Terror in Equestria 10: The Return of Tirek

by StormLuna

Arrival in Ponyville

After what was nearly three hours inside the time bubble, Colgate saw Ponyville approaching in the distance. She ordered everypony to stop so she could cast the proper spells to unfreeze time and undo the time bubble. The final mile of their journey to Ponyville was flown at a slow pace and when they landed by Twilight's castle, almost everypony, even the top flyers were in visible pain.

Fluttershy, who had among the strongest wings in the group had a grimace on her face, "Ugh, I don't think my wings have hurt this bad in ages."

Rainbow, who was almost as strong as Fluttershy added, "I know, right."

Colgate sighed, "Well had we been able to break the sound barrier immediately, your wings wouldn't be hurting so bad." She turned to her soldiers and asked, "How about all of you, how are you doing?"

Lightning Storm replied, "My wings hurt like hell and I'm sure the changeling hoof soldiers are in similar pain."

Colgate turned to them and they nodded in agreement. She then turned to Dark Night and asked, "What about you? How are your wings feeling?"

Dark Night replied, "They hurt but not enough to go complaining about it."

Colgate then turned to everypony else and could tell that they were all in excruciating pain. She pointed towards Twilight's castle and suggested, "How about we go inside, get something to eat and then get some rest."

Twilight objected, "Who do you think you are to be telling ponies to go inside my castle?" She was very leery of Colgate but knew that she couldn't remain afraid of her since they were on the same side. She approached her and continued, "Listen, I am a princess of Equestria and you are just a foreign dignitary here. I will let ponies know if they can go in there."

Colgate flared up her horn and the bells on her collar began to glow. She laughed, "Well then Twily, perhaps my soldiers and I should just head a few miles east of town and wait until those centaurs destroy you and then come in and wipe them out."

When the bells on her collar lit up, Twilight knew that Colgate was getting ready to put her in a cage again so she hung her head in defeat and sighed, "Very well, I'll let you handle things."

Colgate returned to normal, lifted her head up with her hoof and joyfully replied, "Good girl Twily, good girl!"

White Magick saw how she was talking to her and was not thrilled. He stepped between the two and yelled, "Would you stop it Colgate? Would you please stop talking to her like she is a little filly?" Colgate tried to say something but he continued, "I'm sick and tired of you constantly either calling her 'little Twily' or referring to her as a girl!" He raised his voice and continued, "She is a princess and needs to be treated as such!"

Colgate sighed in frustration and ordered everypony to go into the castle. Once they were inside, Colgate asked, "Twilight, go and order a steak for all of us."

Many of the ponies began to gag over the prospect of meat and Colgate learned that her desire for meat would not be fulfilled when Twilight replied, "Colgate, hay steaks will have to do because I do not eat meat. I don't know of many ponies that do anymore."

Scootaloo chimed in, "I do but hay steak will be fine for me."

Colgate sighed, "Very well then, I won't exactly be full without my meat but hey, perhaps after we slay our foes tomorrow, I can get some fresh meat in my system."

Everypony with the exception of Twilight gave her a curious look. Scootaloo asked, "Are you going to feast on one of the centaurs after we kill them."

Colgate gave her a devious smile and laughed, "Perhaps so or maybe I'll kill and eat something else."

Applejack immediately became suspicious and yelled, "We'll you ain't going to kill one of my family's pigs I'll tell you that much!"

Colgate continued to laugh, "Oh don't worry, pork isn't on the menu for tomorrow." She then pointed to Twilight and continued, "Now could you be a dear and go order us a haysteak, some hay fries and some cider?"

Colgate nodded and outside of her soldiers and Scootaloo, she was met with looks of nervousness and suspicion. Colgate began to wonder if they didn't know what her true intentions were for after they killed their foes. Their continued staring really began to bother her but she decided that with it being meal time, that it was not the right time to discuss it.

Thirty minutes later, half of the ponies had fallen asleep when Twilight and the chef returned with their meals. Colgate saw this and yelled, "Attention!"

Twilight added, "Ok everypony, your meals are here."

As they began to eat their meals, there was an uneasy silence among everypony. Ever since Colgate had a position of power and not long after Twilight was corrupted, business items would not be discussed over meals but never had they been completely quiet.

During the meal, some ponies kept their eyes glued on Colgate, wondering what kinds of plans she had in the event they were able to defeat the two centaurs, Ruby had her eyes glued on White Magick and Twilight hoping that she could maybe destroy their life bond after they wiped out the centaurs while Colgate focused on one thing, her meal. Despite her simply focusing on her meal, she was thinking about everything that she would do after Tirek and Tirac were killed, things that she felt that would be owed to her for saving the planet.

After a quiet meal, Colgate got up and asked, "Twilight, where are your guest rooms? I think we all need to get some sleep before morning arrives."

Twilight pointed her hoof towards the stairs and replied, "Follow me."

They all followed her and once they got upstairs, they saw multiple rooms to their sides and at the end of the hall, they saw a huge door that was lavender in color and had Twilight's cutie mark on it. Colgate began to focus intently on it and Twilight was not enthused by this. She stood in front of Colgate and snapped, "No, you will not be sleeping in my room, alright?"

Colgate laughed, "Now why would I want to sleep in your chambers? You should know that I would never sleep in somepony else's bed!"

Twilight sighed, "I know how you are. I know that you think since you are in charge of this that you should get all the benefits of the top pony."

Colgate rolled her eyes as Twilight began to assign bedrooms. She pointed at the one furthest from her bedroom and ordered, "Ruby, Colgate, this one will be for you."

The two headed in and shut the door while Twilight continued to assign bedrooms. None of them except for the one she put Colgate and Ruby had a balcony on them and it was rather small. This however was not a problem for Colgate. While Ruby headed towards her bed immediately, Colgate headed towards the balcony and Ruby couldn't help but wonder why. She asked, "Colgate, aren't you tired? Don't you think you better get to bed?"

Colgate replied, "Canterlot is within eyesight of here and I want to see if they are up to anything, I want to see if they might be heading this way and attack us at night."

Ruby gasped, "Colgate, there is no way your eyesight is that good! Nopony could tell if they were doing anything from this distance."

Besides her magical abilities improving dramatically, so had her eyesight. She laughed, "Oh you'd be surprised. This collar has boosted a whole lot of my abilities, including my eyesight." She went quiet and continued to scan the areas off to the west of them before continuing, "There is no activity off that way so they must be getting some sleep." She then headed to her bed and finished, "Now to get some much needed rest."

It took Ruby a while to get to sleep but for Colgate, it was easy. It was not even five minutes after laying down that she had fallen asleep. As she laid there, Ruby, who had been showing some skepticism towards Colgate's plans of killing their foes realized that given her powers, even if bad things were to happen after slaying them, that she would likely be able to restore everything with no problems.