//------------------------------//
// Preparing the New Recruits 
// Story: Terror in Equestria 5:  One Thousand Years Later 
// by StormLuna 
//------------------------------//

The following morning was a big one for Celestia and Brevity Thrash, as Colgate was going to have them fitted for armor.  Before that though, Colgate had them along with Scootaloo in the throne room for a meeting.  Colgate said, "Brevity, Celestia, today is a big day for you regarding preparing yourselves for the inevitable attack."

Brevity asked, "Are you talking about when Twilight and her cronies attacking us?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, I am.  Now I want the two of you to know that we have a great armor maker here.  He is part of a long line of armor makers for our military dating all the way back to before Twilight turned evil."

Celestia asked, "Wait a minute, you mean that the job has been passed down from father to son for over a thousand years?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, it does.  It runs in that family's blood."

Brevity asked, "Well Brevity for one is excited to get fitted for her armor.  Is there anything else that you will need us to do to make sure we are ready?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, after you two are fitted I will take you down to the range and test your skills in levitation and power and accuracy.  Now come on, let's go down to the armory.  I want to get you two ready as soon as possible."

Colgate took Brevity to the armory where they were greeted by Steel Hooves.  Steel Hooves said, "Hi Colgate, it is good to see you.  I am assuming you need these two fitted for armor?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, I do.  I don't know when it will happen but eventually Twilight and her minions will attack us and these two need armor just like everypony else does."

Steel Hooves asked, "Ok, and who are these two that I am measuring?"

Celestia replied, "I am Princess Celestia.  I am the sister of Princess Luna and I used to be the co-ruler of Equestria."

Steel Hooves replied, "Princess Celestia, I remember learning about you in history class back when I was in school."

Celestia said, "Well I am hoping that I may return to Canterlot one day and become mayor."

Steel Hooves replied, "That would be nice if you could."  He then said to Brevity, "You look a lot like Fluttershy.  What is your name?"

Brevity replied, "Our name is Brevity Thrash.  For now our background is classified."

Steel Hooves said, "Alright, I understand that.  I need to measure you two."

While Steel Hooves was measuring Brevity and Celestia Scootaloo flew into the armory and was greeted by Colgate.  She asked, "Colgate, I take it you are getting Brevity and Celestia fitted for armor?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, that is what I am doing.  I plan on taking them over to the range to test their abilities after they are measured."

Scootaloo asked, "Would you want me to take them to the range instead?  I know you have a lot of things to do and I would love to see how they do!"

Colgate glared at her and replied, "No, I will take them over there.  We are talking about Princess Celestia and Goddess Brevity here.  I want you to stay at the base and monitor military exercises, alright?"

Scootaloo looked dejected and replied, "Ok.  I understand."

Colgate could sense her second in command's disappointment and changed her mind.  She said, "Ok Scootaloo, you may come with me when I take them to the range.  It is important that you see what the strengths and weaknesses of our new recruits are."

Steel Hooves approached Colgate and said, "Alright, their armor should be ready in a week.  I measured their heads and the circumference of their horns for helmets as well.  I take it that is what you wanted."

Colgate replied, "Yes, it is.  We shall return in a week to pick up their armor.  Come on you two, we need to get to the range."

Colgate took Brevity and Celestia to the range.  First she was going to test their levitation skills.

Brevity saw the large rock and asked, "Colgate, what is that rock for?"

Colgate replied, "This is the first part of our training.  I want you to see how high you can levitate that rock and how long you can levitate it for.  Brevity, I want you to go first."

Brevity's horn began to glow and she easily picked up the rock.  She levitated it so high that nopony could even see it.  She stood there holding it up for several minutes before Colgate told her to set it down.  Colgate was amazed by the results.

Brevity asked, "So Colgate, how did Brevity do?"

Colgate replied, "Well I can tell you didn't have any stress holding it up and you held it up so high nopony could even see it.  I have never seen anypony do so good.  I honestly think you could rip a mountain out of the earth and levitate it."

