//------------------------------//
// A Deadly Voyage 
// Story: Terror in Equestria 5:  One Thousand Years Later 
// by StormLuna 
//------------------------------//

Finally the morning had arrived that Twilight and her envoy were ready to set sail.  Before breakfast Twilight approached General Dark Hooves and asked, "Dark Hooves, is the ship all stocked and ready to go?"

Dark Hooves replied, "Yes Twilight, it is.  I made sure that just in case, we have enough food and water for three weeks.  Like you said, the weather can be unpredictable this time of year."

Twilight said, "Good job general.  That is something I value very much, an officer who plans for worst case scenarios.  Let's have one more good breakfast before we set sail."

They headed up to the throne room and were greeted by Shining Armor and her other officers.  Shining Armor asked, "Twily, what kept you?  I was getting worried."

Twilight replied, "Oh I was just discussing a few things with Dark Hooves.  So, what is for breakfast?"

General Green Dust replied, "The usual, oats, apples, mutton and cider.  You better enjoy it.  From what I understand you guys will only have apples and water out at sea but I'm sure a very filling meal will await you guys in Faustica."

Dark Caves said, "Well I certainly hope so!"

After breakfast Twilight and her envoy headed to the ship.  Shining Armor raised the anchor and they headed north towards the tropical regions of the Pegasus Ocean which are the most dangerous seas on the voyage.  Shining Armor knew that their path would take them within eyesight of Dragon Island and he suspected that is where Spike now resides.

Shining Armor asked, "Twilight, do you know that our path will take us within eyesight of Dragon Island?"

Twilight's ears perked up and she replied, "Really!  Do you think Spike might be flying around off the coast and see us?"

LaurFa interrupted, "Twilight, even if he were I doubt you would get a friendly reception from him.  Remember how mad he was at you before you were banished?  He would either attack us and set the ship ablaze or just ignore us."

Twilight replied, "You never know!  He might have forgiven me by now.  He has forgiven many who have done things that are bad before."

Shining Armor said, "Well we will find out tomorrow around midday if he is even out and about.  That is when we will be making our closest approach to Dragon Island.  I wouldn't count on even seeing him though."

Twilight walked up to the front of the ship with a sad look on her face.  She knew that her brother was probably right but she could only hope.  She also realized that it was her fault that everything had turned out the way that it did.  She growled to herself, "If only I would have put Lyra or Lemon Hearts in charge while I was gone instead of that power hungry pony Colgate everything would have been fine."

Colgate was watching all of this from Ponyville and realized that her next three meals had better be much larger than any other meals she has eaten and that she better get plenty of rest, for the spell she was going to cast the next day would likely be the most powerful spell cast by anypony ever.

Scootaloo saw her looking off her balcony and asked, "Are you ok?  You look like you are deep in thought."

Colgate turned around and replied, "I am just thinking about everything I need to do to be completely ready to cast my hypercane spell tomorrow."

Scootaloo asked, "What is a hypercane?  Is it like a hurricane but more powerful?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, it is.  It is a storm that is tropical in nature that has winds of 300 miles per hour or more.  My goal is to have it's winds reach at least 400 miles per hour if not more.  I want to destroy their ship and maybe kill either Twilight's dark Alicorn's or her brother."

Scootaloo asked, "Will we be having a meeting tonight since this is an important thing that will happen tomorrow?"

Colgate replied, "No.  I need to be as well rested and have a nice, stress-free mind tomorrow.  Any meeting might risk that.  For now do you think you could just go and monitor activity at the base?  I really need to just meditate and prepare for tomorrow."

Scootaloo flew down from the balcony to the base while Colgate continued to look out the window trying to find a good place to cast her spell from as it will cause a great amount of damage.  She finally decided that she would wipe out the final traces of Canterlot.  She decided she would cast her spell floating directly above the ruins.

The following afternoon Colgate was looking through the eye and saw that they were approaching the area she wanted to cast the hypercane spell.  Dark Night was in her room with her and he could tell the time had come as she headed towards her balcony.  Dark Night asked, "I take it the time has come?"

Colgate replied, "Yes it is.  Don't worry, I will be going to a place far enough away the energy from my spell won't damage Ponyville.  The ground might shake a little as I plan on doing this right above the ruins of Canterlot."

Dark Night asked, "Do you want me to warn everypony in town that there might be some shaking because of the collapse of the ruins?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, I do.  I have to get going."

Colgate then took off towards the west with great haste because she knew she had to cast it at exactly the right time if she wanted the storm to slam them into Dragon Island.  She finally arrived in the long abandoned city of Canterlot.  She decided she would float above the old royal palace.  She figured it would be fitting to cause it's collapse to destroy the rest of the city.

She knew it was time.  She began to glow a deep shade of blue, similar to the blue in her tail and mane yet it could be seen from Ponyville easily.  Dark blue clouds began to shroud Canterlot, her eyes began to shine a dark blue, her cutie mark began to shine and her horn was shining a bright blue as she recited, "The nice weather must come to an end, for without a killer storm the enemy will not bend, the wind shall be strong and my enemies won't last for long, a hypercane is a must so the tyrants will sink and go bust."

