Chapter 10: Enter The Answer

The Order had promised seventeen hours of safety on the fateful day of the operation. For formality's sake they had described the plan in a memo, given to everypony, a daring and almost-certain suicidal cat-and-mouse chase. Of course, it wasn't as simple as that; in every "leg" of the chase, they would set up spells and hexes to hinder, cripple or disable certain aspects of time-space. The sudden distortions of magic would be off-setting for a being so immersed in the thaumatical realm as Discord teleported in and out, and whenever possible they would take potshots at him using enchanted weaponry. Caughlin was torn between letting them know of Discord's vulnerability to physical harm and keeping mum about it. She finally decided against telling them. After all, they had it all ready already. No sense in complicating things for them.

The date inched closer. Caughlin could not think of a way to save Celestia except by completing her alicornification. Without the means nor ponypower to back up a mission to reclaim Celestia's split essence, the only chance she had of whole again was through that accursed process.

She had managed to sneak out a copy of Celestia's growth guidelines for after the operation. They did not hold much hope for her, either. While the deep embedding of the Accelerat offset most of the pain of cellular-level adaption, there was still the matter of nervous stress. Her five senses would be overwhelmed, possibly leading to brain shock, blindness and deafness. To overcome this Celestia would be dosed with drugs and magic every twelve hours until her vital signs stabilized. During the early periods of monitored development she would be read theories and the like, to make use of her rapidly-expanding thinking processes and to keep her hearing in use. The drugs and the spells needed to keep Celestia from going insane with pain were firmly in Fuhrich's hooves, so she couldn't whisk Celestia away from him just yet. But as least she could try to get the job of reading to her. If she could just shape her right, then Celestia would be at least resistant to Fuhrich's philosophical manipulation.

Luna, meanwhile, was growing well. She had mastered flying unexpectedly quickly, early by two weeks. Caughlin had rewarded her with her first present ever - an old but functional abacus, frame of oak and beads of polished stone.

"I'm going to have to teach you how to use this thing, won't I?" frowned Caughlin, realizing this moments after giving it to her.

"What does it do?" asked Luna.

"Well, you use it to count. The ancient ponies used it. We don't anymore, of course, thanks to the invention of the Calculating spell - a proud product of your family, did you know? - but the art of using an abacus shouldn't disappear. It was mine, you know, before they invented the spell, but now I'm giving it to you." Caughlin leaned over and pointed to the middle row. "So you start here. The four on the bottom are 'one's, and the one on top is a 'five'. So..." With slow, deliberate flicks, each one clacking loudly, she showed Luna, "that's one. Two. Three. Four." In a single motion she moved the 'five' and the four 'ones' down together. "Five. See? And then six, seven..."

"What about ten?"

"Ten is this one, the next column."

The alicorn had taken an unusual fascination to the device. To Caughlin's pride Luna was doing simple addition and subtraction on it like a pro two days later.

"See? You're learning things really well," murmured Caughlin, wondering how she would react to her younger sister's artificially-endowed steep learning curve.

The day came at last. While the R&D ponies continued their work, behind the guise spell a crowd of Order scientists huddled, double-checking the equipment. A couple of her colleagues had stuck around to observe. Caughlin stepped into the director's circle once more. There was a thick air of expectation that did little to ease her mixture of emotions, most of them rueful and jittery.

"Are you ready, Caughlin?" asked Fuhrich.

"Ready as I'll ever be," said Caughlin, doing her best to keep her voice from becoming a snarl. How can I be, with you slipping traps in?

"Alright. Everypony clear? Final checks on the triagram and and spell conduits."

"Final checks, complete," called out the chief asistant.

"Ethereal jaunt in three, two, one."

Caughlin took a deep breath, closed her eyes and let herself shift into the higher dimension.

Now that I'm here a second time, you know, it does seem a tad empty, thought Caughlin. Nothing but colours and swirls. Tourism must be thriving in these parts, eh?

She approached the three characteristics. This time, a faint white aura clung about them in addition to their own colors. She figured it must be Celestia's essence. Trying not to vomit at the idea (if that was possible), she tried to meld the lot together. But something was stopping them from joining, more than the initial rejections. Looking closely, she could see that there was a second, acid green aura underneath the white. That must be the Accelerat. She cursed the Order and Fuhrich as she applied a greater force, to no avail. As she pushed, the green aura flared up; the Accelerat was repelling the characteristics with a vengeance.

