life with Brother and our sisters, and I love Mother and Twilight is so kind...'

Aleph's neutral voice took on a disappointed tone.

'No, that's not true at all!' Template shook her head, eyes moistening. 'That's wrong, I know it! Mother doesn't hate us, or Auntie Luna, or Twilight, or the maids, or anyone! They're just... not familiar with us.'

'That's not true, but... even if it is, I can help ponies understand us better if I get to know them!'

As Aleph's voice faded from her head, Template buried her face in the pillow, shaking. Was her sister right? Was she really neglecting her people?

Author's Note

Thanks to Alexwarlorn, since I'm adapting the Alicorns-as-Tarot concept from his work with permission.

9. Respite

"... You want me to take her to Ponyville?"

Celestia nodded. "Yes, Twilight. Princess Template appears to be feeling a good deal of stress and worry, though I can't get her to admit what's on her mind. I suspect some time in Ponyville might help to ease her nerves, as well as getting people more acquainted with our golem visitors. I would like you to do this, but I leave the details up to you, my brilliant student."

Twilight thought, blinking. It would be great to be back with the girls, and it might be fun to introduce her admirer to them... but the idea of bringing the crown princess of a foreign empire to a small town was a little daunting.
"Princess Celestia, I don't think it would be the best idea to bring Crown Princess Template to Ponyville." She felt just a little impish as her teacher gave a questioning expression. "... But," she continued, "I'm sure bringing a nice golem pony there would be fine. After all, Ponyville's residents do have a bit of a track record of getting uptight around royalty, even their own."

Celestia blinked in brief surprise before smiling with a hint of what might have been pride. "Looks like you've learned more from me than you let on, Twilight."

Template had admittedly been a little more reluctant to go than first expected, but her siblings and both Royal Sisters' reassurances that her ship's crew would be well-looked-after eased her into agreeing. From there it was actually quite easy to convince her to leave her imperial regalia and simply go as Template, no princessing involved. Now, as the Day Guard pegasi brought the chariot down for a landing a little outside Ponyville, Twilight looked over at her guest. Template had spent the whole flight eagerly looking down at the lands unfolding before them, overflowing with questions.

Stepping off the chariot, the Equinculus looked about in excitement, as if everything were new to her. Twilight reminded herself that, based on the descriptions the Equinculi had given of their homeland, that wasn't far from the truth--the flora and fauna of a southeastern nation of tropical islands would probably be decidedly different from those of Equestria, and this was likely the grey mare's first time seeing them up close. Walking next to the alicorn (and occasionally adjusting the distance between them when she drifted closer), Template wasn't shy about asking what those trees were, what that animal in the brush was, what those flowers were called. Of course, the brainy mage had little trouble giving out information.

First stop, Sweet Apple Acres, since it was near the edge of town on the side they were approaching from. The barn caught Template's eye, but it was the vast orchard that really got her interest. "I've never seen so many apple trees before... but the seasons here are more extreme than back home, you said. Don't they have to use lots of workers to harvest the crop in time?"

Twilight shook her head, leading Template toward the sound hooves meeting wood. "Actually, it's usually just Applejack and my other friends, since her brother and sister have different duties around the farm. AJ's a very efficient harvester, though---look over there." She pointed with a forehoof to where the orange mare was positioned in front of a tree. Her rear hooves came up, her front legs locked in place, and thwack! Template watched how the apple farmer's whole body went into the buck, not just her rear legs; though some unripe apples clung on, a good deal of ripe red fruit tumbled down into a basket right up against the trunk.

AJ smiled in satisfaction at her work, then noticed her friend. "Howdy, Twi! Mornin', Miz Crown Princess!" She waved as they came over.

"Actually, Applejack, Template's leaving the whole princess thing behind while she's visiting Ponyville." Twilight smiled. "I figured it'd be better for ponies to meet her without a royal title in the way... unless the press has already let that cat out of the bag." Horseapples, how could she have overlooked that?! There's no way the press hadn't at least reported the arrival of a whole ship of golems, even with Celestia trying to keep it from turning into a huge sideshow.

"Yer in luck, Twi'---newspapers managed to miss the Imperials' names. Pro'lly too busy gettin' worked up over the whole golem empire airship deal." AJ grinned, not oblivious to the Equinculus's newfound interest in her toned physique. "Oh, don't be so impressed, sugarcube. This here's just the product of hard work and diligence, nothin' to fuss over." She giggled. "Go on, why don'cha try givin' that there tree a buck, see if y'can coax down another apple or two?"

Eagerly, Template took up Applejack's former position. "Front legs lock, back hooves up, kick. Front legs lock, back hooves up, kick..." She muttered to herself before trying. Her motions were halting and a little awkward, unlike the smooth and practiced technique of the veteran bucker; when her hooves met bark, she ended up throwing herself forward, face lucky enough to meet soft grass.

Chuckling, Applejack helped the Equinculus up with a hoof. "Good job tryin' to copy me, Ah can give ya that much. Kept yer front knees and ankles good 'n steady, but yer shoulders was too loose, that's why all yer energy went into pushin' ya for'ard, 'stead of into the trunk." She smiled, putting an apple into Template's front hooves. "Don' worry 'bout it, sugarcube."

Swallowing her first bite of a freshly-fallen apple, Template smiled and nodded. "Thanks for letting me try anyway, Miss Applejack, and thanks even more for this!" She bit into the fruit again, eyes closing as she appreciated the sweetness, the juiciness, the hint of tartness. As Twilight steered her back toward the farm's main path, Applejack followed alongside.

"Aw, don' go Missin' me, 'specially since Ah'm not s'posed to be Crown Princessin' you. Nice meetin' ya, and nice to see you back in town, Twi!"

Fluttershy had just finished collecting her chickens' eggs when she saw Twilight at the gate, Template beside her and looking quite excited to see so many animals in one pony's property. "Oh, Twilight, you're back, how lovely. And I see you've brought, er, a guest. Hello, Miss Template..."

"Hi Miss Fluttershy! I'm not being a princess right now!" Template smiled eagerly. "There's a bird in your mane!" She pointed with her nose to the small feathery ball curled up in the soft pink waves of Fluttershy's hair. "Ooh, is that a hummingbird? I didn't know you'd have them here too!"

Letting her friend and guest into her yard, Fluttershy smiled back. "Why yes, dear, they're fairly common in the warmer months. They migrate south for the winter; from what Twilight told us in her letters, your empire sounds like just the place they'd go when it gets cold here. Hummingway is napping right now, so let me get you both a nice cup of tea."

Inside the cottage, Template was enamored with Fluttershy's animal friends; the pegasus let her have her fun while she got caught up with Twilight, though she kept an eye out lest the grey golem mare repeat the antics of a certain trio of excitable fillies. It wasn't long before she felt a tug at her tail, looking down to see Angel looking cross with her, complete with crossed arms and tapping foot. The bunny pointed at the object of his displeasure as she stared up at the birds perching in the rafters, jade eyes bright.

