> Terror in Equestria 5:  One Thousand Years Later
>  by StormLuna
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Millennial Summit
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a peaceful morning in Ponyville when the light shined into Colgate's room waking her up.  As usual, when she woke up her mane and tail were a mess so she headed to the bathroom to brush them.  Just as she was getting ready to leave her room she was greeted by General Dark Night as he was concerned why she hadn't went down to breakfast yet.

Dark Night asked, "Colgate, are you coming down to breakfast this morning?"

Colgate replied, "Yeah, I am.  I just slept late.  I wanted to make sure and be well rested for when our visitors get here."

Dark Night asked, "Is it time for the annual summit already?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, but this one is extra important.  It is the millennial summit.  Very soon it will be 1,000 years since Celestia was banished to the sun."

Dark Night asked, "Why are we worried about her?  Shouldn't it be Twilight that we are worried about?  Her sentence isn't up yet is it?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, it is.  When Twilight was banished it was for the duration of Celestia's sentence, and that time is coming very soon.  Let's get down to breakfast.  I am getting hungry."

Dark Night and Colgate headed down to the dining hall where they were met by Shining Armor, the new junior commander Scootaloo and the rest of Colgate's officers just as breakfast was arriving.

Scootaloo looked at her plate and was amazed by what she saw.  She said, "Wow Colgate, this is amazing!  There is so much food on my plate!"

Colgate replied, "Well since you are part of my inner circle now, meals like this will be commonplace for you.  Enjoy your breakfast."

After the ponies had their breakfast they headed into the throne room where Colgate addressed them.  She said, "Ok everypony.  We are expecting some high level guests today.  We are expecting Queen Lyra, Queen Lemon Hearts, the Goddess LaurFa and Luna along with her parents out on Alicorn Island."

Major Frigid Wind asked, "Is it time for the annual summit already?"

Shining Armor replied, "It is more than that.  It is time for the millennial summit.  Very soon Celestia and my sister, Twilight, will be returning from their banishment in the sun."

Scootaloo asked, "Do you think she will have changed or do you think she will still be evil."

Colgate replied, "Well I have been doing some studying regarding this stuff and I have learned that she will have all her powers, knowledge and former size returned to her."

Scootaloo looked a bit worried and asked, "Do you think we will have to worry about her trying to take over the world again?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, we will."

Before she could say any further there was a knock on the throne room door.  Colonel Black Mist headed over to the door to see who it was.  Once he opened the door Colgate looked over and saw it was Lyra, Luna and Lemon Hearts.  Colgate said, "Come on in.  There is much going on right now and I am glad you could make it."

Luna replied, "I really wish that my parents would have came but they wanted to stay in Faustica in the event of an attack from HER."

Colgate said, "That is a good move on their part.  We can't have her going into your country with nopony there to protect it.  By the way, have you seen LaurFa or even heard from her?"

Lemon Hearts replied, "She has been acting odd lately.  With our two countries sharing a border we used to be so close but it seems like during the past year she has grown so distant and has really beefed up her forces along their border with us."

Colgate said, "Hmmm...if I didn't know any better I would think she was up to something."

Lyra asked, "What do you think she would be up to?"

Lemon Hearts replied, "I personally think that the loyalty spell Twilight cast on her never wore off and she knows that her return is imminent.  I almost wonder if that isn't where Twilight and Celestia will land when they return."

Luna said, "It could be.  What you are saying seems to make perfect sense to me."

Colgate replied, "Well we will see what happens.  I'm not going to go making any assumptions yet.  Once it happens, then we will know what we need to do.  If that does happen, I am wondering if there may be some information in the oldest part of the archives that could aid us in defeating them."

Lemon Hearts asked, "Well we defeated her last time so why wouldn't we defeat her this time?"

Colgate replied, "Look, I have a feeling that if LaurFa does indeed join her side that she won't put on the foalgloves this time.  Trust me, if it happens I will know what we will need to do."

While they were talking about this Luna noticed that Shining Armor had a nervous look on his face, had broken into a cold sweat and was biting his hooves.  She asked, "What is wrong Shining Armor?  It seems like you are really nervous about something."

Shining Armor replied, "Oh I am just worried about Twilight's return.  I am worried about how she will be once she returns.  You know how much trouble you had readjusting after being banished for a thousand years."

Luna said, "Well yeah, I can understand that.  I do think we need to be careful though.  If she is anything like I was when I returned, she will want revenge and we had better prepare for a wrathful Twilight."

General Lightning Storm, Colgate's top changeling officer, replied, "Yeah, we will need to be as ready as ever for an angry pony who will seek our complete and absolute destruction."

Shining Armor replied, "Well I don't know if Twilight would want that.  I know she would want to be able to rule the world but I doubt if she would actually kill anypony."

Lyra shouted, "Oh, and why do you say this?  Are you on HER side?  Are you going to defect to Twilight when she gets free since you are her brother?"

Lyra was shouting right in front of him and Shining Armor looked terrified.  Colgate said, "Lyra, let's not go around shouting accusations at one another.  We need to maintain focus so we will be better prepared for when she does return."

Luna asked, "Colgate, do you think after this summit we should return to our homelands or should we remain here?"

Colgate replied, "It all depends on what Twilight does when she returns.  If she acts normally, you will return home.  If she quickly approaches LaurFa for help, you will stay here and aid us."

