An hour had passed in the library and Twilight heard a knock on the door. She opened it and was greeted by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. She turned to Celestia and immediately asked, "Princess, what was that? What was that white ball in here? What was that shock wave about?"
Celestia replied, "I am not sure what it was as nothing like that has ever happened before."
Twilight then asked, "But what about Colgate? Why in Equestria would you think she would know anything about this?"
Celestia replied, "I'm not sure why but I have this nagging feeling that she may know."
Spike asked, "So when are you going to ask her about this? Are we going to ask her now or are we going to wait until the morning?"
Celestia replied, "While normally I wouldn't want to disturb somepony from their sleep, I have a feeling that we should go and ask her now."
Luna, who had remained quiet objected, "Sister, right now Colgate is having rather vivid dreams that may provide some insight into what this was. Besides, it would be very rude to wake her from her slumber."
Celestia sighed, "Very well but tomorrow morning we are going to go and see what this is all about."
The following morning arrived and Colgate woke up. She was tired, very tired when she woke up as the dreams from the night before very intense, they made her feel like she had lived all of that all over again. She got up and groaned, "Ugh I hope I don't have dreams like this every night. I feel another 20,000 years older than I already am."
As she was heading into the kitchen to start fixing some breakfast, she heard a knock on the door. Her initial thought was that there was no way she could answer the door in the form she was in without being questioned. She then heard a voice, "Colgate, we need to talk."
It was that of Princess Celestia. She knew that she would probably interrogate her over everything but knew that she had better answer. She opened the door and asked, "Princess Celestia....."
Her question would be silenced when she heard a very loud gasp. She saw that along with Celestia were Luna, Twilight and Spike all with their jaws hanging open. They remained in a state of shock until Colgate snapped them out of it, "I take it you have come regarding my new form?"
They broke out of their daze and Celestia replied, "Yes Colgate we have."
Luna asked, "May we come in?"
Colgate motioned for them to go in and take a seat. Once they were all properly seated Colgate asked, "So can I fix you something to eat?"
Celestia replied, "You can later but for now we need to talk." She pointed her wing towards Colgate and asked, "How in Equestria did you become an Alicorn? How in Equestria did you become bigger than me and what in Equestria is that in your chest?"
Colgate replied, "It is a long story, a very long story although I have a feeling Luna probably already knows some about it."
Luna replied, "I do but we all want to hear this from you."
Colgate began, "Like I said this is a very long story so could you remain silent until I finish this?"
The four nodded and Colgate began, "Very well then. What was over 20,000 years ago for me and just yesterday for everypony else, Princess Twilight was corrupted by Queen Chrysalis who was working with King Sombra to conquer Equestria. Once they had corrupted Twilight, it did not take them long to accomplish their objective....."
Twilight gasped, "How could I have been corrupted by Queen Chrysalis? She wasn't here yesterday!"
Colgate replied, "She was but I banished her to the void and I also asked all of you to just let me speak without interruption." She could tell that Twilight was about to ask a question about banishing but figured that she would let Colgate continue.
"Yes, the three did take Equestria until Twilight decided she wanted it all for herself so she banished those two to the void. It was after that that she decided she wanted a relic, the jade Alicorn, from Alicorn Island that would allow her to spy upon the world so she amassed an army to do so and that is how I became an Alicorn. Twilight learned transformation spells so she would have enough Alicorns to pull that off."
The four gasped and Celestia in particular had a look of shock on her face. Colgate allowed them to focus more before continuing, "Well Twilight got what she wanted and put me in charge of the military. Eventually she decided she wanted more so she used duplication spells to increase the size of her army and ultimately conquered the whole world." She then pointed towards Celestia and added, "And then she banished you to the sun for 'buying her and Shining Armor' from her parents."
After Colgate said this, Celestia turned to Twilight and snapped, "I did not buy you two! You passed your exam and willingly moved to the palace and........."
Colgate interrupted, "Princess, this is what Twilight said when she was corrupted and please, let me finish telling you this or this could take several days." Celestia gave Twilight another slight glare before Colgate continued, "And it was after that, that Twilight started taking her job as world leader not seriously so I turned the army of dark Alicorns and changelings against her and not only took Equestria away from her, but liberated the planet. After that, Luna banished her to the sun for her crimes."
Twilight then gave Luna a glare and before Colgate could continue, Celestia became curious about one thing, "Colgate, you brought up dark Alicorn and changeling armies? Why were they the soldiers instead of regular ponies?"
Colgate was irritated by the interruption but decided to answer the question, "Well when Twilight initially banished King Sombra and Chrysalis to the void, she cast loyalty spells on their troops and naturally I did the same to some of them to get them to defect to my side." She threw her hooves in the air and asked, "Now can I finish this without interruption, please?"