"Now Angel," Fluttershy frowned softly, "Miss Template is from far away and probably hasn't seen a lot of what we have here in Ponyville, so please try to be understanding even if she's a little over-eager." She watched the white bunny mime out a series of actions, tilting her head. "You say she... doesn't smell good? No, okay... oh, you mean she doesn't smell like a pony? And she moves strangely?" Blinking, the yellow pegasus watched the golem mare. She had to admit, as sweet as she was, everything about Template seemed very slightly... off---her movements, her strange eyes, her smooth grey surface in place of a coat.
"... Yes, she is a bit different, but she's a golem pony. That's just how they are... Template, dear, your tea will get cold if you leave it here." She called over to the grey mare, smiling as her guest trotted over immediately to have a sip. "Template, I'd like you to meet Angel Bunny. He helps me take care of the other animals and he's one of my oldest friends."

Template bent down to the small animal's level, eyes wide. "Hiya Mr. Angel Bunny. I'm Template, nice to me---eep!" She made a decidedly Fluttershy-like sound as the bunny scampered up her foreleg and onto her back, starting to squirm a little as he clambered through her mane, sniffing. "His whiskers are all tickly!" She giggled; Angel emerged atop her head, seemed to take a moment of thought, then gave a shrug as if to say 'I will tolerate her.'

"Oh, I think he likes you. Sort of." Fluttershy gently removed the bunny from the golem mare's head. "What sort of animals are there in your homeland?"

Twilight watched the two chat, glad Template seemed to be fitting in alright so far...

"Twilight, so good to see you again, and I remember your guest, if I'm not mistaken." Rarity smiled, glancing toward Template, who was surprisingly not excitedly looking around at all the pretty fabrics and dresses.

Happy that Template seemed to be behaving herself a little bit more, Twilight nodded. "Template is just Template for now, so if you could ask Sweetie Belle not to let anyone know she's a princess... er, Template?"

The grey golem mare was staring at the white unicorn, looking more than a little like a certain young dragon. It took a few nudges from Twilight's wing to get her to snap out of it. "Uh, um, you'rereallypretty."
A pause.
"... I meant to say 'nice to meet you'. Sorry."

The elegant unicorn couldn't help but giggle a little. "It's quite alright, darling... you know, I daresay you look better without the silver jewelry, as nice as it is. Would you mind terribly if I asked to do a little something with your mane, perhaps?"

Twilight watched as Template nodded eagerly, following Rarity; walking with the other two, the lavender alicorn blinked. She really hadn't expected Template's apparent crush, but at least Rarity had experience enough to deal with it properly. The golem mare was persuaded fairly easily to sit still as Rarity went to work with brush and comb. Soon Template's mane and tail were brushed out, her forelocks gathered and treated to hang over her right eye. Rarity said it made her look "just a little mysterious", which the grey mare ate right up. She soon was marveling at the unicorn's model dresses as Rarity and Twilight got caught up with each other; it was nice to be able to get the excitable Template focused on something.

"Who are we going to see next?" Template trotted alongside Twilight, looking very happy with her new manestyle. "I remember... two more I think?"

Twilight nodded. "There's Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Pinkie's probably at Sugarcube Corner, so we'll just head over there fir-"

"TWILIGHT!!" A pink blur narrowly missed the alicorn, but bowled Template over; when the dust cleared, Pinkie was sprawled atop the golem mare. "Oh, wow, my aim was off... oh, hiya Not-Princess Template!" She grinned down.

Twilight shook her head. Typical Pinkie... "As glad as I am that you apparently know the 'no princessing' bit already... Pinkie, get off her. I'm pretty sure Template doesn't appreciate being squished."

"Actually, it's fine." Template smiled up at Twilight, seemingly quite happy. "She's warm and smells sweet and I'm a lot more durable than you'd think; I'm pretty much okay with this."

Lavender face, meet lavender hoof. Pinkie grinned in what she must have imagined to be some sort of victory, shifting her position. "So, how've you been?"

It was surreal, to say the least, to chat with a pony while they sprawled atop another's back. Twilight managed to get through her conversation with Pinkie somehow.

"Ooooh, so you're gonna be looking for Dashie soon? I was gonna find her myself, I think she's chilling at home!" Pinkie finally got off Template, who sat up and adjusted her mane as if she hadn't just been a living throw pillow. "Tempy can test out something I've been working on!"

As the three trotted for Rainbow Dash's impressive cloud home, Twilight shook her head. "Oh, Pinkie, I don't even want to know what it is, do I? Template, please don't let her make you do anything dangerous or ridiculous. So basically don't let her make you do anything."
When Pinkie pulled out what looked like a modified trampoline, she eased up. "... Okay, well, just be careful on that. When you two finish screwing around, I'll get you up onto that cloud house for real." She obligingly cast the cloud-walking spell on both of them, knowing there was very little likelyhood a simple trampoline would get them high eno---

SPROING. PWUMF.

"... Or that could happen." Twilight swallowed, flying up to where Template was buried headfirst in Rainbow Dash's front doorstep, wiggling and trying to push herself out of it. The blue pegasus herself arrived, mane damp from a shower.

"... Hey Twi, hey Pinks, hey... um... mare whose sister I raced?" She helped the golem dislodge herself, then patted the cloud material back into shape. "Anyone care to tell me why a foreign princess was neck-deep in my front yard, or do I have to figure this one out myself?"

Twilight brushed Template off, biting her lip. "Sorry, Rainbow... Template's here to relax and get to know Ponyville, but Pinkie wanted her help testing a new trampoline to get up to your house." Pinkie bounced to her side, grinning like a loon as usual.

"Oh." RD rolled her eyes. "Coulda just stopped at 'but Pinkie'. Well, nice to meet you... like, again and stuff, Template. You guys wanna come in?"

As they relaxed in the pleasant living room on soft cloud couches, Twilight found herself feeling close to normal again, even if Template started looking a little... fidgety. Worried, almost.

10: Ruiner

Twilight smiled as she watched Template and Spike; today had been a pretty eventful one, and it was nice to relax and listen to the two.

"... and she saved Ponyville from a giant rampaging me! Suffice to say, after all that we're pretty much an official couple."

Lying on her back, Template looked at the young dragon upside down. "Really? That's amazing... you're so lucky!" She stared up in awe. "Miss Rarity is so pretty..."

"And smart, and kind, and brave, and obviously she has excellent taste in men." Spike grinned, flexing his little biceps.

Twilight looked up from her book, giggling. "Lucky for you that she's willing to overlook humility, or lack thereof..." She checked the clock, then set down her book. "By the way, Template, there's one last thing I'd like to show you today."

Rolling onto her hooves, Template stood and nodded. "Sure!" Standing, she smiled and followed the alicorn and young dragon out the door and into the cool evening air. It was a bit of a walk, taking them up to Sweet Apple Acres.

"Twilight, why's it seem so quiet? So few ponies are out and about..."

Twilight took them up to one of the older barns, smiling. "Oh, evenings are usually pretty quiet here in Ponyville... except for this one." Her magic gripped the door handle and pushed it open, unleashing a burst of confetti upon the Equinculus mare, along with the voices of dozens of ponies.

