Terror in Equestria 10: The Return of Tirek

by StormLuna

Return to the Tower

It was early in the evening when Colgate and Ruby Heart arrived back at the tower. As soon as they landed, the first place they headed was not into the tower, but the base. Colgate found her generals leading the few soldiers she did have in standard exercises. She yelled, "Attention!"

Immediately they stopped and her generals approached her. When they saw that Ruby was with them Dark Night said, "Queen Ruby Heart your Majesty, it is good to see you have returned." He then turned to Colgate and added, "Colgate, it is good to see that you were able to bring Ruby back to this world."

Colgate pointed towards her tower and continued, "Follow Ruby and I to the tower. Tonight we are going to have a feast of epic proportions to commemorate her return."

Dark Night followed them into the tower and into the dining hall. Colgate ordered, "Dark Night, go notify the chef that he is to prepare us a feast" She began to head up towards her chambers and continued, "while I go and see if there is any trouble going on in the world."

Dark Night saluted her and headed off to notify the chef while she headed up to her chambers. As she headed up to tap into the eye, she couldn't help but feel proud and feel a sense of satisfaction that not only had she returned Ruby to the world, that she also had an extremely powerful ally to aid her in taking down the current threats to the world.

Once she tapped into the eye, the very first place she checked was the Everfree Forest to see if the two centaurs were still there but would not be pleased when they were no longer there. She became agitated and snapped, "Damn it, they're gone!" She then calmed down and continued, "Well they couldn't have gone too far in just one day."

Unlike she would have in the past, she did not check the rest of the world. Instead, she began to check along the borders of the forest and was not pleased when she saw that the two were headed west, in the direction of Vanhoover. Colgate screamed, "Damn it, damn it, damn it!"

Dark Night heard her screams and rushed up to her chambers. He asked, "Colgate, what's wrong? Why are you yelling?"

Colgate yelled, "Cancel the feast. We will have an adequate meal tonight, I must figure out how to alter the magic of Grogar's collar and then we must round up the world leaders."

Dark Night had a look of fear on his face, "They've begun their attack haven't they? They've launched their plan to destroy Ponykind, haven't they?"

Colgate replied, "Well they haven't yet but it won't be long until they will. You go tell the chef to have an adequate meal ready in two hours time. I must go to the archives and find a way to alter the energy of that collar."

Dark Night nodded and rushed downstairs to make the change of plans. After changing the meal plans, he rushed into the dining hall in a state of panic, which brought out concern from Ruby. She saw his state and asked, "General, what is wrong? You are acting like somepony is coming to kill us."

Dark Night continued to breathe heavily for a minute before finally calming down enough to reply to her, "Your Majesty, I don't know exactly what happened but I know it involves those centaurs with the way Colgate was acting. I have a feeling they are likely on the move."

Ruby's jaw dropped open, "General, what are Colgate's plans? I'm sure she has plans."

Dark Night replied, "She does, she plans on us having an adequate meal in two hours. Right now she has headed to the archives to alter the energy in Grogar's collar so it will match her energy, so it will be a magic of good and not evil."

Ruby asked, "And then what?"

Dark Night replied, "I'm not sure if she will want us to round up the leaders after supper or whether she will want us to wait until morning."

Ruby suggested, "Well if they have already gained enough strength to begin their assault, I would suggest the sooner the better."

---

While Dark Night was talking to Ruby, Colgate was down in the back of the archives, looking through the Tambelon collection to see if there was anything in there about how Grogar had taken control of the bells in his collar or if it was simply something that was directly tied to him, something that there was no spell for.

She was starting to become frantic as she was not finding anything. She had become so frantic that she was not even re-shelving the books, she was simply tossing them in a pile on the floor. What she hoped would only take a couple of hours wound up taking much longer. Four hours had passed and she still hadn't found anything. Eventually her search would be interrupted by two voices, that of Dark Night and Ruby.

Ruby saw Colgate tearing through everything and asked, "Colgate, are you ok? It is almost 2200 and none of us have eaten!"

Dark Night added, "Colgate, you need to calm down. You aren't going to find anything in the state you're in."

Colgate had a panicked look on her face. She turned to them and replied, "Look, just tell the chef to fix you something. I can't stop my search right now."

Ruby suggested, "Colgate, I think you should wait until after we round up the world leaders to do this. I know you get impatient but you need some food in your system and with as late as it is, I think you need to get some rest."

Colgate snapped, "No! I'm going to figure this out."

Ruby replied, "But you need your rest if you're going to be able to create that time bubble and actually fly fast enough to move it."

Colgate had always been the stubborn type who would generally never take advice from anypony but deep down she knew that her friend and ally was right. She hung her head and sighed, "Very well. We shall have a small bite to eat and with as late as it is, we will wait to leave until tomorrow."

Both of them knew how Colgate was when it came to things like this, they knew that she would likely be in a hurry. Ruby asked, "We will be having breakfast before we leave though, won't we?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, we will." She looked towards the exit and continued, "Well let's get upstairs, have a bite to eat and then get to bed."

Once they arrived in the dining hall, Ruby wanted answers from her ally. She said, "Colgate, I want to know why you are so frantic to alter that collar and I want to know why you think you need it so quickly."

Colgate replied, "Look, both centaurs have left the forest. They are headed towards Vanhoover and what if we were to encounter them while we are on our journey rounding up the world leaders."

Ruby asked, "I don't know a ton about modern geography but is Vanhoover anywhere near where we will be going. Do we have a high chance of encountering them?"

Colgate replied, "No, the city of Vanhoover is nowhere near where we will be going."

Ruby suggested, "Very well then. I think for right now we need to focus on getting food in our system and getting some rest."

Like it did earlier, the suggestion frustrated Colgate but again she knew Ruby was right. She replied, "Alright, that is what we shall do. We will eat a late supper, get some rest, eat breakfast in the morning but after that, we are leaving immediately."

Both replied in unison, "Very well, sounds like a plan."

After a decent supper, the three headed to their chambers and like she always does, Colgate tapped into the eye and saw that the two centaurs were still a fair distance away from Vanhoover and had stopped to rest for the night. She thought to herself, "Good, they stopped to rest. Maybe we can get everypony rounded up and launch our attack on them before they get too strong."