Was it possible to back out and ask for advice? Caughlin tried to force herself back into the physical realm. To her horror, she could not. She was stuck here until she completed the union - maybe even after that, who knew? Maybe that was Fuhrich's plan, to lock her in the thaumatic realm forever. She began to panic. What do I do? I can't perform the union, I can't get out, what if I never do? Maybe I'll starve. Or maybe I won't, really, since I'm not in the physical- She yelled, and slapped herself hard. "Shut up, Caughlin!" she scolded, panting. "Just calm down. Keep calm. Go with the flow."

The thaumatic realm was unnervingly silent around her as she mustered up her thoughts and focused once more. Just do what you did before.

Mother? asked a tinny voice out of the blue, just before Caughlin was to give it another try.

"Who was that?"

Mother? Are you Mother?

"Am I now? Who are you?" she called out, spinning around defensively. She then realized that it was coming from the characteristics.

You must be Mother! Oh, I've waited for you! It's so queer, Mother, it feels so odd...

"Ce...Celestia?" Caughlin hazarded a guess. "Celestia, is that you?"

Celestia? I do not know who is Celestia.

"Then who are you?" she asked, her surprise giving way to annoyance.

I do not know. I am just a foal. There were ponies in black, and they were looking for me. There was a lot of shouting, and then darkness, and then a small space with a tiny sun, and a single other pony who told me to, ah-

"Okay. Alright. I think I know," cut Caughlin wearily. "You don't have a name. But the only pony who's here, other than me, is you. Your name is Celestia. And that's who you are."

And you are Mother. You are my Mother, said the voice, full of joy. I've been waiting for this moment for a long time!

"Well...I suppose I am," said Caughlin, her expression softening. She could feel her curiosity take the better of her. "How is it that you can talk? You're only a week-old foal, maybe even less than that." The same age as Luna back then. I wonder if she could talk like this, too...

Talk? What is that? I can think, but I cannot make sounds like the ponies outside, answered the voice. Aren't you doing the same?

"Maybe it's different in the thaumatic realm," muttered Caughlin, impressed. "Hmm. Thaumatic realm, where thinking is a form of communication. And foals can communicate flawlessly. Oh, wait, Caughlin! You're doing it again. Derpity derp." She sighed and facehoofed. "Celestia, do you know how to perform a union?"

What is a union?

Caughlin facehoofed again. "Great, Caughlin. Just great."

Maybe I could leave with you. Is that okay, Mother? Can I leave with you? begged the voice. I feel lonely and empty like I'm in two pieces. Please, Mother, it doesn't hurt but it's so odd.

"Leave with me...leave with me," repeated Caughlin, thinking hard.

Fuhrich wants to trap me. Even if he didn't trap me, he probably intends for me to fail. That's why he's given me components that can't unify.

The Accelerat is a spell. The components are thaumatical. Celestia's essence is thaumatical.

And I'm a unicorn.

"That's it!" exclaimed Caughlin. "Eureka!" Before Celestia could say another word, Caughlin lifted her horn. "Celestia, you'd better hold on tight. This may be a bumpy ride. But I promise you, I will not hurt you. Not if I can help it. Please, Celestia, you don't know me yet... but trust me."

::::::

Outside, the scientists were trotting to and fro worriedly. Fuhrich was taking everything in with a quiet, unreadable demeanor.

Time passed at different rates in the thaumatical realm - rates being plural for a reason - and that aspect was something that the Order scientists had not considered important until now. Five of the seventeen precious hours had passed. They needed at least four hours to run the first recordings and tests, and to put Celestia's physical being into a sustaining medium. It was only natural for them to fret and worry so.

Whooves, too, was finding it hard to contain himself. He shot a dirty look at Fuhrich. If anything happened to Caughlin...

Suddenly, the empty director's circle began to glow. The chatter died down as everypony strained to see what was going on. Cold observation turned into confusion as runes began to etch themselves around the circle.

Amidst the hubbub, Fuhrich remained silent.

The light from the circle intensified and burst forth, blinding everypony. In the pure white Whooves strained to make out what seemed to be Caughlin's figure, except that her horn was longer and she had sprouted a pair of wings...the light soon engulfed even that, and Whooves had to turn away.