"SURPRISE!"

ARCHIVED HISTORICAL FILE
CATEGORY: EARLY PERIOD
CLASSIFICATION: TABOO. NOTE THAT READING ANY FURTHER WITHOUT EXPLICIT AUTHORIZATION WARRANTS IMMEDIATE DISCORPORATION.
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FILE CONTINUES

Day 14: Hardship and good fortune have come to us side-by-side.
On one hoof, the native ponies from the easterly island are helping us build a life here, and their kindness and generosity is something for which we should all be grateful.
On the other, I don't want to have to build a life here. I want myself and my troops to be home with Mother. Is she still fighting that tyrant?
The troops are holding up well, but that's because I'm putting on a brave face. Even if I didn't, I don't think they have the capacity to be all that sad.
For now, we have to keep ourselves safe. We have decent houses now, helpful neighbors, and our environment's about as good as we can get it.
But it's hard, Mother. It's hard doing this, and nopony understands.

Template couldn't believe it! A party just for her! She was having so much fu

She was trying to have fun and putting up a reasonably good facade of enjoying herself. Aleph had been picking away at her all week, and going to Ponyville just seemed to aggravate her further.

'They're not the enemy, they're good people! You say how they hate us, or how they will, but these ponies have been nothing but kind to me since I arrived!'

'So what are you saying? Are you going to tell me we have to... to...'

'Submit?! What you want to, to... take over Equestria, is that it? I thought you loved Mother!'

"Template?"

The grey mare jumped a little, turning to come nose-to-nose with Pinkie. "O-oh, Pinkie, hey..."

Usually chipper, the party pony looked concerned. "Hey, are you alright? You seem kinda spaced out and a little tense..."

"O-oh, I'm fine... actually, er, could you maybe point me to the little filly's room?" She tried her best to smile. "Even golems have to, y'know..."

Pinkie hesitated, then nodded. "It's in the next building over, the little blue one with the hose coiled up on the wall... you sure you're okay?"

"I'm alright, don't worry..." Template gave her a quick nuzzle before trotting out.

'I do want my subjects to be happy, but that doesn't mean---'

The words hit like a hoof to the stomach.

'N-no...' Template bit her lip, closing the door behind her.

'No...'

'No, it's...'

'I don't want to...'

'Stop it...'

'I-I can't!'

"NO!" She felt sick, her legs shook, her eyes stung with tears. "N-no more, please stop..."

"... And that's why my flight school yearbook listed me under 'Most Perilous Posterior'."

Twilight couldn't help but giggle. "Oh, Ditzy Doo... that'll be one to tell Dinky when she's older." A hoof tapped her shoulder and she turned. "Hey Pinkie, what's up?"

Her pink friend looked a bit worried; an unsmiling Pinkie was never a good sign. "Twilight, I'm a little worried about Template... she's seemed pretty stressed just now."

"Oh, um... Ditzy, hold on a sec, please." Twilight slipped off to a corner with Pinkie, frowning a little. "I... I guess throughout the last week she's been looking kind of... off at times, like she had something on her mind... I asked, but she said she was fine. You think we should talk to her?"

Pinkie nodded emphatically, walking toward the barn door and slipping past the other ponies. "She just went to the bathroom in the next building, so maybe we should pull her aside when she comes out..."

"NO!"

Both mares' heads snapped toward the source of the sound, the small blue building next to the barn. "That sounded like her..."

They hurried in, knocking at the white bathroom door. "Tempy, you okay?" Pinkie shifted on her hooves, getting more anxious by the second. "Everything alright?"

A sniffle and a soft whimper emanated from the other side of the door; Pinkie leaned in closer, her voice softer and gentler than Twilight had heard in a long while. "Could you say that again for us, sweetie? It was a little hard to hear..."

"... 'M sorry..."

Twilight leaned in next to Pinkie, biting her lip in worry. "What do you mean, Template? You haven't done anything wrong, there's nothing to be sorry about..."

"Th-thanks for being so kind to me, both of you... I j-just wish it didn't have to be this way."

Pinkie's body juddered all over; she went tense, forehoof scraping the floor nervously. "W-what do you..."

"Tell the others I'm sorry, and please step away from the door for me..."

The mares stepped back to let the door open, ready for the golem to come out.
They weren't ready for her to come out quite so fast.

The door practically exploded off its hinges, narrowly missing them both. In their haste to dodge it, they missed the gray mare as she sprinted out of the building.

Pinkie gasped, starting after her with Twilight just behind. "Get Rainbow Dash after her, quick!"

"But---"

"Just do it!"

Twilight knew better than to question her further, teleporting into the barn.

"Rainbow, we have a problem!"

11: The Becoming

Luna stretched her wings, walking out to Celestia's balcony. Her sister was still there, looking out at the orange and violet flares of sunset fading away.
"I know, you think I should go to bed soon." Celestia turned to smile at her sister. "It's nice to have such a concerned sister, even if you can get just a little bit more worried than you need to be."

Luna rolled her eyes softly. "What's got you staying up so often, sister?" She sat next to the taller Alicorn, smiling back. "And you're one to talk, always making sure I go to bed in the morning."

"Just thinking, sister." Celestia put her wing around her sister with a shrug. "There's been so much going on, after all, and Twilight sent a quick letter about how Template is settling in... and by quick, I mean several pages, because this is Twilight we're talking about." She got Luna to giggle a little at that one. "There are still a lot of things we have to ask her, of course..."

After a little silence, Luna stood. "Well, I have the moon to work on, so I'll leave you to hopefully get to bed before long." She nudged Celestia and smiled, then left the balcony.

"You wanted to show me something, your Majesty?"

Noonday Sky sat down at the table across from her Empress, wondering what was up. As Aleph pulled out a deck of cards, she watched. "Are... you doing my tarot reading, your Majesty?"

"Not yours exactly, no." The Equinculus shook her head flatly, a dark indigo magic aura pulling cards out of the deck. That surprised Noonday, but... it made some sense that the Empress would have magic, right? Even if she wasn't built as a Unicorn golem, she could be the exception---she was an Empress, after all.
"I suppose you could say I'm doing a reading for the whole world." She began to turn over the facedown cards, setting them to read right-side-up for her handmaiden. "The Sun, the Moon, Temperance... the Star lies dormant, but it is there nonetheless." The last one she put sideways, but faceup.
Two cards remained; she picked one up, gave another rare and unnerving smile, and slipped it back into the deck. "I'll save this one for later... but this one, what does it mean?" She flipped over the Queen of Coins.

Noonday thought a moment, trying to remember. "Maternal, someone who has a lot and doesn't balk at sharing it, a pony concerned for the welfare of others... why?"

Aleph just kept smiling.

Rainbow Dash was surprised; this wasn't supposed to be so hard! She was the fastest flier in Ponyville, probably fastest in Equestria, and yet catching up to the grey mare was getting hard. Template was a lot faster and better at turning quickly than the blue pegasus had expected from a pampered princess, but maybe it was a golem thing. Either way, following a weaving route through the orchard in the last light of dusk was making it difficult to eliminate the lead Template had started with.