Lyra said, "I think that is a good idea.  After all, even if Twilight does go approach LaurFa for aid and she does help her, we will still be able to bring them down here and all her spells will be broken.  Speaking of her spells being broken, if she does declare war on the world again and once we defeat her, how will you deal with her?"

Colgate replied, "I really don't know at this point.  I might see if there is some way that I can transform her back into a regular unicorn or even better, an earth pony."

Shining Armor shouted, "How dare you even think about doing that to my little sister!  She earned her wings and was BORN with her horn."

This enraged Colgate, she walked up to Shining Armor and spread her wings as wide as she could, casting him in a huge shadow.  She growled, "Whose side are you on Shining Armor?  What, is your loyalty to your little sis already coming back before she returns despite her putting you in some bad situations?"

Shining Armor replied, "Uh, uh, well the very thought of Twilight losing her wings or her magic just bothers me.  She is my sister after all.  Wouldn't you feel the same way about your sibling?"

Colgate said, "I am an only child so I don't know what having a sibling is like.  I am just thinking about the welfare of not just Equestria, but the entire world."

Lyra added, "I am the same, an only child and I WILL NOT stand by idly and allow Twilight to take the world again.  I can guarantee you that she will try this."

Colgate said, "Well everypony, let's adjourn this meeting.  I don't feel like seeing this turn from a meeting into a brawl."

Scootaloo replied, "I agree."

After that Shining Armor stormed out of the throne room and everypony else looked at each other in shock, except Luna.

Luna said, "We better prepare for a war everypony.  I can tell by the way he is acting that the second she escapes the sun, he will fly to wherever she lands and will aid her in taking back the world."

Colgate replied, "I can tell.  Look, tomorrow is the day that they are supposed to return.  I have a feeling they will return either here or over in Maredrid.  I will keep an eye on things."

Scootaloo added, "And I will do my best to keep an eye on Shining Armor.  I am good at doing things while going undetected."

Colgate replied, "That you are Scootaloo, not to mention you can teleport yourself out of dicey situations as well."

Colgate was not thrilled with Shining Armor's actions but knew that she had the proper forces to deal with Twilight if she did decide to try to retake the world.  She also had a feeling that LaurFa would join Twilight but believed that a pony from ancient times could be returned and provide an extra boost to her forces and strike terror into LaurFa.
> Return of the Dark Goddess
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following day arrived and everypony was gathered outside of Colgate's black tower, preparing for Twilight's return.  Colgate said, "Ok, I know Celestia was banished to the sun in Canterlot but Twilight was banished right here at the base of the tower.  I have been doing some studying and from what I read, they will return here.  So we need to be prepared."

Shining Armor asked, "Look, it is just Twilight and Celestia.  Why is the army alert and ready to attack and why do all of you have your armor on?  Twilight is not going to do anything."

Colgate walked over to him and stared him down.  She shouted, "Look Shining Armor, do I need to take care of you now or are you just saying this because Twily is your sister?"

Shining Armor replied, "Look, she is my sister and unless she does something to me I will not turn on her."

Scootaloo walked up next to Colgate and asked, "Oh and what would she have to do, try to kill you?  You know something Colgate, I honestly think making him the commander of the military and first in line to the Supreme Commander's spot was a mistake."

Colgate smiled at Scootaloo and replied, "You know Scootaloo, I think you are right.  I should have known that when this day came, he would not know whose side he would take.  Lightning Storm, Green Toxin, cover him in ooze.  He is a traitor."

The two officers shouted, "Yes ma'am!"  They then proceeded to cover him in green ooze to make sure he couldn't cast any spells or fly away.

Colgate replied, "Well Scootaloo, you are now General of the Army and first in line to the spot of Supreme Commander of Equestria.  So Shining Armor, what do you think about that?"

Shining Armor growled, "Listen, you do not know what you are doing.  Putting a young pony such as her in power.  What a joke."

Scootaloo shouted, "Shining Armor, you do know that I am over 1,000 years old, don't you?  I'm no young pony.  What Colgate did was in the best interests of Equestrian security."

Before Shining Armor could say anything a bright flash of light appeared in the sky.  Then two Alicorns landed in front of everypony else.  It was Princess Celestia and the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight shouted, "I HAVE RETURNED!  BOW DOWN BEFORE YOUR DARK GODDESS OR DIE!"

Colgate fired a powerful bolt of energy at Twilight, knocking her out of the sky.  She replied, "Oh Twily, I see you are just as arrogant as ever.  Isn't that just adorable?"

Scootaloo added, "Oh yeah, arrogant Twily is so adorable and precious!"

Twilight fired a bolt of energy back at Colgate and Scootaloo but missed.  She shouted, "Just you two wait!  Once Celestia, Shining Armor and I gather an army your days are finished!"

Celestia walked over by Colgate and said, "Oh and what makes you think I will help you?  Being stuck in the sun with you for nearly a thousand years was bad enough.  I will not, I repeat, I will not aid you in your quest to retake the world!"

Twilight's eyes began to shine a bright green and she fired energy at Celestia.  She hit her and knocked her backwards.  She left a burn mark on Celestia's side and said, "Oh we shall see about that Celestia.  You will help me if you know what is good for you!"

Colgate stood between the two, glared at Twilight and said, "Twilight, you do not own Celestia.  She will aid who she wants.  You can not and will not force her to aid you."

Celestia replied, "Thank you Colgate.  I want to help you save the world from her tyranny."