They nodded and Colgate continued, "Well things were tranquil for the next thousand years until both her and Celestia were freed from the sun and she got LaurFa on her side....."
Celestia gasped, "LaurFa? You mean to tell me that foreign powers got involved in all this? You mean to tell me that the Creator Goddess got involved?"
Colgate replied, "One of them sided with Twilight, who had proclaimed herself to be a dark goddess while I freed her sister Brevity Thrash from her banishment to Titan and she joined my side. Good thing about her, she knew a spell to cause atoms to fall apart and she unmade Twilight."
The four had shocked looks on their faces and things were suddenly starting to not make any sense but they knew Colgate was getting frustrated by the constant interruptions. Once they looked less confused Colgate continued, "And even during times when Twilight was not in this world, trouble arose. Lemon Hearts and Lyra Heartstrings, also ones Twilight turned into Alicorns, turned their backs on the global governments and in the end I had to split uranium atoms over Neigh Zealand to punish Lyra for attacking a military base near Los Alicornous."
Twilight was becoming increasingly curious and asked, "Magic really advances as time passes doesn't it? So much of this seems so foreign to me."
Luna added, "It does to me as well."
Colgate replied, "It does but continuing on. Later on nuclear fallout from a test I performed in the arctic drifted over Ponyville and caused Twilight and her minions to somehow reform. Twilight then again went for control of the planet, brainwashing Celestia and it appeared as though she was going to conquer the planet again and she succeeded. To escape her wrath, I along with the Creator Goddesses Brevity Thrash and LaurFa and some of my other allies, fled to another planet."
Celestia interrupted, "Fled to another planet? How in Equestria did you do that?"
Colgate replied, "It was thanks to a spell by Brevity Thrash that we were able to do that. Her magic was very advanced but eventually I was summoned back to aid in the dethroning of Twilight because she was demanding tribute from everypony again and then Twilight discovered something none of you are going to believe, she discovered that Unicornia actually exists."
"What? gasped Twilight. "You mean to tell me that it wasn't an old pony tale?"
Colgate replied, "Nope, after the fall of Ponyland, they fled through a portal here in Equestria and re-established their kingdom. Funny thing though, they captured you when you dared go to their realm and demand tribute. Now at the time neither the king or queen liked you because of you being a dark goddess."
The four continued to sit there and listen in shock but Twilight had a sick feeling in her stomach, knowing what could have been was a terrible future for her. Colgate saw their looks and continued, "Moving on, Twilight tried to cause more problems until their king, White Magick, used a purification spell on Twilight and removed all the darkness from her. After that, she didn't cause any problem for a very long time but we did have other evils return, evils from the time of Ponyland."
"Wait a minute" asked Celestia "You mean to tell me that many years in the future that old of evils will return?"
Colgate replied, "With Grogar, it was 15,000 years in the future. When Tambelon returned from the depths, he along with his minions came to Ponyville and managed to kidnap Twilight and her friends. He then did what he did in the ancient days, he took them to Tambelon and enslaved them." She pointed towards Twilight and continued, "Well except for you. He tied you up out in the elements and ordered his trogals to torture you."
Twilight asked, "You did save me didn't you?"
Colgate replied, "Yes, I along with my allies did save you but Queen Ruby Heart of Unicornia fell in the battle. Her and I had become very close allies and that was hard on just not me, but her husband, King White Magick as well."
Twilight said, "Well I'm glad you were able to save me."
Colgate continued, "Five thousand years later though, Tirek and his ancient counterpart Tirac, escaped Tartarus so we had to retrieve......"
Celestia interrupted, "Wait a minute, you mean to tell me you are over 20,000 years old? You mean to tell me that you are nearly twenty times older than my sister and I?"
Colgate replied, "Yes I am. Anyway, White Magick, Twilight and I had to make an expedition to Dream Valley......"
Luna gasped, "Wait a minute, Dream Valley is real?"
Celestia added, "How did you find it?"
Colgate replied, "Ok, I suppose I should have brought up the Alicorn gems that allow ponies to spy upon the world with them. As we speak, LaurFa uses one on Alicorn Island to spy upon us. At the time, I had one made out of Sapphire that was tied directly to me and that is how I found it. Well that is how I saw a lot of things, Lyra's attack on Equestria, Grogar's capture of Twilight and her friends, the location of Dream Valley and the location of many other places."
Spike, who had been quiet asked, "Why did you have to make a trip to Dream Valley?"
Colgate replied, "We needed to retrieve the Rainbow of Light as it was the only artifact that could counter the Rainbow of Darkness."
Celestia again interrupted, "So basically the evils of Ponyland come back to cause us problems in the distant future?"
