The meeting and festivities in Maredrid had come to a close and everypony was getting ready to leave. Twilight was looking forward to her trip to Faustica as she knew that while Galaxia and Cosmos would have no problems collecting tribute, it was discussing the punishment that Luna would receive for walking out that had her excited.
Twilight and her envoy were getting ready to board ship when Lemon Hearts said, "Twilight, you and everypony else have a safe trip. I will probably be headed back to Ridead tomorrow."
Twilight replied, "No Lemon Hearts, you won't."
Lemon Hearts asked, "Why do you say that Twilight?"
Twilight replied, "You and LaurFa will be coming with me to Faustica. After our meeting and festivities there, we will all head to Ponyville for a final meeting."
LaurFa asked, "Why do you want us to do that?"
This question irritated Twilight greatly. She snapped, "Because I think we all need to have a meeting with my commander as she will take a large part in enforcing my land grabs and imprisonments."
Lemon Hearts asked, "Do you know what Colgate's opinion is on this? Do you think she is against this?"
Twilight replied, "No, she is not against this. She is all for this. I could see her being just like me when it comes to this."
Spike interrupted, "I don't know Twilight. I just have a feeling that she is going to turn on you one of these days. I'm not sure why, but I think she wants to overthrow you."
Twilight laughed, "Oh Spike, you are so funny. I think that both you and my brother are way too paranoid!"
Dark Night said, "I agree with Twily. I have seen Colgate and her loyalty to Twilight. I think she would be the absolute last pony to ever turn on her."
Twilight stated that she agrees entirely with Dark Night and ordered LaurFa and Lemon Hearts to get on board as it is a very long trip to Faustica.
Twilight said, "Shining Armor, raise the anchor, we need to get going."
Shining Armor raised the anchor and they had a good tail wind pushing them along faster than normal, this pleased Twilight greatly.
Thunder Rage asked, "So Twilight, how long do you think it will take us to get to Faustica? Twilight replied, it should take us between 10 and 14 days. For a while we will have this tailwind but ultimately we will have to turn the ship north. If we have the same wind there as we do here, we will have a crosswind, which will slow us down."
Lemon Hearts asked, "Will that we be doing during our trip there?"
Twilight seemed a bit irritated as this was a no brainer question. She growled, "We will be relaxing and just hoping there won't be any kind of storms that would come our way."
Shining Armor said, "Well I don't sense any storms coming our way, so I don't think we have to worry."
In Ponyville Colgate is watching their every move and decided to fly down to the base where all the ponies and changelings in her service were gathered.
She addressed the crowd, "Alright everypony, Twilight and her envoy have left Maredrid, sailing east. They plan on sailing straight to Faustica. They will not be stopping in Ridead. They will reach Faustica within 10-14 days. While we do not need to start any high intensity exercises for now, I think we do need to do one hour of standard exercises in the morning and in the afternoon. Applejack will be overseeing the morning exercises as she is the second in command."
Lyra asked, "What will you be doing?"
Colgate replied, "Well in the morning I will be watching Twilight while in the afternoon I will be down here."
Ice Storm asked, "Do you plan on casting a hurricane spell to crash their ship and maybe kill them?"
Colgate replied, "No. I want to bring her down here in Ponyville. I want to see her begging me to go easy on her. Besides, I made a promise to Luna involving her punishment."
Lightning Wasp asked, "But didn't Twilight allow her to banish Celestia to the sun?"
Luna said, "You will see when it happens. After that, I will let you know why."
Twelve days had passed since Twilight and her envoy had left Maredrid and they saw something on the horizon, Twilight was hoping that it was what she thought it was.
Shining Armor said, "Guess what Twilight, we are approaching Alicorn Island."
Twilight replied, "Yes! Finally, I am so ready to step on dry ground. I tell you everypony, I have been at sea way too much since I became ruler of the world."
Spike said, "I know, but I'm glad you let me come this time."
They finally reached Faustica and were greeted by Galaxia and Cosmos as soon as they got off the ship. Twilight said, "Galaxia, Cosmos, it is so nice to see you!"
Galaxia replied, "It is so nice to see you too Twilight!"
Cosmos said, "Twilight, I know this is not going to sit well with you, but Luna still hasn't returned."
"Oh great, this is just dandy." replied Twilight sarcastically
Shining Armor said, "Well I have a feeling that she has abandoned our cause. Where she went, I'm not sure. I doubt if she is going to start any kind of rebellion given Twilight's power, but I wouldn't count on her aiding us anymore."
Twilight replied, "Well given that she can transform into Nightmare Moon and become that purple mist, we will never catch her. We will just have to live with it."
Dark Night was surprised because normally Twilight would stop at nothing to get her enemies. He asked, "Twilight, are you ok? Normally you would try to hunt down your enemies no matter what."
Twilight replied, "Well you would have to understand Luna. When she is Nightmare Moon, she can transform into a purple mist, hide in trees, rocks and everything else."
Galaxia said, "Twilight, shall we head up to the throne room and have our meeting and get it out of the way?"
Twilight replied, "Yes. I want to get this done so we can enjoy the rest of our time here."
Everypony headed up to the throne room for this last meeting abroad for Twilight. Twilight has always been ready for everything but she had no clue what would await her after this meeting.
Twilight addressed everypony, "Alright everypony, as Lemon Hearts and LaurFa knows, I have changed the way I want to punish those who can not pay tribute. Rather than forcing them into labor camps, I think that seizing property and draining bank accounts would be much better. That way they will pay whether they want to or not."