Twilight looked over at her brother and sneered, "Oh and what about you Shining Armor?  Are you going to help your precious Supreme Commander or will you help me take back what is rightfully mine?"

Shining Armor smiled at his sister and said, "I will help you little sis.  All I need to do is get out of this ooze."

Before Colgate could do anything Twilight melted away the ooze and the Sparkle siblings nodded at one another and took off towards the east.  Both of them stuck their tongues out at Colgate and her forces as they left.

"Why you little..." shouted Scootaloo

Just as Scootaloo was getting ready to take of after them Colgate put her hoof in front of her and said, "Scootaloo, we will take them down in good time.  I know where she is headed.  If LaurFa does indeed help her, the time will come for HER return."

Dark Night asked, "Her?  Who are you talking about?"

Colgate replied, "I am talking about LaurFa's sister from long ago.  I have done some studying and she does have a sister.  Once the time is right I will tell you more about her.  We need to call a meeting for everypony so I can let them know about what I know."

A few hours later Twilight and Shining Armor finally reached the coast and landed for a bit to eat.  A very pleasant surprise greeted them.  Besides some bushes with tasty berries and plums on them, there was a ship docked in the harbor as well.  This made both of them smile.

Twilight started jumping around like a filly and said, "Yay!  Now we won't have to fly all the way there!  We are so lucky big brother!"

Shining Armor replied, "Yeah, we are.  Yes it will take longer to get there but we will have longer to plan on what to do once we get to Maredrid and we won't get so tired."

Twilight said, "EXACTLY!  We will need to be careful once we get there.  I have a feeling that LaurFa will be awaiting our arrival but it is her military that I am worried about.  I am sure that they won't take very kindly to us coming."

Shining Armor asked, "Twily, what makes you think LaurFa will be waiting for us?"

Twilight replied, "I could see what was going on while I was in the sun and unlike Lyra, Lemon Hearts and Luna, LaurFa did not go to the summit in Ponyville.  I also have a feeling that we can reclaim the loyalty of Luna and Celestia's parents.  If we can do that, things will be looking very good for us."

Shining Armor said, "Well Twily, I'm sure they will join us.  You do have a knack of getting ponies to join your side, well most ponies."

Twilight became enraged and shouted, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN MOST PONIES?  I CAN GET ANYPONY TO JOIN MY SIDE!"

Shining Armor asked, "Twily, what about Colgate?  What about Celestia, Lyra, Lemon Hearts, Luna and all of the other ponies who defected from you?"

Twilight growled, "Ok, ok.  I hear you.  Well when we have everypony else on our side and launch our final attack on Ponyville they will wish they had never betrayed me.  Maybe I should banish them to the void or exact some sort of revenge on them.  What, I don't know but let's just say that they won't like it."

After an hour of eating and drinking fresh water they loaded the ship with enough food for a week.  Shining Armor said, "Well little sis, these berries should have enough fluids in them to keep us hydrated.  This is the one thing I hate about traveling by ship, the lack of fresh water."

Twilight replied, "I know big brother, but all the ship travel will all be worth it once I am sitting in MY black tower again, ruling over MY world and sleeping in MY bed!"

Shining Armor said, "Yeah I know you are still upset about not being able to sleep in your bed.  Let's set sail while we still have this westerly breeze to push us along."

Twilight replied, "Good idea big brother, let's get going."

Shining Armor raised the anchor and they started their journey east across the Alicorn Ocean.  The wind was pushing them along nicely.  Twilight was hoping that the wind would continue to push them along but Shining Armor knew that nothing was certain when it comes to traveling by ship.

In Ponyville Colgate is up in her room watching their every move with Scootaloo by her side.  She said, "Scootaloo, now that you are General of the Army and first in line to the throne you will have more responsibilities."

Scootaloo replied, "I know I will and I am happy that you have so much confidence in me.  I promise you that I won't let you down."

Colgate said, "I know you won't let me down.  Why I ever gave Shining Armor the top spot is beyond me.  Well they have started to sail east across the Alicorn Ocean and I am pretty sure we all know where they are going."

Scootaloo replied, "Yes, they are headed to Maredrid.  That is a given."

Colgate said, "I am going to let you in on something.  I have done some studying and there is some information from the absolute oldest scrolls that mention a sister of LaurFa.  I will need to do more studying but on the back of one of the scrolls I discovered a spell that would release her sister from her banishment."

Scootaloo's eyes grew wide and she spread her wings as she said, "Really?!  What was her sister's name?"

Colgate replied, "The name mentioned in the spell is Brevity Thrash."

Scootaloo asked, "You mean as in the Brevity Thrash that Fluttershy transformed into when she went into that rage so long ago?"

Colgate replied, "I'm not sure.  Once I do more studying I will know for sure.  If she is anything like what Fluttershy transformed into, if we have her on our side, I don't care how powerful Twily becomes, she will not be able to stop us!"

Scootaloo asked, "So where would we have to go to recite this spell?"

Colgate replied, "We will discuss that once we know for sure that LaurFa will aid Twilight.  As soon as she does, we will go get Brevity because she will need to be trained and fitted for armor.  For now we just wait."

While Colgate was waiting for Twilight to get to Maredrid and gain LaurFa's allegiance, she continued to do more research on Brevity Thrash.  She wanted to know as much as possible about her before she went to her temple on Alicorn Island to recite the spell and release her.  Scootaloo was excited about this because she thought the idea of a powerful pony with an awesome attitude would not only give them a huge advantage, but would be fun to get to know.  