Flying just above the treetops, she gritted her teeth. There wasn't enough room to dive down at her now, not in this light anyway. "Template, hold on! Stop running!" Calling to her hadn't worked the last three times, but that wouldn't stop her from trying again.

After another minute or so, she was relieved to see the Equinculus veer off out of the trees and into a wide clearing marked by a dead tree in its center. Putting on a burst of speed, Rainbow Dash landed a few meters in front of Template, who skidded to a shaky trot and stumbled over to lean against the dead treetrunk.

Right behind her, Rainbow Dash panted a little; the other mare was in worse shape, gasping for breath after her all-out sprint. "Template, what's got into you?" It wasn't til she got closer that she could see tear-streaks all down the grey mare's face. "What happened, are you okay? Did somepony say something to hurt you?"

Shaking as she slumped against the tree, Template stammered. "I-I... I'm.. 'm sorry, I'm so sor-sorry... you've all been so kind, and... and..."

"And what, what is it?" Rainbow put a wing around the quivering mare. "Look, I know we don't know each other too well, but any friend of Twi's is a friend of mine. If somepony said something to make you this upset, please tell me who it was. Me'n the others, we'll take care of it, 's kinda... it's what we do, okay?"

Template turned to her, still crying. She could see the others finally catching up to them; nearly everypony from the party had come to see what the ruckus was about, and she shook harder as she saw the other Bearers coming behind Rainbow Dash, the younger colts and fillies coming close to see what was wrong with the newcomer. The wind was picking up, and clouds were rolling in from the east.

"I'm so sorry... no matter how kind you've been to me, or how happy I feel when I'm around you all, I can't put you above my people." Her colors started to dim, her eyes turning flat and dull, her mane greying, her grey body managing to lose the life and character it had. Twilight pushed Rainbow Dash aside, a hard knot twisting in her stomach; she recognized that, and she recognized it all too well. Discord's mind-games had subverted her friends' elements, their very selves, and somehow the same thing was happening to Template. The wind blew harder still, as if the weather were mirroring the turmoil in the ponies' hearts.

"Template, what's going on?!" She gripped the weeping mare by the shoulders, only to recoil in icy terror as inky blackness began to spread over her. Starting at the marks on her flanks, it moved up her back, down her legs and tail, enveloping every part of her. Rarity rushed forward to grasp at her, but yelped in pain as the tarry emanation stung at her hooves.

"Darling, you're..."

As the oily blackness crept up her neck, Template gave the white unicorn a sad little smile. "I let my mane get messed up, didn't I? You arranged it so nicely for me and I couldn't even keep it that way before..."

"What, before what?!" Twilight bit her lip, frantic now. She'd never seen or heard of anything like this!

The blackness covered every part of the grey mare except her eyes; the grey irises began to regain their jade color, but in their centers grew pupils, large and flat, lifeless black. "Before I make the most painful choice in my life."

<Sometimes, Noonday, you take a card like this Queen of Coins, and you turn it on its head.
Just.
Like.
This.>

The winds, having risen to a shrieking gale, all centered around the black-coated Template and for a heartbeat, everything was horrible, deafening silence.
The blackness shattered, exploding outward in a burst of harsh light as the winds howled out from her all at once in horrible, deafening cacophony.

A tall, slim shape stood on ground stripped bare by screaming winds, cowering ponies now a few meters back from it. Its long teal mane and tail rippled and billowed like flags in a breeze that wasn't there, harsh arcs of light flickering through them like lightning. Its coat was dull grey, its eyes pale jade with dead black pupils. It held its wings half-open. "Nightmare Thelema," it said, more to itself than to anyone else, "the architect of paradise, laying the foundations upon the dead."

The six Bearers all stared in abject horror; Rarity tried to speak, but her voice broke and tears stung her eyes.

Template, or Thelema, looked at her; her horn glowed teal, enfolding her forelocks in an aura that carefully arranged them to hang in front of one eye. "Don't cry, Rarity. I fixed it, just like I'll fix everything else."

12: Queen of Coins Inverse (Architect of Paradise)

The six Bearers stood numbly, staring at the twisted wreck of the mare who wanted to be their new friend, the dead-eyed Nightmare. Template---Thelema---started to move forward, sending foals and adults alike scrambling in terror. The frightened shrieks of children snapped Pinkie out of her stupor first; she bared her teeth, springing at the Nightmare.

"You touch any of those foals and I break that shiny new horn right off!"

Twilight gasped, lurching forward. "P-Pinkie, no!" She watched her friend lash out at Thelema with her hooves, each time hitting a thrumming, hazy barrier of air that rippled faintly green as she struck at it. Furiously, she pounded away to no avail, shrieking in exertion and fury. "Give her back, give---her---back! You're not her!"

"Sorry, Pinkie."

Thelema's mane lashed out with a thunderous crack, catching her in the side and sending her tumbling. "Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash looked at her toppled friend, then turned her narrowed eyes on the Nightmare. "Twilight, think of something. I'll buy you some time..." She rocketed forward, pounding into the barrier and sending Thelema back a few steps; she bounced off, then came around from another angle, twisting to avoid a lash from the Nightmare's tail.

As Rainbow Dash battered away at the shielded enemy, Twilight swallowed and looked at her friends. Applejack was helping Pinkie up, and despite the distance she'd been thrown she seemed relatively unhurt. "O-okay, okay girls... we need the Elements ASAP. Fluttershy, you know where I hid them, can you fly back to Ponyville as fast as possible and grab them?"

"I-I-I don't know, I just---I'm---"

"FLUTTERSHY!"

"Ri-right, going!" The yellow pegasus took off, flying as fast as her wings could carry her. Meanwhile, Thelema had managed to snag Rainbow's rear leg in her tail and toss her away, only for the pegasus to regain her balance and regroup with her friends.

Twilight snorted, wings stiffening. "Alright, girls... we need to keep her occupied til Fluttershy's back. Hit Tem---hit the Nightmare's shield as hard as you can in sequence, maybe we can break through. Let's just hope she stays on the defensive..."

Applejack nodded, galloping toward the slowly-approaching Nightmare and lowering her head with an angry snort. Jumping over the mane swiping at her ankles, she landed behind and to the left of Thelema on one hoof, letting her momentum pivot her in nearly a full circle to add force before she bucked with all her might. The sound of impact was like rolling thunder, and Thelema staggered just a little. Applejack scrambled hastily away from a scything tail as Pinkie charged back in, mane and tail straightening as her expression turned from angry to savage. The pink pony sprung into the air, coming down with all four hooves and a scream.

Thelema's shield didn't break; it exploded outward, tossing Pinkie---or rather, Pinkamena---away to be caught by Twilight's magic. The Nightmare was crying harder now, trudging toward the five with her head low. "I'm so sorry, girls, but I have to do this. Just lie down and give up, please... don't make me do this." Suddenly, she was right there among them with a burst of wind, tail and mane lashing out. Twilight hit her right in the left eye with a burst of light, buying a second or two to leap back as Rainbow Dash shoulder-rammed her in the side.

