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// Double Departure 
// Story: Terror in Equestria 8:  A New Threat 
// by StormLuna 
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Departure of the King and Queen

Halfway across the Pegasus Ocean on Alicorn Island it was a rather ordinary day for Queen Galaxia and King Cosmos.  For the past one thousand years they had held stewardship in relative peace.  There were two ponies that they missed though, their daughters, Luna and Celestia.  

The two began to discuss their daughters and Cosmos was the first to mention Luna.  He commented, "You know Galaxia, I can't help but wonder how Luna is doing since she left with Brevity and Colgate.  I wonder if she will wind up getting some sort of leadership role on that world they left for?"

Galaxia replied, "She probably will and if that world is a carbon copy of this one like Brevity claims, whatever would be the Equine Empire over there, Colgate will make sure she gets it."  She then got a worried look on her face and asked, "I know Luna is likely doing fine and will have a wonderful life in that new world but it is Celestia I worry about.  What if Twilight isn't treating her right?  What if Twilight was to get mad at her and punish her somehow?"

Cosmos couldn't help but laugh, "Galaxia honey, I'm sure Twilight is treating her just fine!"  He calmed down a bit and continued, "We have visited them hundreds of times in the past thousand years and you see how things are, Twilight is as sweet as can be to Celestia and you can read Celestia's eyes and you have never once read anything negative, have you?"

Galaxia replied, "Well no but you know how a mother is, she always worries about her daughters."  She headed to the balcony and looks off to the east towards Equestria and continued, "You know, I'm thinking it is time we go and pay Celestia a visit."

Cosmos asked, "Don't you think it is a bit soon?  We were just there a couple months ago and you never know how Twilight might react to us coming back so soon.  What if she was to banish us or something?"

Cosmos could sometimes be a bit paranoid and while Galaxia did find it mildly annoying, it was also part of what attracted her to him to start with.  She laughed, "Come on Cosmos, you know Twilight enjoys our company" her voice became a bit more concerned as she continued "and besides, a mother can never spend too much time with her daughter."

Cosmos knew that his wife would not bend on this and would continue to bring this up until they visited Celestia so he asked, "So do you want to go by ship until we hit the coast or do you want to fly the whole way?"

Galaxia looked at the flags on the castle towers and noticed that they had a westerly wind that would push them along.  She replied, "Well I think we should go by ship.  We have a westerly wind that will push along and then once we hit the coast, we can fly to Ponyville." 

Cosmos said, "Very well then, we will need to get the ship stocked with food and water and we shall leave tomorrow morning." 

All of a sudden Galaxia broke into a shiver and Cosmos noticed that.  He asked, "Galaxia, what was up with the shiver?"

Galaxia went into a panic, "Cosmos, I don't know what happened but we have to get to Ponyville as soon as possible!"

Cosmos asked, "So now you want to fly instead of sail?"

Galaxia yelled, "Yes, something has happened to Celestia and we have to get there soon.  Like I said, something bad has happened."

Cosmos knew plenty of things about his wife and one of those things was that she has a sixth sense and can tell if something bad has happened to one of their daughters.  He sighed, "Alright, let's get going.  It is a horribly long trip but when we reach the Equestria coast, we will have to eat and drink." 

Galaxia replied, "I know but still, we need to leave now." 

Without notifying anypony of their departure, the two headed east.  While Cosmos knew that his wife can be a bit overprotective when it comes to their daughters, this time she seemed frantic, as though something truly bad had happened.  All he could do was hope that Galaxia was just being an overly worried mother and hope that nothing bad had happened to Celestia. 





Departure of the Dark Goddess

Two days had passed since Twilight notified her army about what she discovered in the archives and after a hearty breakfast, she headed down to the base to notify them that the day to go take care of that sect of ponies had arrived.

Twilight headed down to the base and would be pleased by what she saw.  Both of her generals had two regular soldiers with them and were standing at attention.  When Twilight arrived she gasped, "Wow, I certainly didn't expect to see this!  I've never had soldiers standing at attention like this before!" 

Black Night replied, "Well your Majesty, I know what time you eat and roughly what time you finish so I figured we better be ready." 

Twilight looked off towards the east and suggested, "Well shall we get going?  I'm not sure exactly where these ponies live but I do have a pretty good idea."

Green Death replied, "Well it sounds good to me." 

Once they were all in agreement they took to the air and flew east before taking a turn to the north.  At first Twilight was frustrated because she did not see any part of the forest that had hills in it.  She screamed, "Where the hay is it?  I thought those hills would be right here!" 

Black Night looked off to the east and saw some hills off in the distance.  He nudged Twilight and said, "Your Majesty, do you think those ponies might live off in that direction, where those hills are?"

Twilight looked off to the east and replied, "Well I guess we'll find out."

Twilight and her forces headed off to the east and while they didn't seem to appear too far away when her general pointed them out to them, it seemed like the longer they flew, the further away the hills seemed.  After two hours of flying, Twilight and her troops landed in a rather dense part of the forest.  Given that she had not done a ton of flying in centuries, even Twilight was a bit wore out.  

She turned to her forces and sighed, "I don't know what's going on but there has to be some sort of protective magic in play here.  We should have reached those hills not too long after we headed east." 

Black Night replied, "I know your Majesty.  I'm thinking we should look for some food and water, I'm so thirsty."

Twilight added, "As am I.  Perhaps if we walk east we will run across some and perhaps we can reach those hills." 

Her forces nodded and as they headed east, they noticed that they slowly but surely were heading up hill.  Twilight couldn't help but wonder why they were proceeding along normally walking while they seemed to go nowhere flying.  She was not about to just take it for granted though.