> An Old Alliance Restored
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Four days pass and finally Twilight and Shining Armor can see Maredrid approaching on the horizon.  Twilight starts jumping up and down shouting "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!  We're almost there big brother!  We're almost to Maredrid!"

Shining Armor smiled and replied, "I know Twily.  I just hope you are right about LaurFa waiting for us."

Twilight said, "I know I am right!  Remember, I could see all when I was banished to the sun.   I can't wait to see her!"

Shining Armor still had his doubts but he was just letting his paranoia get the best of him.  He did not realize that not only would LaurFa be waiting for them, but she would swear complete and absolute allegiance to Twilight.

Finally they docked in Maredrid Bay and they were greeted by LaurFa's dark Alicorn general, General Dark Hooves and her changeling general, General Green Mane.  Green Mane said to them, "We have been expecting you two.  LaurFa will be very happy to see you two have arrived."

Twilight asked, "Who are you two?"

Dark Hooves replied, "I am General Dark Hooves and the changeling is General Green Mane.  We are LaurFa's top officers.  Come with us to the palace, LaurFa is waiting for the supreme leader of us all, Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, to arrive."

Twilight smiled and said, "You see big brother, I told you we had nothing to worry about!"

Twilight and Shining Armor followed the generals to the throne room where they were greeted by LaurFa.  LaurFa said, "Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor!  How are you two!"

Twilight replied, "I am doing well Queen LaurFa!  I am so happy to see one world leader that is still on my side!"

LaurFa asked, "How could I turn on the pony who gave me the Equine Empire and rescued me from the void?  You two must be starving.  How about we grab a bite to eat before we get to discussing matters of business?"

Twilight replied, "That would be wonderful!  We have only had berries for the past four days so a substantial meal would be wonderful!"

LaurFa said, "If I remember correctly, you love steak.  I will have my chefs prepare a meal of steak, potatoes, corn and hay for us and don't worry, we have plenty of cider to wash it down with."

Twilight got a huge grin on her face and said, "Oh you know me too well LaurFa!  That sounds delicious!"

Once they sat down to their meal Twilight began to devour her food.  She had not had a substantial meal since before her banishment to the sun.  LaurFa was shocked to see Twilight eat so much as she ate much more than her brother, who has a huge appetite.  After supper they headed to the throne room where Twilight took control of the conversation.

Twilight addressed everypony, "Well as you can all see, I have returned from the sun.  Also, plainly obvious, Celestia did not join me in coming here.  She has instead decided to join the side of the enemy."

LaurFa asked, "Do you know why she decided to join forces with Colgate?"

Twilight sighed and replied, "Well I have a feeling it is because she is still throwing a hissy fit over me having Luna banish her to the sun over the crimes she committed when Shining Armor and I were just foals."

General Dark Hooves asked, "What crimes did she commit against you two?"

Twilight replied, "Well this also involves our parents.  I was accepted into Celstia's school for gifted unicorns and passed my entrance exam.  Well I had so much power that Celestia wanted me to be her protege at the school.  The thing is, mom and dad had their reservations about me going to live at the palace with Celestia, well until she promised them economic security for life along with a spot among the Canterlot elite.  Once she did that, mom and dad basically threw us out and told Celestia to take us."

Dark Hooves said, "That is horrible.  How could a mom and dad just do that to their kids?  What about you Shining Armor?  What kind of crimes did Celestia commit against you?"

Shining Armor replied, "Well this happened right at the same time Twily passed her entrance exam.  I remember mom was packing her things when Celestia herself came over to offer mom and dad economic security.  She had heard about my powerful magic and saw that I was larger than all of the other colts my age.  She promised mom and dad economic security in exchange for both of us.  She basically bought Twilight and I from mom and dad.  We did not have much of a childhood.  Twily was basically raised by Celestia and I was pretty much raised by the academy."

This story caused Dark Hooves to tear up and he said, "You two are a true inspiration.  You have faced so much adversity and yet you still persevered.  I will follow you into battle anywhere and anytime.  You have my complete and absolute allegiance.  I will gladly put my life on the line to aid you in any quests you have."

Twilight smiled at the general and said, "Thank you Dark Hooves and I do have a quest.  My desire is to reclaim the world which at one point, before my banishment to the sun, I did control."

Dark Hooves asked, "Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, what caused you to lose control of the world?"

Twilight replied, "Well part of it was arrogance on the part of a pony who I put in as second in command and my own carelessness.  At the time, this pony was very loyal to me.  Once I ruled the whole world my brother and I began to travel around my world.  I traveled to various territories to make sure that my stewards were enforcing my laws and to make sure that we all stayed on the same page.  Well this commander, who is now the Supreme Commander of Equestria, decided that Equestria needed a leader who would be there in Ponyville most of the time."

LaurFa asked, "I take it you are talking about Colgate."

Twilight continued, "Yes, it is Colgate that I am talking about.  Well, before one trip I had forgot to lock one of my spell books back in the archives.  It was the book that had my spells for locking and unlocking the archives.  So, while we were gone she got in there, studied everything, even things I hadn't studied, and taught everything to those who were once my recruits.  The only things she didn't teach them were the spells to lock and unlock the archives along with her time spells."

Green Mane asked, "Time Spells?  Is she a Time Lady?"