"Hey, Princess! Maybe I'll head up to Canterlot and break some of your precious 'people', how's that sound?" Taking off, Rainbow kept herself fast but not so fast that she'd seem an unreasonable target to pursue. As Thelema spread her wings and came after her with an anguished shriek, the blue pegasus knew her plan had worked so far. She wove and spun, ducked and climbed, dove and twisted to keep her pursuer on her proverbial toes.

Down on the ground, Pinkamena had pulled a party cannon from... somewhere; Rarity was taking branches from the dead tree and hurriedly crafting them into crude projectiles with help from AJ; Twilight watched as Dash led Thelema in a crazed chase through the low sky. "Looks like she's bringing her in for a broadside here, girls. Let's make this one count."

Rarity bit her lip, then nodded; Pinkamena snorted angrily, tail flicking as she kept the neon-pink artillery trained on the grey Nightmare. "C'mon, Dashie, bring 'er in nice 'n close... Twi, Rarity, get ready..."

Dash had taken the foe into a dive straight toward her friends on the ground, then pulled up at the last second; the second she cleared the line of fire, Pinkamena pounded the ingnition key. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

A shell screamed out, exploding just in front of Thelema into a spray of confetti, balloons, streamers, glitter---harmless, but devastatingly disorienting. She stalled and floundered in the air, a sitting duck for what came next. Twilight let loose with a hail of magical bolts, while Rarity hurled flurries of wooden projectiles. The Nightmare screamed and veered out of control, falling behind them and tumbling.

As the dust cleared, Twilight and the others peered into the shallow furrow in the dirt and cringed; Nightmare or not, they were looking at a pony scored with burns and bleeding gashes, her hide riddled with splinters and crude wooden bolts. Milky white ichor seeped out of her wounds, and she was practically sobbing as she hauled herself up. Rarity looked like she might be sick. "Celestia have mercy..."

"Mother is merciful." Thelema dragged herself to her hooves, eyes closing. "I can't be." Her mane started to crackle with electricity, then her whole body; with a ZZZZP, her wounds closed up and any projectiles left in her flesh were reduced to dust. The volts turned outward next, lancing toward the five ponies and catching Rainbow Dash in the hoof; the blue pegasus twitched and cried out in pain, leg juddering uncontrollably. "All I can do is say I'm sorry..." She let loose another wave of electricity and downed the others in trembling agony.

Twilight recoiled as the twisted shadow of her new friend nuzzled her softly, neatening her mane back into place. "Template, stop this, y-you can't kill ponies like this!" She tried to stand, but Thelema pushed her back down. "I don't care how you justify this or how sorry you claim to be, this isn't who you're supposed to be or what you're supposed to do!" The Nightmare's mouth opened... and no words could come out in time before a wave of white-streaked indigo pounded into her and sent her tumbling across the grass.

"I suggest you stay down, Crown Princess."

"P-p-Princess Luna?!" Twilight started struggling to her hooves, looking on as the very Sovereign of the Night herself stood there, eyes narrowed and voice practically dripping venom as her horn pulsed with energy. "Thank the stars, I-I thought we---"

"Later, Twilight Sparkle. Attend to yourself and your friends while I teach this one some manners." Luna walked stiffly up to the gasping Nightmare, kicking her hard in the neck and sending her tumbling across the ground again. "I believe I told you to stay down. Weren't you listening, Crown Princess?" Her eyes and horn glowed as clouds parted, letting the gibbous moon shine down. "You are nothing more than a spoiled child in the throes of a tantrum, not even a proper goddess. Now, I am going to thoroughly ensure you remain immobile until the Bearers of the Elements are ready to fix your little fit. Be a good little doll and... and..." Suddenly, she clutched her head in stabbing pain, blood welling up from one nostril.

Thelema blinked in confusion, but took the chance she had been given. She lunged forward, her crackling horn scoring a smoking scrape across Luna's shoulder before she shoulder-tackled her back. The Princess cried out, but shook her affliction off and leapt backwards, another wave of starry darkness pulsing from her horn to push the Nightmare away. As Thelema fled, flying low over the ground, Luna followed; harsh blue-white lances of moonlight spewed from her horn, scoring the ground as her target dodged left and right. Finally she saw Thelema pulling up; she gave chase to her fleeing target. Up into the glowering stormclouds Thelema went, calling out bolts of lightning to strike at Luna. The dark Alicorn dodged them easily, closing in, but found the stormclouds were gathering around the Nightmare. When she burst though the grey thunderheads, she found herself in a swirling maelstrom of storms. Lightning flickered from cloud to cloud, and in this more confined space she found her dodges narrower and narrower. The blinding pain lanced into her skull again, and she faltered just enough.
Which is to say, she faltered far, far too much.
Thelema wheeled around and slammed into her, entangling her in the grasping strands of her electrified tail. As Luna struggled, she flew through tight packs of cloud shot through with lightning, letting her captive take the searing bolts again and again. She took her down, strafing over the ground to drag her along it back and forth, then started to climb. She powered straight up, wings making sounds like miniature thunderclaps as they beat the air. She went up, up, til the air became terribly thin, and paused for just a moment to admire the star-studded indigo sky.
"You did a very nice job tonight, Aunt Luna." She whispered, tears freezing on her face before she began to plummet. Her back legs held Luna head down as they screamed toward the ground, hitting terminal velocity and then accelerating as the wind pushed them harder, the air moved out of the way faster. A hundred feet above the ground, a deafening boom and a cone-shaped cloud marked their breaking the sound barrier.
The impact was just as loud, pieces of soil and rock flying into the air as goddess met ground. The crater steamed a little as Thelema left Luna there, trapped in the agonizing throes of whatever had turned a sure victory for good into a terrifying subversion.

"TWILIGHT!"

Thelema turned her head to look at where she'd left Twilight and company; Fluttershy was flying back to them, holding a tome in her hooves and going as fast as she could.

It was a pity, a tragedy, a heartbreak she'd live with forever.

Fluttershy frantically distributed the Elements. "N-Necklace, necklace, necklace, necklace, necklace, bi-big crown thingy... okay, that's all of t-them! W-what did I miss?"

"Miss?!" Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. "She just powerbombed Princess Luna into the ground! We're in for it now, girls... Twi, we need to get her to lay still long enough to use the Elements. Got a strategy for us?"

Twilight leapt forward to shield the group against a shower of small bolts, then nodded. "I think I have one... Fluttershy, can you keep her distracted and then lead her into Pinkie's cannons? We'll be using them again."

"I-I... I... o-okay, just please try to be safe, all of you." The yellow pegasus bit her lip, wings quivering before she took off toward the weeping Nightmare. "T-Template dear, over here... oh, I don't want to die, I don't want to die..."

Thelema took off after her, mane and tail crackling with arcs of lightning. Occasionally, she flicked her horn and sent a small bolt or two out at her target, never managing to score a hit. It wasn't raining, but she felt wet drops smack against her face; it took a second to realize they were Fluttershy's terrified tears.