Colgate replied, "Yes. Luckily for us we were able to retrieve it and in the end were able to beat both of them but Twilight was struck by the Rainbow of Darkness and she returned to being a dark goddess so in the end we decided that there was only one way to end it all. I knew we had to rid this world of her so after one final battle against her, we broke her horn off and I cut her open and ate her heart."
Twilight gasped, "Wait a minute, you cut me open and ate my heart?" She then became angry and yelled, "What in Equestria will become wrong with ponies by that time? Killing our foes is never acceptable, especially killing other ponies and especially like that!"
Colgate replied, "Twilight, that is from a timeline that will never exist thanks to me. Anyway, me eating your heart while you were corrupted caused me to become the darkest, most evil being to exist until I fused this heart into myself."
Luna gave her an odd look and stated, "Tell me about it. From what I saw in your dreams, you became the embodiment of evil itself, you became the Goddess of Terror."
Celestia then asked, "Do we even want to know what you did or should we just assume you were beyond awful?"
Colgate replied, "Well over the millennia, the other leaders grew to distrust me and by the time that I wound up willingly corrupting myself using magic from Grogar and going to Midnight Castle and acquiring cursed objects from there, even my own generals thought I was far too gone."
Celestia asked, "What did you do Colgate? What could you have possibly done to become the embodiment of evil?"
Colgate replied, "Well I fused Grogar's collar into myself, I found a dark gem on Alicorn Island and fused it into myself, I sat on Tirac's throne and let his dark energy become part of me and I used wicked necromancy to create foul beasts that most ponies would never even think of. Then finally, I killed all the other world leaders in one final battle and claimed the world as my own so that I could force everypony to love me yet live in utter despair."
Luna added, "Luckily you had that general that convinced you to fuse that heart into yourself after you ripped it straight out of Ruby Heart's chest."
Celestia asked, "Wait a minute, I thought Ruby was killed by Grogar?"
Colgate replied, "I learned a resurrection spell and yes, I am thankful that he made that suggestion because had he not, I never would have purged the evil from myself or would I have traveled back in time to stop Twilight's initial corruption." She gave the four a smile and finished, "Basically, my banishing of Sombra and Chrysalis to the void prevented that awful future from ever coming to be."
Celestia asked, "So you banished Sombra and Chrysalis to the void. What is going to happen now?"
Colgate replied, "Well my dark Alicorn general, Dark Night is now the king of what was Sombra's realm and Lightning Storm, who was my changeling general, has been put in power as king of the changelings."
Twilight asked, "So I take it you brought them back with you so you could put them in power?"
Colgate replied, "Yes and now both the dark unicorns and the changelings are now allies of Equestria so don't worry, Sombra will never return neither will Chrysalis."
This brought out a smile from the four and then Celestia got an idea, "Colgate, I was thinking that perhaps you could be our ambassador to them since you know them."
Colgate replied, "Of course I will be. I know them personally and I have a feeling that they will trust me more but when I'm not meeting with them, I am hoping that I can return to my old life."
Celestia said, "About that, we are going to have to discuss your future further. For now though, I think we should have that breakfast you offered."
Colgate got up and replied, "Sounds good to me."
She headed into the kitchen and Twilight asked, "Princess, what do you mean you'll have to discuss her future further? You know that outside of being an ambassador to the changelings and dark unicorns, she isn't going to want to give up her practice."
Celestia replied, "Well it is just her new form and her immortality that will need to be discussed regarding her new role."
Twilight knew that Celestia made a good point but she knew Colgate well enough to know that she would not simply bail on her patients or want a new life that would not involve working in one way or another. She had a feeling that Celestia would likely force Colgate into a role in life that would not involve normal work, she had a feeling that Celestia would force Colgate into being a princess.
After preparing breakfast for all of them, Celestia decided that she would begin to discuss Colgate's future with her in a round about way, "Colgate, I am very happy that you prevented that future and have decided to be the ambassador to the dark unicorns and changelings, what other plans do you have now?"
Colgate replied, "Well I plan on doing what I have always done, seeing patients and taking care of their dental problems."
"About that." Celestia replied. She pointed towards Colgate and continued, "I am unsure if you can do that anymore. You are an Alicorn now and I'm not sure if you know this or not, but Alicorns don't hold regular jobs."
Colgate remembered this all too well from when Celestia had offered her the opportunity to become an Alicorn after she wrote a pain free root canal spell for her but she declined. "I know that" replied Colgate "but can't you make an exception for me?" She sat up taller and continued, "I saved this entire planet from falling into despair, can't you make an exception for me?"
Celestia sat there for a moment before replying, "Colgate, you know that your patients will be constantly questioning you over how you became an Alicorn and they will give you the third degree over that diamond heart you fused into yourself."
Luna added, "And you have so much knowledge about what has yet to come. While I know you wish to continue being a dentist, everything you know could be a valuable asset into keeping Equestria safe."
