//------------------------------//
// Goin' Back in Time! 
// Story: Terror Zero: Returning to a Time of Harmony 
// by StormLuna 
//------------------------------//

After returning to the tower, Colgate immediately headed into the archives.  As she descended down the stairs, she felt a chill as she knew what was down there.  She knew that it was all material that was obtained by her in ways that she knew was not right.  When she got into the first chamber, she began to look around for the spell but could not find it.  She then headed to the second chamber where what was once the Faustica collection was located.  

As she began to go through it, memories of the day when Twilight acquired those materials came back to her.  She remembered how it was that along with the retrieval of the jade Alicorn was why she had been transformed into an Alicorn to start with.  She looked at all the material with a look of regret, "Why?  Why did I ever agree to be an Alicorn to start with?"  She raised her voice and continued, "I should have just told Twilight no!  I should have just remained being a unicorn and a full time dentist!" 

Once she began to search through all the materials, she was getting frustrated that she could not find it in there either.  She knew that it would not be further back in the Unicornia collection and she definitely knew it would not be in the dark collections so she realized one thing, she realized that she was going to have to write her own magic. 

She sat there in deep thought realizing that while she had written many spells in her life, that this could very well be the most difficult one of them all.  She grabbed a quill, some ink and parchment and began to write down what came to her, 

"Round and round the world has turned for ages
Time is the unstoppable force for even the great mages,
Long gone are the days when times were great
For they have been destroyed my much hate. 

The days of old long ago ended their turn,
Yet to those I must return.
As I go the visions of the past I must see,
So I will know where I must be.

Colgate was unsure as to whether it would work or not but she figured that she and her generals needed to find out.  She headed upstairs to find her generals in the throne room.  She pointed towards the exit and ordered, "Follow me, I must see if this will work." 

Dark Night asked, "Why must we accompany you?"

Colgate replied, "Because if it does work, we need to be in the same time so we can take a trip to Ponyville.  That is where I want to return to." 

Her generals nodded and they headed outside.  Colgate pointed to the hill where she had done so many other things and continued, "Follow me." 

They complied and when they got up to the hill, Colgate readied herself to cast the spell.  This was something she had never done before and had no idea what would happen.  She ordered her generals to stand next to her before she cast the spell.  Once they were next to her she lit up her horn and recited, 

"Round and round the world has turned for ages
Time is the unstoppable force for even the great mages,
Long gone are the days when times were great
For they have been destroyed my much hate. 

The days of old long ago ended their turn,
Yet to those I must return.
As I go the visions of the past I must see,
So I will know where I must be.

As soon as she finished reciting the spell, they all became encircled in a ball.  Colgate did not want to travel too far back at first, just a day to make sure that it did indeed work before choosing to go further back.  As they were going backwards, Colgate saw the visions that had happened in the past day before powering down her horn and stopping the spell.

Up there on the ridge they looked down and saw the battle of the previous day going on.  All the carnage was so hard for Colgate to watch but knew that seeing it was necessary for her to know if it worked.  She turned to her generals and said, "Alright, let's get going to Ponyville.  That is where I want us to travel back to." 

She took to the sky and was followed by her generals.  They made sure to fly well away from the battle as there were giant pegasi and dark gray beasts flying overhead.  Once they got out of eyesight of the battle and the creatures involved in it, Colgate breathed a sigh of relief.  While she did have her time spell that could have made the trip to Ponyville much quicker but given that they were already in the past, she had her concerns that stopping time could have serious consequences. 

After many hours of flying, Ponyville finally appeared in the distance.  When they landed, the sun was beginning to drop below the horizon and all they heard was silence, a deafening silence.  The three began to walk around the deserted town and saw many, many cages.  They saw cages that contained the remains of ponies that Colgate had imprisoned long ago.  Like it was with the battle scene, she began to sob quietly when she saw this, "I've got to fix this, I have to make sure that this never happens." 

They continued to walk around the town until they heard something.  Colgate flared up her horn and said, "Be careful, who knows what that is." 

They then heard horrible shrieking noises.  Colgate had heard those before and realized that it had to have been some of Fluttershy's pets that she did not take to Canterlot for the attack.  She was very quick to act and began blowing the little beasts to bits with her magic.  Colgate was shocked when they just seemed to keep coming but finally after a minute of non-stop firing on them, she had wiped them all out.   She walked over to the pile of dead beasts and felt bad.  She did not feel bad because she had wiped so many of them out though, she felt bad that she had ever created the things to start with. 

Finally Colgate decided the time to travel back had come.  She said, "Alright generals, the time has come.  The time has come to return to the past and prevent any of this from ever happening." 

Colgate headed towards the west side of town and began to analyze everything very closely.  That was the side of town that she lived on so long ago and felt that perhaps if she cast the spell in the right place, that they would wind up in her house, out of sight of everypony.

When she finally found where her house used to be she ordered, "Stand by me." 

Lightning Storm asked, "Why here?"

Dark Night added, "You act like it is vital that we travel back right here." 

Colgate replied, "I want us to go back here because we will arrive back inside my house from so long ago.  I do not want anypony seeing us."  She began to laugh a bit, "I don't want ponies going nuts over seeing me as an Alicorn and seeing you two with me."  She broke into a full blown laugh, "We'd probably send the town into a full blown panic!" 

Her generals gave an amused chuckle until they saw Colgate flare up her horn.  They gathered by her as she began to recite, 

"Round and round the world has turned for ages
Time is the unstoppable force for even the great mages,
Long gone are the days when times were great
For they have been destroyed my much hate. 

The days of old long ago ended their turn,
Yet to those I must return.
As I go the visions of the past I must see,
So I will know where I must be.

Once she finished the spell, the three again became encircled in a white ball and as they began to travel back in time, the events of the past 20,000+ years began to pass by them, only in reverse.  They saw so many things, some things that Colgate had fond memories of and others that disturbed her, even though they were moments where she defeated the dark goddess.  

Soon Colgate knew the time to stop the spell had arrived as suddenly she was in what was her house.  She began to lessen the power she put into the spell until they saw a six pointed star in the sky.  At that moment, Colgate stopped the spell and peered out of her window.  What she saw would please her, she saw the light fade from the star and noticed Twilight had just got her wings.  She exclaimed, "We're back generals!  We're back!" 

Given that they had been flying for many hours, Colgate figured that before they started making any plans, that they had best find something to eat.  Colgate turned on her lights and headed into the kitchen.  She wasn't sure if her generals would be thrilled by what she found but she knew that it would be that or nothing, "Hay sausage sound good?"  

Her generals, Dark Night in particular, gave her a look of shock, "What?  No meat?  You don't have meat in here?"

Colgate replied, "I didn't get into eating meat until I joined forces with Twilight.  Before then, I pretty much ate grass, fruits and vegetables like every other pony." 

She grabbed some sausages for the three of them and although it had been thousands of years since she last cooked something herself, it was as though she had never stopped cooking.  She was able to cook them exactly like she liked them and after she finished cooking, she grabbed some bread, butter and a pitcher of cider out of the fridge.  She sat it all on the table and said, "Eat up, I want us to depart to go take care of Sombra while it is still dark.  Like I said earlier, I don't want ponies seeing the three of us." 

"Sounds like a plan."  replied Dark Night 

The three began to eat and while Dark Night and Lightning Storm would have rather had meat, the meal was good to them.  Being back in her old house brought back many, many memories for Colgate.  It brought back memories of a simpler time, a time when harmony and peace were the norm for the most part and it brought back her memories of simply being Ponyville's dentist, a time she hoped to bring back no matter what.