The Master Alchemist

A rift in space shimmered into existence over the Midnight Watch. With a pop and a flash of energy, several unicorns and the Princess Celestia herself were transported onto the deck. Or rather, a few yards above it.

After recovering from the slight drop, the group stood. Celestia took the lead, but paused, as a farmer pauses to dust a locust from his crop.

"Princess? Should we not stop the attack?" one of the unicorns asked uncertainly. The Princess, however, continued to stare into space away from the island, as if a mesmerizing artifact was at the aft of the ship.

"Princess?"

"Continue to fire. Switch to incendiary rounds, aim for their bridges." the Princess said mechanically, confidently striding to the command tower of the battleship.

Twilight Sparkle raced after her mentor in an anxious trot. "Princess! We can't just kill them! It was a mistake, a misunderstanding!" she begged. She normally didn't have to lower herself to that level around her ruler, but she felt it necessary.

Princess Celestia looked over her tall shoulder at the lavender unicorn panting behind her, looking with pleading eyes of kindness and compassion. One who easily made friends. The alicorn seemed to impatiently quicken her stride. "Press the attack."

Twilight shook her head in defiance, but the princess had already gone. Something was wrong here, majorly wrong. Whenever she could avoid it, Celestia did not kill. In fact, Twilight never remembered her ever sentencing a single pony to execution. Was it that damnable book everypony was talking about?

Beyond her simple doubt lay a deeper fear. Was Celestia being controlled? And if so, who was doing it? Maybe that pony that had escaped with the book. She thought back to the black-velvet coat and wide, feathered hat, the shimmering cloak, and robust revolvers. Then there was the secondary conundrum of Applebloom. Twilight recalled that she was out on the zebra continent with Zecora to help pacify trade relations... something almost forgotten once the threat came. That still left the question to be asked--what had happened to Zecora?

Dozens of variables crossed through the lavender unicorn's mind as she made her way back to where Celestia had dropped Applebloom after the teleport. The young mare slept amazingly soundly on the hard steel of the deck. First things first--Applebloom needed somewhere safe. Twilight's hoof brushed the bubbling-potion and cider mug cutie mark. One more reminder that this pony was no longer a filly.

Grabbing her by the neck with her teeth, Twilight carried her friend's sister belowdecks to the bunks. Finding her sleeping chambers, Twilight gently let the earth pony down onto the rough naval cot. Soft breath warmed the unicorn's hoof as she left.

But still, what to do about the fight? The thundering of the cannons sped Twilight's trot, pushing her to the greatest velocity she could muster in the tight, claustrophobic corridors of the Midnight Watch. One more round and a long, bloody war was inevitable. Clambering onto the top deck, she ran to the command tower. She had to stop this. If anyone could stand up to this possibly mind controlled, possibly impostered Celestia, it was the third most powerful being on Equus.

Turning a latch and pushing open the monstrously heavy door, the unicorn pushed through into the stairwell. Ascending as quickly as possible, she made it to the third-floor bridge inside twenty seconds. In any other circumstances, she might have had time to be proud of her stamina.

At the present, however, a planet needed saving from a world at war. The bridge was already open, presumably to help carry orders to the lower sections of the command tower. Inside, a thin slit of window was permitted above the numerous, clunky arcane instruments. Crewponies dashed about, marking targets, calling in fire, and in general directing the fleet.

"Celestia!" Twilight cried, spying her teacher presiding over the ship. A hope filled her. Maybe she could end this after all.

"You will address me as 'Your Highness', subject! Treat your leader with respect!" the Princess responded in an uncharacteristic and harsh tone.

Twilight shook her head, at a loss for words. Somepony she considered a second mother had just denounced her as nothing. It was her true place, certainly, but Princess Celestia was never like that, not even in public. Again, Twilight's thoughts drifted to the book. Did it have some magical power that was influencing the Princess? With that in mind, she made a careful note to avoid conflict.

"You have to stop this. A conflict is only going to make things worse, Tia!" she said, attempting to break through to Celestia's good side.

(Music: here)

The Princess' eyes grew dark, her features twisted into a deep scowl. "No one. Calls. Me. Tia." the captain, Spinning Torrent, had a confused look on his face. Twilight knew him, and hoped he would see sense. The crew stopped their duties and stared. "As you were. I can handle this wretch," Celestia snapped, and almost out of fear, the mares and stallions coordinated the battle. It was a vicious, biting remark, like a well-sharpened dagger. The alicorn of the sun never spoke that way. At that point, the thought of the book was almost out of the question for Twilight. She had faith in text, but a piece of paper couldn't bring down a being like the Princess. So who stood before her?

One thing was certain. This was not Celestia. This was not Twilight's queen. And this most certainly was not the leader of the fine pony nation Equestria. After a few moments of silent contemplation under the eyes of the Midnight Watch's crew, she found an answer.

This was a monster.

A glow gathered at the base of Twilight's horn, snaking its way to the top. A more fierce, brute energy flashed in Celestia. Her brow narrowed further at her student. Twilight still held back, a hinting shadow of doubt inkling into her mind and stopping her from fighting the pony she thought of as a second mother. As such, Celestia struck first, a pure blast of energy that Twilight almost didn't stop. The magic seemed to cure the unicorn of any hesitation. Celestia would never attack her--this was a changeling, or some other imposter. And Celestia was careful, not some bumbling, brute oaf.