Fluttershy took her over the treetops in crazed, erratic patterns like a fleeing rabbit. She could see Thelema behind her, and twitched in terror at the sight of crackling arcs along her horn. She started weaving and dodging wildly as lances of lightning made her coat prickle as they passed, lacing the air with the sharp smell of ozone. After the fifth near miss, Fluttershy finally started climbing up, up, up; then she locked her wings and dropped like a stone. She didn't have Rainbow Dash's moves, so she couldn't pull up at the last minute; instead, she pulled up at a more reasonable distance to glide shallowly above the ground. Thelema fell right into pursuit.

Just like a good girl.

Buried in the ground, the Party Cannons were much harder to spot. The first one knocked Thelema back to land awkwardly on her hooves near one line, whose point-blank discharges smacked her right into the opposing broadside. Staggering drunkenly, she started to flap her wings, only to be thrown back by a pair of hooves straight to the middle of the ribcage; she'd not noticed AJ getting right under her in her dazed state, and toppled back and onto her side. AJ wasted no time in hitting her again, again, a fourth time; she thought she heard something crack.

Stumbling and coughing ichor, Thelema cried out and fell to her knees when she felt a quartet of hooves right on her back, then saw a pink pony front-flip off her back; in midair, Pinkamena brought all four hooves together. At the same moment, Rainbow Dash arced up just in front of her and pushed off her hooves to slice past Thelema's side. Over and over she hit her, swarming over her so fast one might think there were more than one of her. Flying as high as she could in the time she had, the cyan pegasus made a U-turn and screamed toward the ground, breaking the chromasonic barrier less than five meters from the Nightmare. A deafening crack rolled over everypony as a Sonic Rainboom took place, throwing a prismatic blast wave out from the steaming crater where Thelema struggled to her hooves as Rainbow Dash scrambled away.

Winds swirled and contracted around her, and all noise momentarily sucked into silence as she disappeared; reappearing in the air above Twilight, she gave a pained shriek and hurled her lightning-wreathed body, dirty and leaking ichor, at the smaller Alicorn. A chunk of wood blocked her charge, pushing her aside as Rarity charged in. "If you think I'll let you hurt Twilight, then you're more insane than Nightmare Moon!" Rarity forced her to the ground, standing beside Twilight. The pair began to work in tandem, with Rarity using chunks of the dead tree to shield Twilight and batter the Nightmare as her friend hammered away with bolts of pure magical force.

Thelema fell to her knees, but everypony knew that wasn't enough to keep her down, not yet. Rarity's anger started to fall away as she lifted two heavy chunks of timber above her target, and for just a moment she hesitated, looking at the miserable, weeping, bleeding wreck before her... but the thing was building up an electrical charge over its horn, trying to rise and level a bolt at her. Trying to forget for just a second the silly grey mare who had crushed on her so obviously that afternoon, Rarity closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to do this but I have to... I never wanted it this way, I..." Thelema---Template---kept whimpering even as she clumsily hurled a blast of air and crackling sparks a meter over Rarity's shoulder.

"You and I both, darling." The wood came down with a thud and a gut-churning snap.

Twilight nuzzled Rarity quickly. "Let's get this over with before there's more hurt..." She closed her eyes with her friends, feeling a magical thrum as their Elements began to glow; they hovered in the air before the struggling, limp-winged Nightmare. Twilight's eyes snapped open in blazing white, and a typhoon of rainbow-colored light cascaded over the broken monster. When it faded, tottering on her hooves was a grey golem mare, looking terribly small. She tried to speak, retched, and collapsed on her side, passed out but unhurt.

A Nightmare defeated, a new friend saved.

13: Resume

Everything was confusing, everything was terrifying, everybody broke her heart when she looked at them because she knew they would have to kneel or die.
Try as she might, she couldn't remember things not being like this. Of course, if she'd had time to sit down and think that might not be a problem; it's not exactly easy to ponder when you have six ponies to kill.
Every heartbeat felt like a punishment, because it meant she had to kill and subjugate for her people. Every blink was a mercy, so briefly cutting out the world she didn't want to have to conquer.
Aunt Luna was there. She was so strong, so frightening, so difficult to fight... but she kept faltering like she was in agony. She could be incapacitated, at least.
But now the six ponies were at her again, all one after another. A tiny part of her screamed through the static and noise, saying to let it happen, let them do it, just sit there. Let the warm, comforting waves of light crash over her like a breaker on the shores of home. Let it happen.

Template's eyes slid open, the smell of an unfamiliar bed lingering in her nose. A few seconds of blinking as her eyes adjust, and she saw Twilight watching her anxiously... with Princess Luna herself just behind.
"I..." She coughed, her mouth dry as she weakly started to sit up. "Aunt Luna, you're okay... I-I was afraid I might've..."

The dark blue alicorn shook her head. "Oh, foolish child, it would have taken significantly more than your inexperienced powers to do me serious harm."

"You're in the Canterlot Castle infirmary, Template... you remember what happened?" Twilight gestured to the clean, brightly-lit white room with its rows of beds and racks of medical equipment.

Template nodded, cringing. "I tried to kill you... you welcomed me with open hearts and I tried to kill you all."

Luna's hoof settled on her shoulder. "You are not the only one to have undergone such a transformation, Crown Princess, nor the only one whose efforts aimed for destruction... would you tell us what happened to drive you to such despair?"

"I... my sister, Empress Aleph, she kept telling me that I was betraying my people. Her voice was in my head almost constantly, saying that Equestria was the enemy, that if I wanted to do what's good for my people I would have to make everypony submit or... or..." She hung her head, eyes down. "It all just piled up on me until I... I broke. I just don't understand why Aleph would do that... did she know that would happen to me? D-did she want it to happen?"

Twilight swallowed before she replied. "I... I don't know very much about it, but considering what's happened, I'm afraid she may have."

"... What does that mean?" Template felt her stomach tighten in worry.

Luna sighed gently. "It means that we think you were supposed to be... a diversion. It seems that while the Bearers of the Elements and I were engaged with you in combat, my sister disappeared. Though we do not know by what means it was done, on her favored balcony we have discovered unfamilar magic traces. All this seems to point toward your Empress somehow being responsible, causing you to become a Nightmare so that she might be unhindered by the Elements or me... but even without interference, she would still have been contending with the very incarnation of the Sun. To infiltrate the Castle, incapacitate my sister, and escape so cleanly, she must be terribly great in power."

Starting to drag herself out of bed, Template frowned. "That's... she never seemed very powerful to me, not like that... mostly. I thought she was normal like me, built in the Earth Pony frame---no horn, no wings. I didn't even know she had magic until she started contacting me telepathically. She always seemed so quiet and normal til then, and even that didn't seem hugely surprising at first...but she could have been hiding a lot more."