Colgate shot a powerful beam of blue energy and her eyes shot out dark blue laser beams towards where Twilight's ship would be passing.  As she did this, powerful bolts of lightning struck the mountain that Canterlot had been built into, causing the entire mountainside to collapse.  The ruins of Canterlot went crashing to the ground which made Colgate very happy, yet she was exhausted.  When she returned to Ponyville she flew up to her balcony and despite being dead tired, she would watch the action involving her hypercane unfold.

It was a calm day out in the South Pegasus Ocean, everypony was out on deck enjoying the sunshine.  Things were so calm and nice that even Twilight was in a lighthearted mood.  She was talking with LaurFa over how her and her brother would fight when they were young.

Twilight said, "You know LaurFa, I haven't been this relaxed in ages.  The last time I felt so relaxed was when Shining Armor and I were both using vases we stole from the neighbors for target practice.  I remember that Shining Armor almost always did better than me on destroying the vases."

Shining Armor interrupted, "What do you mean ALMOST ALWAYS?"

Twilight laughed, "Oh come on big brother!  You remember that one day when I was more accurate and destroyed the vases!"

Shining Armor replied, "Oh yeah, that was the day that we got caught and I got blamed for destroying them.  Celestia punished me but not you.  She claimed that you would never do such a thing!"

Twilight laughed harder, "Yeah she knew that I was such a sweet little angel, that I would never steal anything."

Shining Armor glared but then broke down laughing, "But you were the one who stole them!  You weren't so innocent little sis!"

Before Twilight could say anything they saw a powerful dark blue bolt of energy soar across the sky accompanied with two dark blue laser beams.  This changed the mood on the ship entirely.

LaurFa asked, "Uh, Twilight, what was that?"

Twilight got a terrified look on her face as she knew exactly what it was, except that it was vastly more powerful than her's was.  Twilight replied, "Look everypony, Colgate has cast a hurricane spell."

Shining Armor asked, "Do you mean something similar to the hurricane you sent after Rarity and your parents?"

Twilight replied, "Yes but I can tell this one was far more powerful.  Wherever she cast this from, is either a large crater in the ground or nothing but a huge pile of rocks."

Very quickly the winds began to pick up, the seas became rough and huge, dark blue clouds started to move in and blue lightning began to flash in the sky.  Twilight yelled, "Get under deck everypony!  Hurry, before it starts to rain!"

They were able to get under deck right before a heavy blue rain began to fall.  Everypony was getting sick as the ship was rocking back and forth violently.  Twilight knew that things were only going to get worse.

Dark Caves asked, "Twilight, you seem to know what is going to happen with this storm.  How is that?"

Twilight replied, "I know because I have cast a storm spell like this before, except that the one Colgate cast is far more powerful."

Very quickly they could hear a sadistic laugh from outside the ship.  It was Colgate's laughter taunting them.  Finally the wind became so powerful it lifted their ship out of the water completely and began to carry it east.

Shining Armor shouted, "How the hay can this storm be so powerful?  Did this happen with the storm you cast Twilight?"

Twilight replied, "No, it didn't.  She must have put an unprecedented amount of energy into this!"

The ship began to spin around causing them to get thrown around in the cabin.  Their cider bottles of water were shattering against the wall and their apples were slamming into them, bruising them.  Finally the ship crashed into the side of a mountain of a nearby island.

When they crawled out from under the rubble the rain was pounding them and the lightning was flashing all around them.  LaurFa said, "There is a cave!  We must get in it until this storm passes."

Twilight and her envoy headed towards the cave but Shining Armor couldn't get up as some lumber from the ship was rammed through his torso.  Twilight shouted, "Shining Armor!  Are you ok?  We have to get in the cave!"

Twilight levitated him into the cave with them.  They got away from the opening of the cave so that the wind would not suck them out.

Twilight set her brother in front of her and she began to cry.  "Shining Armor, why?  Why did this have to happen to you?"

Shining Armor looked up at her and replied, "Don't worry about me little sis.  You have to worry about ultimately defeating Colgate and reclaiming the world."

Twilight cried harder and shouted, "How can I even think about that when you, the only family I have left, might die right in front of me?  You are more important than retaking the world."

LaurFa looked over at the Sparkle siblings and she realized that Twilight had not been completely corrupted.  She realized that family was still important to her.

Shining Armor looked up at her one last time and said, "Twilight, retaking the world is your destiny, you were meant to control the world.  Like I said before, don't worry about me, you have a mission to complete."  Shining Armor then lowered his head and let out his last breath.

Twilight nudged Shining Armor with her hoof but realized that he had passed.  She broke down into uncontrollable sobbing shouting, "Please no, please no, please don't leave me Shining Armor!  NOOOO!"

LaurFa walked up to Twilight to try to comfort her but Twilight swatted her with her wing and cried, "Please just let me be alone with my brother one last time.  CURSE YOU COLGATE, CURSE YOU!"

LaurFa didn't really know what to say at this point.  Colonel Dark Caves said, "LaurFa, just let her mourn the loss of her brother."

The wind continued to howl, the rain continued to fall and the lightning continued to flash throughout the night until everypony had fallen asleep, except for Twilight who stayed up all night crying over the loss of her brother.