Twilight replied, "Unfortunately, yes.  Thing is, nopony else could even understand them as she is the only Time Lady that I know.  Back when she was just a dentist, we had a local doctor who was also a Time Lord.  Ponies who can manipulate time are very rare but easy to spot."

Dark Hooves asked, "Are you talking about those ponies that have hourglass cutie marks?"

Twilight jumped up out of her chair and said, "Yes!  Do you know any of them?"

Dark Hooves replied, "I did.  He was a very dear friend of mine.  His name was Wrecking Ball.  Besides being a Time Lord, he was also a construction worker here in Maredrid."

Twilight asked, "Why are you speaking about him in the past tense?"

Dark Hooves replied, "Well he passed away last month.  Out of all the non-dark-Alicorn ponies, he was my best friend.  I remember how one time he cast a spell to create a time bubble around this building, then froze time outside of the bubble.  This allowed him and his crew to get a building up in time for a foreign dignitary from Neigh Zealand to stay in when she got here."

Twilight said, "Yeah the things Time Lords and Time Ladies do are pretty amazing.  The pony who I want to take my power back from is a Time Lady.  I sometimes worry about what she can do with time but I can't let it scare me."

LaurFa asked, "Now Colgate is an Alicorn isn't she?"

Twilight replied, "Yes, and I know how she can freeze time, create time bubbles and get those things moving extremely fast.  She could freeze time, create a time bubble and get it moving so fast she could go pick somepony up in Faustica and get back to Ponyville in a matter of five minutes passing within the bubble."

Dark Hooves said, "That seems to give our enemy quite an advantage."

Twilight replied, "Well it doesn't make her invincible."

LaurFa said, "Twilight, given his loyalty I believe that Dark Hooves should go with us when we set sail for Saddle Arabia.  Since you know a loyalty spell, you will be able to easily gain the allegiance of not just the forces in Saddle Arabia, but Neigh Zealand and even Queen Galaxia and King Cosmos over in Faustica."

Twilight replied, "I sure hope so.  Luna and Celestia are both in Ponyville so Alicorn Island will be far easier to take.  Since large armies are not easy to feed, I plan on duplicating the forces in Faustica and then taking them with us to Equestria.  I am not sure how many we will need but we can discuss that once we get there."

LaurFa asked, "Twilight, how long do you want to wait until we set sail for Ridead?"

Twilight replied, "Well I want to wait a few days.  I do want to be able to have good filling meals for a few days before another ten days out at sea."

Dark Hooves asked, "I know fresh water is impossible to find out at sea.  I am wondering if maybe we should wash out some cider bottles and fill them with water before we go?"

Twilight smiled and replied, "Dark Hooves you are a genius!  That sounds like a great plan!"

LaurFa said, "Well how about we leave five days from now?  Twilight and Shining Armor will be well rested and that will give us time to adequately stock the ship with both food and water.  I consider this meeting adjourned."

Twilight yawned and said, "Thanks LaurFa.  I am ready to hit the hay."

LaurFa replied, "Well you two remember where the VIP sleeping quarters are.  Good night."

Twilight said, "Good night LaurFa.  See you in the morning."

While Twilight headed to bed Colgate was watching all of this in her tower and realized the time had come to release Brevity Thrash from her banishment.  She headed down to Scootaloo's office and said, "Scootaloo, LaurFa is going to help Twilight in her quest."

Scootaloo asked, "Does this mean that we will be going to get Brevity Thrash?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, it does.  I want to get Rainbow Dash to help us with this though.  She will be able to get that time bubble moving extra fast."

Scootaloo asked, "When do you want to do this?"

Colgate replied, "Tomorrow morning after breakfast.  It's time for supper.  Let's go get some food."






> The Return of Brevity Thrash
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Colgate woke up early the following morning ready and raring to go.  She brushed her mane and then headed down to the dining hall.  She was not the earliest to rise, as her generals and Scootaloo were already waiting for her.  Scootaloo asked, "Colgate, when do you want to go and get Rainbow Dash?  Should we get her now or should we wait until after breakfast?"

Colgate replied, "I think we need to have her present for breakfast and she has to be here for our meeting before we get going.  Could you go get her?  I think she is still up in Cloudsdale."

Scootaloo said, "Of course!  I will be back shortly."

Scootaloo left the black tower and flew with great haste up to Cloudsdale.  She found Rainbow sleeping on her favorite cloud.  Scootaloo nudged her shoulder and said, "Rainbow Dash, Colgate needs to speak with you."

Rainbow asked, "Scoots, can't you tell I am resting?  Can't it wait?"

Scootaloo replied, "Well no, it can't.  This involves going and getting an ally that will help us defeat Twilight."

Rainbow got up and growled, "Oh fine.  This better be as important as you are making it out to be."

The two flew back down to Colgate's black tower and headed into the dining hall.  Rainbow asked, "Colgate, what is this Scootaloo is talking about regarding some ally that will help us defeat Twilight?"

Colgate glared at her and said, "Rainbow, we will discuss this AFTER breakfast.  Here comes our food, let's eat!"

They had a larger than normal breakfast that morning so that they would have plenty of stamina to get to Alicorn Island and back without getting tired.  After breakfast they headed to the throne room.  Once they got there Rainbow asked, "Ok Colgate, what is this about an ally that will help us defeat Twilight?"