Luna helped Twilight keep the grey mare steady. "There are two problems with that, though. Firstly, if she were so powerful as to be able to kidnap Celestia like that, I cannot see how she stayed unknown to my sister and I so long---when you became a Nightmare, we could both feel the flaring-up of your power all the way from Canterlot Castle. Even so far away, a pony of such great power as she must have could not have gone unnoticed entirely.
"The second problem is with what you said---'normal like me'. It can be better explained another time, but suffice to say for now that you are no longer so normal, even if you feel no different just yet. Perhaps the only immediate benefit we can detect is that our magic doctors have determined that you will no longer be so vulnerable to such telepathic assaults... now please come with us."

Twilight supported the shaky, confused equinculus as they walked down the halls. "We've called a meeting and we need your input. I wishe we didn't have to drag you out of bed like this, but you've been asleep an entire day and we can't hold off this council."

They finally reached the doors guarded by a pair of gold-armored, white-coated unicorns, who let the three into the well-lit chamber. Seated around an oval-shaped table were the rest of the Bearers of the Elements, several Day and Night Guard upper brass, Princess Cadance, Prince Drawplate, and---sticking out like a griffon in a henhouse---Discord, his fidgeting kept in check by Fluttershy next to him. Twilight, Template, and Luna were seated; Template was between Twilight and Drawplate, and Luna took her place at what appeared to be the head of the table, a beige unicorn with a notepad hovering behind her.
"I call this emergency meeting to order. Let the record show that this impromptu council contains the six Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, General Sirius and Major Rosethorn of the Day Guard, General Copper Moon and Colonel Silver Strand of the Night Guard, Princess Cadance of the Crystal Empire, Crown Princess Template and Prince Drawplate of the Alchemical Empire, and Probationary Minister Discord of Equestria.

With that out of the way, let us put aside as much formality as can be spared and coem straight to the issue: my sister, Princess Celestia, has disappeared without notice or forseeable reason. Until she returns, I must raise the sun just as she took on the duty of the moon during my absence, and as such I need your help, Cadance---and Discord."

The draconequus snorted in frustration, leaving off gnawing one of his eagle talons. "That's all very well, Luna---which is to say that it's a huge problem for everypony---but how did this happen?! I know Celestia wouldn't just up and leave, and anything powerful enough to kidnap her would have shown up like a neon sign to me, you, your cousin, even the newbie princess! None of his makes sense, and it's not the kind of nonsense I like!"

Twilight sat up a little as Fluttershy tried to placate the fuming draconequus. "We thing we know what happened, or at least a decent idea of it... I've talked to the royals of the Alchemical Empire, and... Prince Drawplate, would you like to explain?"

Turning from Template, the bronze equinculus stallion nodded. "I've just caught up with my sister and discussed with Princess Twilight earlier, and it seems fairly clear what may have happened... our oldest sister, Empress Aleph, may have been somehow hiding a huge amount of magical power from everyone---even us---until very recently. She telepathically contacted Template and exploited her devotion to our people to psychologically harm her and induce a transformation into a Nightmare. While Princess Luna and the Bearers were dealing with that, she somehow got in and kidnapped Princess Celestia." He sighed.

Cadance spoke up. "We know a pretty vague semblance of how, but why? What reason would the empress of a far-away nation have to kidnap a goddess, let alone one she claimed to be devoted to?"

Drawplate glanced at his sister, then to Cadence. "Now that, I'm really not sure... though I will admit, at times it seemed more she was obsessed with Celestia than devoted."

"Motives aside, we need my sister back as soon as possible." Luna sat up. "Unfortunately, I will be hard-pressed maintaining Equestria as it is, even with aid. We could send the Bearers with the Imperial royals---minus Crown Princess Template, so she may rest from her recent turmoil---on the Inner Truth, but along with an entire crew of golems, there would be the risk that the Empress could try to turn the other three royals into Nightmares with her telepathic assaults. And yet if the six take the airship there without any of the equinculi, the Empress will know we're onto her and they will have no allies there---they'd be walking into the manticore's den alone."

Template swallowed, clearing her throat. "I... I'll go with them."

"Crown Princess, with all due respect, you are in no condition for such an ordeal." Luna shook her head, frowning.

"Is there any other option? You said it yourself, Princess---they can't go in with the other royals, and they can't go alone. You said yourself that Aleph won't be able to... to go after me again with her telepathy, so she won't be able to repeat what she did before. If I come with them, I can tell the rest of our siblings are running Equestria now, maybe keep her attention so Twilight and the others can do something." Template sighed heavily. "This is partly my fault, and if I can do my part to fix it, then I will. I have to."

The rest of the table started debating among themselves, until finally they quieted down. Luna closed her eyes and nodded once. "... Very well. Your plan seems like the best possible option, so please prepare as soon as you possibly can..."

Only a few hours later, The HIMS Inner Truth was ready to cast off; supplies had been accounted for, the crew had been reduced to somewhere near its minimum requirement, and the golems not departing had been settled in wherever possible. The Bearers and Template stood facing Luna and the three other Imperial royals.

Twilight watched Template tightly embrace her brother and sisters, then looked up at Princess Luna. "I promise we'll get her back, Princess." She was a little surprised, but only a little, when the taller alicorn nuzzled her.

"I know you will, Twilight Sparkle... please take care on your voyage, and... take care of her." Luna glanced over at Template. "She is going to need support after what happened, something I know firsthand."

Finally they were heading up the boarding ramp to the deck, watching as they started to drift away from the airship dock, seeing Canterlot slowly recede as the engines fired up. Eventually, there wasn't much more to see and it was getting a little chilly at this elevation; they retreated inside. Template took a seat in front of a window and simply stared out as afternoon began slowly fading toward evening.

ARCHIVED HISTORICAL FILE
CATEGORY: EARLY PERIOD
CLASSIFICATION: TABOO. NOTE THAT READING ANY FURTHER WITHOUT EXPLICIT AUTHORIZATION WARRANTS IMMEDIATE DISCORPORATION.
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FILE CONTINUES
NOTE: ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT CONTAINS ERRORS. FILE MAINTAINS THESE ERRORS AND WILL NOTE AREAS OF ILLEGIBLE TEXT WHERE PRESENT.
Day 28:
m o t h e r
where are you why aren't you here
it's been a month without you and i just c[illegible]
everything is weighing me down and i feel like i'm drowning out here
it just feels like i [illegible]
mother i miss you
i miss you so, so much

14: Visits (Behind Bars - Under Regret - With Love)

It was like being sick... no, more like being a newborn. Not even that, though---a newborn is potential, a newborn grows. This was like waking up paralyzed and blind.
Celestia pushed herself to sit up, looking down at herself. Gone were the long, slender legs and gold hooflets, the flowing dawn-aurora mane and the collar set with a perfect amethyst. A smalll square mirror on the wall confirmed it; so drained of her power, her deific form was replaced by the more economical Earth Pony form she sometimes took as a disguise---just a regular pretty white mare with a wavy pink mane and a yellow sun Cutie Mark.