With the faint sound of snapping fingers, a wisp of light snuck off the purple horn, wrapping through the air and writhing like a reptile. It bit at the Celestia-changeling, who deflected the probe with a strike of her own, a more forceful cross of magic that nearly broke Twilight's tough stance.

Teleporting behind the alicorn, Twilight unleashed another whip of heat. This time, it connected, brutally and painfully cracking against the goddess' neck and wrapping around it. The Princess waited for a few seconds as the rope of light tightened, and with a turbulent shake snapped it like an icicle, unleashing an aura of stored magical energy that Twilight was unfortunate enough to be caught in. It sent her tumbling into the map table in the middle of the room, sending charts spilling everywhere.

Remembering her original goal, the lavender unicorn rolled onto her hooves, but not facing the opponent--she refused to think of it as the mare she knew and loved--and instead shattered steel with a rumble of light, a magical orchestra of power cascading through the bulkhead and tearing through the side of the bridge tower. The crewponies scattered--it was not worth it to stay and watch the fight. Spinning Torrent, however, held his ground. He glanced at Twilight, who was facing the gaping hole in the wall looking over the ship.

"I got your back," he said, a calm, simple reassurrance. One of many qualities Twilight saw as defining leadership, and one reason that she liked him.

However, she couldn't bring herself to put him in danger. Turning around, Twilight replied, "Get out of this, Spin. This isn't your battle."

He grunted with determination, "It's as much mine as yours. For Equestria."

"Traitorous fool!" the alicorn spat, forgoing magic for a straight charge. The captain was almost gored by the 16-inch horn. A quick evasion turned the maddened queen to the unicorn and pegasus, now side by side.

Twilight threw up a forcefield in front of them as a sizzling beam of magic cut a swath of destruction through the bridge, ending at the glittering lavender gate. The sheer force moved Twilight back a few inches, but she settled onto her back legs, stemming the tide.

The captain called down to his ponies of the deck. "Turn the guns to the bridge and fire! Now!" The cannons had stopped when the bulkhead blew out, and dozens had left their posts to examine the conflict. Even though smoke and haze blocked the view, the sailors new better than to reject the captain's order, especially now. The ship could function, if barely, without the monolithic tower, and preventing a takeover from taking place was first priority. It was probably a good thing that they didn't know they were firing on Celestia.

With a scrape of hooves on steel, the lavender unicorn found herself at the breaking point. She could dimly hear the guns cranking angrily at the awkward angle. If she cut her field at just the right moment, she thought that--

Thump. BOOM.

***************

A deep, throbbing sensation woke Applebloom. Her head ached, and there was nothing but fire on her right side. She wanted to scream, but her throat was cracked and dry, like an ancient rock barely holding against the sandstorm of pain. The yellow mare popped her eyes open and looked around, momentarily ignoring the crook in her neck.

A magical light flickered on and off, not helping to orient Applebloom. The faintest trickle of water came from somewhere beyond the cot she found herself on. Steel walls came through the shifting darkness, and a matte-gray bulkhead lined her side.

Taking a risk, she slid a hoof off of her basic bedding and onto the floor. Well, almost. Ice cold water met Applebloom's touch, a spike of chill to heat. Her snap reaction of drawing her left hind leg set off a stream of expletives. Applebloom rolled around, bonking her head on the bunk above her and slipping.

The water was not quite deep enough to have covered her entirely when she hit the floor. The ship--or what she thought was a ship, at least--listed dangerously down to the left. The ominous creak of metal brought more uncertainty to the near silence, but Applebloom found her scrambling hooves in the liquid. A shift in the vessel sent her tumbling forward into and past a row of bunks, bringing more bruises to her skin. The light went out again, naturally just as the mare was crossing the sleeping quarter's threshold. A slight rise caught her hoof, once more tossing her. Once more, the craft tumbled, and Applebloom did a midair pirouette, landing on the other side of the corridor, shivering, agonized, in darnkness.

Slowly and with the utmost of care, she rose. Hooves trembling, she made her way down the hall, taking care when a door came up to meet her. At least she was going up.

After about twenty minutes of stumbling around the ship, a stairwell led to a final hatch, marked DECK. Applebloom calmed her frayed nerves with deep breathing. Fumbling up here and getting herself killed was not going to help.

The crank was rusted and oily from hundreds of hooves brushing it every day, like an overused idiom in bad poetry. A rather significant amount of force had to be applied to shift it, but the earth pony threw it open. Tumblers released, clanking. Applebloom gave herself a moment of inner triumph. Finally, she'd be getting ou--

The door opened, and water poured in. Not really pouring--more crashing. The mare was thrust under the surface. Gagging, coughing, trying to breathe. Not working. Panic seized her, and while a chunk of her mind fought it off, the rest mashed together, as would dozens of potatoes. Applebloom's brain was a jumbled, incoherent mess of confusion.

She was running out of air. Only water. Black crept at the edges of her vision, threatening to break through the walls of her will. The yellow pony closed her eyes in silent submission...

...when a hoof wrapped around her own, pulling, yanking, tearing. The sunlight of the early morning met her eyes as she dropped from the conscious world. She managed to cough and suck in a single breath before exhaustion found its hold.