Colgate replied, "Well, I have done some studying and I have discovered a secret that was contained in the oldest scroll of the Faustica collection.  LaurFa, who for so long was believed to be the only "Goddess Pony," had a sister.  Long ago LaurFa and her sister, Brevity Thrash, went to war for control of Alicorn Island.  They waged this war because LaurFa would not transform Brevity's star student into an Alicorn."

Rainbow asked, "Wait a minute?  Are you talking about Brevity Thrash as the pony that Fluttershy transformed into when she got really angry so long ago?"

Colgate replied, "I am not sure but from what I have read Brevity Thrash was a lot like Fluttershy.  Ok, back to where we were earlier.  Brevity could not get the transformation spell right but LaurFa would not transform her start student into an Alicorn even though he wrote more magic than anypony else in history."

Scootaloo's eyes grew wide and she asked, "Was her student Starswirl the Bearded?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, he was.  It was finally Twilight that transformed him.  Ok, back to their war.  Both sides gathered huge armies and went to war.  After a battle that lasted for days, Brevity's forces were finally wiped out as were a majority of LaurFa's.  LaurFa banished her sister to Saturn's moon Titan."

General Dark Night asked, "Colgate, how will you release her?"

Colgate replied, "Good question Dark Night.  On the back of one of the scrolls I found the spell to release her.  It must be recited at her temple."

Rainbow Dash asked, "And why do we have to go do this now?  Can't it wait?"

Colgate replied, "No, it can not wait.  I want to get her back here so we can train her and have her ready for battle.  Alright everypony, let's do this!"

Dark Night asked, "Will anypony be staying behind to keep an eye on things?"

Colgate replied, "Yes.  Scootaloo, I need you along with the majors, captains and lieutenants to stay here.  I along with Rainbow Dash and the generals and colonels will be headed to Alicorn Island.  Alright everypony, do you know what your role will be?"

Everypony shouted, "Yes Ma'am!"

They all flew down to the base of the tower so Colgate could cast the spells she needed to cast.  First she must create a time bubble.  She began to glow very brightly, her eyes began to shine blue, her horn began to glow and her cutie mark began to glow as she recited,  "A bubble is what we need, so from frozen time we can be freed, in this bubble we can move fast, while everything else is stuck in the past, it is frozen time which through we must pass so we will never be late to class."

Colgate, Rainbow Dash, the generals and the colonels were now inside the time bubble.  Colgate poked the edge of her horn through the time bubble.  She began to glow brightly, her horn began to glow, her eyes were shining blue and her cutie mark began to glow as she recited, "Tick tock, tick tock, look at the racing clock, what is short is time and being late is a crime, we must finish on top so it is time I must stop, with time froze, it is my enemies I shall bulldoze."

Time was no frozen.  Colgate said to those in the time bubble with her, "Ok everypony, let's get going.  Let's get those wings flapping!"

Everypony began flapping their wings and very quickly they had their time bubble moving so fast that they broke the sound barrier.  They were racing towards Alicorn Island and within what was three minutes in the time bubble the island appeared on the horizon.  Colgate then shouted at them to stop.

Colgate had to unfreeze time before she could undo the time bubble.  She began to grow very brightly, her eyes began to shine blue, her horn was glowing and her cutie mark was shining as she recited, "Look at the clock, it is stuck in place, with this there can be no pace, everything is still but that does not fit the bill, for now the clock shall again run so everypony can have fun."

Suddenly time was running again and there was movement outside of the time bubble.  Colgate then proceeded to undo the time bubble.  She began to glow brightly, her eyes were shining blue, her horn was glowing and her cutie mark was shining as she recited, "In the bubble time continues to run, but now the time outside runs and allows fun, the bubble must burst so we can quench our thirst, from the bubble we are now free and everything we can clearly see."

The time bubble was now gone and they proceeded to fly to the south end of the island.  Colgate said, "Look, we can't get too close to the island until we reach the south end of it."

Colonel Green Toxin asked, "Why?"

Colgate replied, "Because we do not want to get caught by Galaxia or Cosmos, that is why.  Yes we are more powerful than they are but still, I do not want them discovering what we are doing and then warning Twilight."

Green Toxin said, "Oh, ok.  I understand that."

They circled down to the south end of the island and then proceeded northwards until they reached the Temple of Brevity Thrash.  When they landed they saw an older pony, an Alicorn laying a raw steak on the altar.  He said, "Oh Great Goddess and Dearest Teacher Brevity Thrash, I ask that you please aid in stopping the Sparkle Siblings from retaking the world and casting everypony into chains."

The old Alicorn kneeled at the altar for about a minute before turning around and running into Colgate and her envoy.  He asked, "Oh hi Colgate.  What are you doing here?  You aren't a spy for Twilight are you?"

Colgate replied, "No, I am not a spy for Twilight.  We are here for the same reason you are, to ask Brevity for her aid in our cause.  Wait a minute, you're Starswirl the Bearded aren't you?"

Starswirl replied, "Yes, I am.  Where is your offering to her?  You do know that she won't help you unless you bring her an offering don't you?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, I know that but there is something you need to see.  I am about to do something that no offering can do."

Starswirl was getting agitated as he felt that Colgate was disrespecting his former teacher.  He growled, "WHAT?"

Colgate walked up to the altar.  She began to glow very brightly, her eyes were shining like blue laser beams, her horn was glowing and her cutie mark was glowing as she recited, "She was banished long ago, but her power she will not forego, it is revenge she wants, it is her sister she shall taunt, for Brevity Thrash shall return once more and be more than just long lost lore."