She looked around her cell, or what little there was to look at---flat stone walls, flat stone floor, a small barred window out of reach. A cot in one corner, a sort of half-wall in the other giving a little privacy to the lavatory area. There were only three walls; the part of the cell facing the hall was what looked to be a pane of glass set with tiny clusters of ventilation holes, with a steel set of bars in front. When she tapped the clear material with her hoof, however, it felt more like metal. Some sort of ensorcelled material... or, more likely, alchemized. She could feel the muted glow of alchemical symbols set within the walls and floor, presumably preventing any chance of her regaining her power and escaping.

Eventually, Celestia heard hoofsteps out in the dull white-grey hallway, and when their owner arrived she wished she were dreaming, though she knew it was all too real.
The equinculus mare looked so much like the memories Celestia had of her; then again, how much would a golem really change in that time, at least on the outside? Average in build, her mane and tail straight and muted indigo. On her flanks, a set of indigo trigram marks. The jewelry---platinum crown, greaves, and collar all set with obsidian pieces---was new, but just window-dressing. Where Celestia saw the real difference was in her strange, half-stilted movements, not like a machine and not like a pony. Where Celestia saw the real difference was in her eyes, pale marine irises around dead black voids of pupils.

"My little Alpha, I never thought that our reunion would be like this if it ever happened." She watched the Empress, an ache growing in her chest.

"'If it ever happened', Mother?" The golem mare blinked, her voice and expression blank. "How was it to happen if you did nothing to make it happen, given approximately seventeen centuries with which you made no effort to reunite with me?"

Sighing, Celestia came closer to the cell's door. "I... I'm sorry, but there was so much... it took nearly a month to fully recover from the battle with Discord, and even during that time Luna and I still had to help rebuild Equestria, fix the cycle of day and night, help those ponies recover from living in terror and pain for so long... I thought you were gone forever. I mourned you, I mourned my child in the spare moments I could find to be alone. But Luna and I had so many other children who needed us. I could not ignore the living for those I feared dead... and there are still so many who depend on me, Alpha. More now than before. My gladness at seeing you alive does not mean I can just ignore them... open the door, my little Alpha. Let me go."

"None of that matters." The Empress shook her head. "What matters is this: for one thousand seven hundred four years, I have waited for the day I would find you again. For 621953 days, for 14927037 hours, I have wanted to see you so deeply that I cannot hold onto myself. I can no longer even call myself Alpha, only Aleph. You are here now, and there is nothing that will keep me from you."

Celestia smiled sadly, pressing a hoof to the transparent metal wall. "Then what is this?"

Alpha, Aleph, whichever she was, blinked; her expression did not change. "The world is not yet ready for me to release you, Mother."

"AJ, you got a minute?" Rainbow Dash pulled her friend aside after lunch, gesturing over to the grey mare sitting by the window as she had been doing so often over the last two days. "I don't like seeing her all... y'know, mopey. I wanna talk with her, can you back me up?"

Applejack nodded, following the pegasus over to where Template gazed out the window. She didn't react to their presence til AJ tapped her shoulder. "Y'alright, sugarcube?"

"Hello, Applejack, Rainbow. How are you?" She turned to look at them, lingering guilt and worry etched on her face.

Rainbow Dash frowned a little. "We'd be better if you weren't so down. What's eating you?"

"What's eating me?" Template stared at the pegasus, but more at the base of her neck than her face. "I tried to murder you and your friends and it's my fault the Princess got taken. The ponies who had been so welcoming to a silly little mare like me, I repaid them by trying to kill each of them---and even if I failed at that, it still let someone so important and loved be taken away from you. That's what's eating me."

Applejack nudged her friend to cut off what could have been a tactless response. "T'be fair, turnin' all Nightmare weren't yer fault---and hay, we ended up attacking you too, remember them ribs I broke?"

"No!" Template shook her head. "It was my fault for being so weak that Aleph could turn me like that! I was so weak, she could break me so much that I felt I had to kill you! You only attacked because I attacked first, you had to fight back!"

Rainbow blinked. "She kinda has a point on the last bit---only the last bit!" She hurriedly added to cut off AJ's objection. "But... listen. The whole time you were fighting us, know what else you were doing? You were crying and apologizing like crazy, even when you were throwing lightning around and stuff. Know what that means?"
Template shook her head silently, turning her face away til the pegasus caught it, gently turning her back to look into her eyes.
"It means you didn't want to hurt us. You weren't cackling with glee, you hated every second of it! It means you're not as weak as you think."

"But... but I---" Template shook her head out of the pegasus's grasp.

"Messed up, sugarcube?" Applejack took her turn to cut in now. "Yes, yes ya did. So have ponies 'n dragons 'n griffons and everything else before ya, and so will a heap more after ya. But yer tryin' to make right what yer mistake helped make wrong, and that's somethin' good..." She glanced over her shoulder to see Pinkie and Fluttershy standing a little ways off, clearly waiting. "Listen... Flutters 'n Pinkie wanna talk with ya too, seems like, so lemme just leave ya with this: ya got a chance here to do somethin' great, but if'n ya don't let it come it'll slip by."

The familiar, spiced scent wafting up from the teacups was a little comfort to Template as she sat at the low table with the other mares. Pinkie was actually sitting still for once, watching her, but it was Fluttershy who spoke first.

"Now, dear, how are you feeling?" The yellow pegasus smiled gently, her voice soft and sweet as ever. "I know you've been very hard on yourself lately; were Rainbow Dash and Applejack able to help you feel a little better?"

Nodding, Template took a sip of her tea. "I... a little, but there's still so much that I hardly know where to start..." She hung her head a little. "It just swirls around in my head all at once..."

"How do you feel about Aleph?" Fluttershy and Template both looked at Pinkie in surprise, though for different reasons. "How do you feel about her after what she did?" Pinkie repeated insistently but without being too pushy.

It took a pause before the answer came. "I... I don't know, she... since the very first day I could think and feel, she's been there, but she always seemed so much more in the background than my other older siblings. I always could understand and feel that Drawplate and Chassis loved me and looked out for me, but with her I just sort of had to assume. She seemed more like a regular golem sometimes---no, regular Golems understand emotion, they just have it so subtly... Aleph sometimes made me wonder if she actually understood or even felt emotions. And I guess... I guess she did and she didn't. She did because she knew that somehow they could turn me into that... thing. But she didn't really understand because if she did, would she have used me that way, like a pawn?"

"Whether she understood or not, I know one thing's true." Pinkie, still uncharacteristically serious, put a hoof atop Template's. "Nopony who would do that to their family has the right to call them family. When she hurt you like that, Aleph gave up the right to call you her sister."

Template blinked, thinking it over for a moment. "I... I think I understand, but it still hurts to be used like that."

"I know it does, Template, but we're here to help you heal. That's what friends do, after all." Fluttershy gave her the warmest, softest smile Template had ever seen.

Author's Note

Sorry for taking so long, everyone, but I have to be honest with you---the once-a-week chapter schedule? Yeah, I very much doubt I'll be getting back to that. I'm too close to the end not to see this through, though; I really want to finish this.

15: Things Coming Together

"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.

Author's Note

After a while of having this sitting around nearly finished, I finally fixed it up to post. Not sure if I'll be updating again any time soon; we'll simply have to see.

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.