The triagram was burning white with light as well by now. The runes along the chamber began to glow brightly, their hues adding to the brilliance. When everypony looked up, the deed had been done. Celestia, suspended in the nutrient liquid, had a new pair of wings. The circles were back to normal. The additional runes were gone. And in the director's circle, panting heavily, was Caughlin, back in her gray, physical unicorn body, horn still glowing furiously with residue magic.

"She made it," whispered Whooves, voice escalating. "She made it, everypony, she made it!"

"Eh-" began Caughlin, but she was knocked down by a relieved Whooves. Slowly, the nosie building up, the scientists began to clap their hooves on the floor, then cheer, then whoop with excitement. Caughlin had done it - the second alicornification was complete and perfected.

"Man your posts, everypony! Move, move!" shouted an elderly voice, and at once they scrambled. The pony approached the now-laughing Caughlin, tumbled on the floor with Whooves, and bowed.

"Miss Caughlin Mare. You are a genius," said the pony breathlessly. "I know exactly what you did."

"I know who you are," realized Caughlin, getting up. "You're Dr. Klipit, aren't you?"

"The very one," wheezed Dr. Klipit. "We may have had our discrepancies and doubts about you, before, but I want to apologize for all that. You are truly a worthy equal."

"I'm impressed that you know what I did," said Caughlin, adding meaningfully, "given not even I was sure of it. I wasn't given a memo."

"But it was brilliant! The spell execution. The cataclysm. The-"

"Will somepony care to explain what is going on?" asked Fuhrich, tone dangerously even.

"Well, Fuhrich," said Caughlin primly. "Allow me. Your Accelerat was incompatible with the union. The Accelerat was not only incompatible, but also geared towards the Horn. It was inappropriately placed and slotted shoddily. It may have looked fine on the diagrams, but the fact remains that the Accelerat refused to have any part of the union." Dr. Klipit positively shrunk at the words.

"That was when I began to think of the components in terms of nature. All of them - Celestia's essence included - were thaumatical. And as a unicorn I had the ability to control thaumatics to an extent. So, using my own body as a catalyst, I took everything into myself. The whole lot. It was the hypothesis that I had greater control over events within my own thaumatic field, rather than in their respective ones. And it turned out right." She gave him a sharp look before continuing.

"Of course, I had to absorb some of the Accelerat. It was not pleasant, I can tell you that. But I did redistribute it back into the amalgam, so none of that -" She was about to say "junk", but changed her mind - "spell was lost. Carrying it, and Celestia's essence inside of me, I re-entered the director's circle. Which reminds me, I noticed the conditional barrier clause in the circle there, a tiny but present thing. It wasn't there before, if I remember correctly. Somepony was making sure I did a good job before I came out, and I'm bloody grateful for that.

"Anyhow I think you saw me carrying the amalgam with Celestia's essence. I shifted into the thaumatic realm again - I was carrying so much extra field that it was easy - and slotted it into Celestia. And hay, you know what? You were right. The two halves of her essence stuck together like magnets. The implementation was quicker and easier than Luna's. The conditions were met and I was freed."

"Absolutely wonderful, miss Caughlin. Once again you meet and excel beyond our expectations," applauded Fuhrich with a cold smile. "I knew you could do it."

Playing the fool? Hah. I see right through you, thought Caughlin. She felt a reply itching at the corners of her mouth, but looking at Celestia - a foal that she had actually borne inside of her (strictly speaking), somepony who had come to terms with her as "Mother" before even laying eyes on her - she was reminded of her goal. She forced down her pride, and settled for as contemptuous of a flick of her mane as possible. "You flatter me, Fuhrich. Just doing my best."

That night, it was a very weary Caughlin that climbed in to bed early. Luna was already fast asleep. Gummy crawled up to her, taking his usual spot on her mane, and Caughlin patted it absent-mindedly.

"I did it, Gummy," she said softly. "I saved Celestia." She heard the sound of Gummy blinking, eyes slightly out of sync as always. "It feels good, do you know? Being able to do something right. Success." She sighed, and shifted into a more comfortable position. "I just have to do everything right from now on, eh, Gummy? Then we can go back to living our lives in peace." To her ceiling, she mumbled as an afterthought, "And thank you. Even if you didn't do anything, things turned out alright today. And I'm grateful for that."