Twilight had a question as well, "Colgate, did you ever lead any militaries? Were you ever in any positions of power?"
Initially Colgate found that as the dumbest question she had ever heard given that it was often Twilight she would overthrow but she then realized that Twilight had never experienced those events. She replied, "Yes, many times. With every single leadership position I held, I was not only the nation's supreme commander but also the head of the military."
This gave Celestia an idea, "Colgate, what would you think about being the captain of the royal guard. I'm pretty sure that would be something you'd be really good at."
Given the nature of the royal guard, Colgate as she is now found their role as laughable. She broke down laughing, "Seriously, the royal guard?" She then became more serious and continued, "Look, if you want me to be in charge of them, I will transform them into an army to actually protect this whole nation, not just your castle."
This caused all four of them, Celestia in particular to gasp in shock, "But Colgate, we don't have any enemies! Why would we need an army?"
Colgate replied, "We may not now but I have seen first hoof what happens when nations turn on you."
The two primary monarchs looked at one another and began to whisper among themselves. Colgate was not sure exactly what they were discussing but knew that they were likely coming up with plans to convince her to not only leave her practice but move to Canterlot and be involved with the guard in one way or another.
Once they finished, Celestia turned to Colgate and asked, "Colgate, I know you likely have a lot of knowledge involving military tactics due to your millennia of handling armies and you have an immense amount of knowledge about what could be."
Luna added, "What would you think about becoming a military princess of some sort?"
That one word, princess, the one word that Colgate did not want to hear. Being royalty was something that never did appeal to Colgate. It was because of her disdain towards the role of what it would be that caused her to choose the title Supreme Commander in what was her past to begin with. She sat up tall and replied, "Look, all I want is my old life back." A tear began to run down her face as she continued, "I've been involved with the military for over twenty millennia and I just don't want that anymore." She was becoming more emotional as she finished, "All I want is to be a dentist again. I'd even gladly sacrifice being an Alicorn if I could just have a normal life again."
Celestia and Luna sat there in shock. They knew of many ponies who would jump at the opportunity of being an immortal Alicorn yet there was Colgate who was blessed with powers beyond imagination, immortality and the offer of being a princess yet she was rejecting it. When Twilight saw this she said, "Princess Celestia, I told you this is what she would probably want. I told you that she would not want any part of being a princess."
As Celestia and Luna saw the emotion that Colgate was showing, the two began to feel sympathy for the blue Alicorn. They could tell that she truly did want to be a regular unicorn doing what she loved most again. Celestia addressed Colgate, "While I would love to make it happen, there are no spells to transform ponies from one type to another and there is no way to remove that heart from you."
Colgate replied, "I know the spell to transform unicorns into Alicorns so I'm betting all I have to do is alter it and we'll have that spell. Regarding the heart, I believe that if the three of you grab it in your aura and yank on it hard enough, you will be able to remove it." She stood up and continued, "Wait here. It may take a while but I need to come up with what I think may be the right spell to transform myself back into a unicorn."
As Colgate began to head towards her bedroom to try and write a spell, she heard a voice yell, "Wait!"
Colgate turned around and asked, "What is it Princess Celestia."
Something had crossed Celestia's mind when she saw Colgate show the emotion she did. She asked, "Ok, I know you said you would be the ambassador to the dark unicorns and changelings since you put their new leaders in power but would you reconsider giving up your Alicornhood if you could continue to be a dentist and live as normal of a life as possible?"
Colgate's ears perked up at the offer. A great part of Colgate wanted to completely return to her old life but being able to remain a dentist despite being an Alicorn did sound rather appealing to her. She sat back down and said, "Give me a few minutes to think about it, alright?"
Colgate then headed back towards her bedroom to do some deep thinking but one pony would question Celestia, her sister Luna. "Sister, you know it is tradition for Alicorns to not have regular jobs. Why are you offering her this? Why are you willing to make an exemption for her all of a sudden?"
Celestia replied, "Luna, she did say she would be our ambassador to those she put in power and to me, that is enough. You have seen the dreams that she had. You know what she prevented by banishing Sombra and Chrysalis to the void. I think we owe her this, I think we owe her at least being able to live a somewhat normal life."
Twilight had her concerns, "Princess, how is she going to explain this away to all her patients? How is she going to explain that diamond heart she fused into herself?"
Celestia replied, "Twilight, I have an idea. I know Colgate isn't exactly a fan of much attention but I think that if we simply present her as a pony who wrote her own dental magic."
Luna questioned, "What about the heart?"
Celestia replied, "That I'm not sure but we'll figure something out."
Luna was still very unsure about Celestia going against tradition like this and allowing an Alicorn to hold a normal job, especially one in which she works with the public. Twilight too had her concerns but hers were more centered around how Colgate would handle the constant questioning by her patients.