Galaxia said, "You know something Twilight, I think that is a spectacular idea. That is something that I would never have thought of. What caused you to change your plans for punishment for non-payers."
Twilight replied, "Well it involved some of the ponies I took into custody when they couldn't pay the amount of tribute they owed me. One had no money at all and even though he was a refugee, I figured he should pay something anyway. Another one, who is a celebrity photographer, flat out refused to pay and another who works with her and is involved in fashion, wound up hosting a party in the Canterlot gardens and had nowhere near the amount of money left that he owed me."
Cosmos said, "What wound up happening with them?"
Twilight replied, "Well I took them to a labor camp off to the east on Ponyville. The photographer and the fashion pony would just barely drag their hooves on the ground when I had ordered them to dig for gems for my dragon to eat."
Galaxia asked, "What about the refugee?"
Twilight replied, "He dug like crazy and found a ton of gems. I decided that a pony with that kind of work ethic should not be forced to do that kind of work. He said he was a good chef so I had him cook a meal for me and he cooked the best meal I ever had, so I made him a highly paid chef, and made him immune from my tribute law."
Cosmos said, "You did what? There must still be some kindness left in you after all."
Twilight replied, "Well to me, hard work should be highly rewarded. As far as the Canterlot elite goes, I threw them in the dungeon. They were too much of a pain for my military to monitor and I didn't feel like having to go out and monitor them either. I figured imprisonment would be better than hard labor."
Galaxia asked, "So did Lyra ever start enforcing this?"
Twilight replied, "No and she did wind up boycotting the meeting in Maredrid and obviously this one."
Cosmos asked, "Is there any other business we have to take care of?"
Twilight said, "Yes, there is. Do you two plan on changing your plans to adhere with my new plans?"
Galaxia said, "Yes, we will. So far we have had no problems with non-payers. We have collected plenty of tribute, which we will hand over to you before you leave."
Twilight snapped, "First off, I want that tribute NOW! Second, you two will be coming with me just like Lemon Hearts and LaurFa. I want us to have one more meeting in Ponyville with commander Colgate, as she will be in charge of handling this in Equestria. We all have to be on the same page."
Cosmos said, "Alright, we can put a couple of our generals in charge while we are gone. Everything will be fine and besides, I think every capitol should have a meeting there."
Galaxia asked, "But what abut Prancington?"
Twilight replied, "We can deal with Lyra later. After I am through with her she will wish she had never been born. This meeting is adjourned, now on to the rest and relaxation part!"
"One more question," asked Cosmos "Will we be taking any soldiers with us? I don't know why, but I think we should."
Spike said, "I agree with Cosmos, we should duplicate some of their forces and take them with us."
Shining Armor added, "I agree with these two. Please Twily, we need to be prepared for anything."
Twilight said, "Fine. I don't think we have anything to worry about but I will do that. I will duplicate enough to where we will have 2,500 of each."
Shining Armor said, "Well that makes me feel better, now let's get on to the rest and relaxation part!"
In Ponyville, Colgate had been watching all of this and knew what she needed to do. She knew that they had around five days there for fun, three to four days of sailing to the west coast of Equestria and half a day of waiting for them to fly from the coast to Ponyville. She decided the time had come to address her troops.
Colgate headed out to the base in the afternoon when she knew everypony would be there. She shouted, "ATTENTION, I have something very important to tell you."
Scootaloo asked, "What do you have to tell us?"
Colgate addressed her troops, "Alright troops. I have been watching the events in Faustica today and I have learned some very important things. First, not only will it be Twilight's envoy she left with, but she will also be bringing Lemon Hearts, LaurFa, Galaxia and Cosmos with her. Second, Twilight is going to duplicate enough forces to where she will have 2,500 dark Alicorns and 2,500 changelings with her. While that may not seem like much compared to what we have, I want to duplicate us to where we have at least 50,000 of each. Third, they have just started the rest and relaxation part of their stay in Faustica. They will be flying over Galaxia ridge at some point between 8 and 9 days from now."
Lightning Wasp asked, "When do you plan on duplicating us?"
Colgate replied, "On the morning of the sixth day from now. Also, starting on the afternoon of the seventh day from now, we will halt all military exercises so you will all be as alert as possible."
Luna asked, "So who is going to handle Twilight and her other non-soldier ponies?"
Colgate replied, "Our changelings and dark Alicorns will handle her soldiers. The rest of us will handle Twilight and her envoy."
Apple Bloom asked, "Who will handle Twilight?"
Colgate replied, "I will handle Twilight. I want her to cower in terror to the one pony she thought would never betray her. I want her to stare into my blue eyes realizing that her days of ruling are over."
Colgate's forces started cheering loudly chanting "DEATH TO THE DARK GODDESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE, ALL HAIL SUPREME COMMANDER COLGATE!"
Back in Faustica Twilight was relaxing with Galaxia and said, "You know, I am so happy that you two are on my side. We will be able to collect enough tribute to help every province in the world."
Galaxia asked, "What do you plan on doing as far as Neigh Zealand goes?"
Twilight replied, "Well I will banish Lyra to the void, put somepony else in power down there and aid them the same way I do every other province. But I do also have other things I want to do as well."
Galaxia asked, "What is that?"
Twilight replied, "I am going to have statues of myself made of solid gold constructed in each capitol city. I think that everypony needs to know who the final authority is?"
Galaxia replied, "Oh, I think that would look amazing in our town square! I look forward to you getting one put here!"
Twilight patted Galaxia on the back and said, "Good. I know having you be part of the stewardship here was a good decision. Let's go get a bite to eat. I'm hungry."