As she finished this a great ball of energy shot out of her horn.  Then a bright ball of energy that was yellow and pink in color descended from the sky and was levitating above the altar.  Finally an Alicorn emerged from this ball of energy, she was yellow with a pink mane and tail and had three butterflies for a cutie mark. Brevity Thrash had returned.

Before she asked who released her she saw Starswirl and ran to him.  She said with excitement, "Starswirl, my prize pupil!  It has been too long, way too long!"

Starswirl nuzzled her and said, "Oh Dear Teacher, I am so happy to see you!  I never dreamed this day would arrive!  Oh thank you Colgate for freeing her, thank you!"

Brevity looked at the ponies and asked, "Which one of you is Colgate?"

Colgate replied, "I am Colgate.  I am the pony who freed you."

Brevity asked, "How did you know what the spell was to free Brevity?"

Before Colgate could say anything Rainbow Dash asked, "Wait a minute, do you speak in the third pony?"

Brevity glared at her and said, "Yes, we do.  Do you have a problem with how Brevity speaks?"

Colgate interrupted and said, "No, Rainbow has no problem with how you speak Goddess Brevity.  I am just happy that you have returned."

Brevity looked down and ate the steak that Starswirl had brought to her.  She said, "Well Colgate, since you have freed Brevity from her banishment, she will aid you in any quest you may have."

Colgate replied, "Well the whole planet is in danger of being bound in chains.  A powerful pony that goes by the name of Twilight Sparkle has enlisted the help of not just her brother, but your sister, LaurFa, to aid her in reconquering the world and casting everypony into subservience to her."

Brevity slammed her hoof into the ground and shouted, "LAURFA?  OH BREVITY HAS SOME UNFINISHED BUSINESS WITH HER.  ANYPONY SHE AIDS IS OUR ENEMY!"

Colgate replied, "Well I think we should wait to discuss this any further until we get back to my capitol.  I do not want us getting spotted by the royal family here."

Brevity asked, "Where is your capitol?"

Colgate saw what looked like changelings flying around in the sky.  She said, "COME ON, WE HAVE TO GET GOING!  WE HAVE BEEN SPOTTED!"

Colgate cast the time bubble spell around herself, Brevity, Starswirl, Rainbow and their generals and colonels.  She then cast the time freezing spell and they then sped off to the northeast at a great rate of speed.  Within what was three minutes in the bubble, they arrived in Ponyville where Colgate unfroze time and undid the time bubble.

They all landed on the ground and Brevity asked, "Who were we spotted by that we had to get out of there so quickly and are you a Time Lady?"

Colgate replied, "Yes I am a Time Lady and we had to get out of there quickly because those were the changeling lookouts that Queen Galaxia and King Cosmos send out to do patrols."

Brevity got a scowl on her face and said, "Queen Galaxia, King Cosmos?  Oh how Brevity loathes those two.  They never wrote any magic yet our tyrant sister transforms them into Alicorns but not our star student."

Starswirl asked, "Do you know why she would never transform me?"

Brevity replied, "Well she would never transform you because she always claimed you did not understand friendship.  Well I know you understood friendship, it was just that you were a shy pony like me."

Rainbow interrupted, "Wait, you speak in the first pony to Starswirl but third pony to the rest of us?  Why is that?"

Brevity growled, "We do that because we know Starswirl very well.  He was our student at the time and Brevity thought of him as almost like a son."

Starswirl asked, "Really?  You thought of me as almost like a son?  I always looked up to you like you were a mother to me."

Brevity replied, "Yes Starswirl, I thought of you as like a son to me.  I do have a question, how did you finally become an Alicorn?"

Starswirl said, "Well, before she turned evil it was Twilight Sparkle who transformed me into one.  It was interesting really.  I was working on a spell after you were banished that would connect different ponies based on their cutie marks to create a force so powerful that it could defeat any evil.  I could never get it right and I ultimately went mad and became a draconequus.  LaurFa gave me the name Discord."

Brevity shotued, "HOW DARE SHE GIVE YOU A DIFFERENT NAME!  WHEN I GET MY HOOVES ON HER, SHE WILL BE THE ONE WHO GETS BANISHED!"

Starswirl continued, "Well for thousands of years I did what draconeqqueses do, I made everypony's lives miserable and also I spent a lot of time being turned to stone as well.  Celestia finally had Twilight free me and one of her friends, Fluttershy, reformed me."

Brevity looked stunned and asked, "Fl-Fl-Fluttershy?"

Starswirl replied, "Yes, she looks a lot like you, except that she is not as large as you.  She is the same color, has the exact same mane and tail, the same eye color and she even has the same cutie mark."

Brevity said, "Wait a minute, I remember possessing her when I did manage to escape Titan for a little while.  I remember it was you who reminded her that it was her kindness that reformed you."

Starswirl said, "I hope you're not mad at me for causing her to return to being her normal self."

Brevity replied, "No, not at all.  I commend you for helping a dear friend remember her true self, especially when she was not very approachable."

Colgate interrupted, "Uh, do you two think you could reminisce more later?  We have a major meeting we have to have at the base and I will need to round everypony up.  There you will meet the pony who looks so much like you."

Brevity said with excitement, "We will get to meet Fluttershy?  Brevity looks forward to meeting her."

Colgate headed to round everypony up while Brevity and Starswirl continued to discuss everything from the past.  Brevity was happy to be free and Starswirl was ecstatic to have his teacher back.