Brevity said, "Well I don't know if I would go that far!"  Little did Colgate know that Brevity had already ripped a hill out of the ground, but was wondering why Brevity began to smile when she said that.

Colgate said, "Alright Celestia, now it is your turn.  Let's see how you do with this."

Celestia's horn began to glow and she easily levitated the rock to a height of 125 feet and held it there effortlessly for three minutes before Colgate told her to set the rock down.

After setting the rock down Celestia asked, "Colgate, did I do very well?"

Colgate replied, "Yes Celestia, you did very well.  Now it is time for you two to do the accuracy test."

Colgate led them over to the target range and told them that she wanted them to fire bolts of energy at the three targets to measure their power and accuracy.

Colgate said, "Celestia, I want you to go first on this one."

Celestia replied, "Yes ma'am!"

Celestia's horn began to glow and she very quickly fired three bolts of powerful energy at the targets, scoring direct hits on all of them.  Colgate flew down to the targets to measure the results.  Celestia could tell that Colgate was very pleased.

Celestia asked, "Colgate, how did I do?"

Colgate replied, "You did very well Celestia.  Your accuracy is perfect and your power is very strong.  That is exactly what I was expecting.  Brevity, it is your turn now."

Colgate and Celestia flew away from the targets as Brevity's horn began to glow.  She fired three very bright bolts of energy at each target.  She scored direct hits on them but she incinerated them and left small craters in the ground where they stood.

Colgate had a huge smile on her face and said, "Brevity, you are by far the most powerful pony I have ever seen!  Considering that you are a Creator Goddess I figured this would be the result.  That is why I made sure that Celestia and myself got out of the way."

Brevity replied, "Well Brevity is glad that you did get out of the way.  Our power is extremely strong and we would not want anypony to get hurt."

Scootaloo who had been watching everything but remained quiet said, "Wow, with you two on our side, we are sure to win!"

Brevity replied, "We would not go getting ahead of ourselves.  Overconfidence could lead to our downfall."

Colgate added, "Brevity is right Scootaloo.  It was overconfidence and carelessness that brought Twilight down before.  I do not want us to wind up having a similar result."

They headed back up to the black tower and headed to the throne room.  Colgate was smiling and said, "You two did spectacular out there.  Celestia, your power is almost equal to that of your sister.  I think you are completely ready for battle."

Celestia had a shocked look on her face.  She asked, "What?  Almost equal to my sister?  You mean my sister is more powerful than me?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, she levitated the rock a bit higher than you did and she did strike the targets with a bit more power.  I wouldn't worry about it though.  You are still extremely powerful."

Scootaloo asked, "Colgate, what about Brevity?"

Colgate replied, "Like I said out there on the range, Brevity is by far the most powerful pony I have ever seen.  Personally I think she could take on an army of 10,000 on her own and easily win."

Brevity said, "Well Brevity wouldn't go that far.  You know what happened with Brevity and her sister."

Colgate replied, "I do know about your past but I believe that your strength is stronger now than it was back then.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I am a bit hungry."

Brevity said, "We are hungry as well."

Scootaloo added, "A snack sounds really good right about now!"

Celestia said, "I'm not really hungry right now.  I need to just think about some things and build up more energy.  I am going to go to my room for a while."

Colgate replied, "Well suit yourself, we shall see you later.  Let's head to the dining hall and order something sweet!"

While they headed to the dining hall Celestia headed to her room with her head down.  She was very upset about the results of the levitation and accuracy/power test.  She said to herself, "I bet Colgate LIED about the results of that test.  There is no way Luna is more powerful than me.  Perhaps I should just leave, fly to Faustica and wait for Twilight to arrive there."

Celestia knew however that she would have to wait for a while to leave.  She knew that if she left in the middle of the night right away that Colgate would know why she left and would either hunt her down or unleash a horrible wrath upon her once she flew into battle along Twilight's side when the time was right.