Meanwhile in Faustica the two lookouts returned to the palace.  One of them said, "Galaxia, Cosmos, we have some very bad news."

Galaxia had a look of concern on her face and asked, "What is this bad news you have?"

The lookout replied, "SHE has returned."

Galaxia jumped off of her throne and said, "What?  Brevity Thrash has returned?  LaurFa needs to be notified immediately.  Do you know where she is?"

Cosmos replied, "Yes.  She is probably in Maredrid with the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle and her brother Shining Armor.  I believe it is best if we notify her when they arrive here.  They can then stay here longer and prepare for what we need to do."

The lookout added, "There was this blue Alicorn that has the ability to freeze and unfreeze time that came and got her.  An older, bearded Alicorn, an Alicorn with rainbow colored mane, two dark Alicorns and two changelings accompanied this blue Alicorn and Brevity Thrash back to the east."

Galaxia replied, "Oh great.  That blue Alicorn is the Supreme Commander of Equestria, Colgate.  She is a Time Lady and she can use time manipulation to her advantage.  I should have known when we were frozen in place twice for a few minutes twice, that she was using her magic to do something to harm Twilight's cause.  Well they stand no chance as we will have LaurFa and Twilight on our side."


> Getting Acquainted 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later that afternoon Colgate and Scootaloo had everypony rounded up at the base and were going to introduce Brevity Thrash to her entire army.  Brevity stood behind the platform Colgate was on until the time was right.

Colgate addressed her forces, "Alright everypony, I am sure you are wondering why I have called such an important meeting with such short notice."

Lyra replied, "Actually yeah, I am wondering why you called us together like this."

Colgate said, "Well, as you know by now Twilight and Celestia have finished their sentences on the sun and Celestia has joined our side, for which I am very thankful."

Celestia replied, "Colgate, I want to do anything and everything in my power to prevent Twilight from conquering the world and casting everypony in chains."

Colgate continued, "Well I have done some research and I have discovered that in the beginning there was not only one Goddess Pony, there were two.  The other pony is LaurFa's sister."  Colgate motioned for Brevity to fly up onto the platform.  Colgate added, "And here is the sister of LaurFa, Goddess Brevity Thrash."

Brevity flew up onto the platform and everypony looked in awe. Celestia and Luna looked stunned as they had always been told that Brevity was an old pony tale.

Brevity said, "Hello everypony.  We are very happy to help you with Colgate's cause of preventing Twilight from putting everypony in chains."

Celestia said, "Wait, my parents and LaurFa always told Luna and I that you were an old pony tale."

Luna commented, "Big sister, I told you that they were always hiding something."

Brevity replied, "Luna is right.  They were hiding something.  LaurFa did not want anypony to know about Brevity's existence.  She went as far as to hide all mention of us by altering history books.  Only the oldest scrolls that predate Equestria mention us."

Lyra asked, "Goddess Brevity, why would they want to hide all traces of you?  That isn't very nice.  In fact, it is downright mean and disrespectful.  What happened to you to be gone for so long?"

Brevity replied, "Ok, Brevity will tell you everything so that you will know her better.  If we are going to be fighting on the same side, Brevity does not want there to be any secrets."

Colgate said, "Well Brevity, the floor is all yours."

Brevity began, "Well ok, this comes from eons ago, not too long after Brevity and her tyrant so-called sister basically flashed into existence on this planet.  Yes it might sound odd but the two of us just appeared from nowhere.  Brevity knows that she had a history elsewhere before we flashed into existence on this planet.  Well onto my past, Brevity and her sister flashed into existence over what is now Saddle Arabia.  As everypony knows the main type of equine there is the horse, which does not develop cutie marks.  At that time there were ponies that started to evolve from them that developed cutie marks and had special talents.  They came in three different types, earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns.  It was Brevity and her tyrant sister who led them out of that land to other places in the world."

Lemon Hearts asked, "Really?  There was a time when Saddle Arabia was inhabited solely by horses?"

Brevity continued, "Yes, there was.  We led the ponies that develop cutie marks out of there.  Besides developing cutie marks, they began to think on a higher level as well.  It was when we were leading them out that Cloudsdale was discovered, which would and did become home to the pegasus ponies.  The unicorns moved to the northwest up to what would become the Equine Empire.  The land of Neigh Zealand would be home to all three types of ponies and Equestria was to become the home of earth ponies, which Brevity noticed has changed since ancient times."

Colgate replied, "Yes, there are a mixture of ponies in all territories now.  Even the horses have to share Saddle Arabia with ponies and there is an Alicorn who is the queen that rules there."

Brevity asked, "Seriously?  Who is this Alicorn?"

Lemon Hearts raised her hoof and said, "I am the Alicorn that rules Saddle Arabia.  This pony next to me is Lyra Heartstrings, she rules over Neigh Zealand."

Brevity asked, "Who rules over Alicorn Island and the Equine Empire?  Brevity already knows Colgate rules here but what about those places?"

Luna replied, "Well your sister currently rules over the Equine Empire and right now myself along with my mom and dad rule over Alicorn Island."

Brevity said, "Well Brevity is hoping to throw LaurFa out of the picture."

Colgate commented, "Brevity, I think you need to tell them about your banishment."

Applejack asked, "Wait a minute, y'all were banished somewhere?"

Brevity continued, "Yes, we were banished somewhere.  This all leads back to after we led the ponies out of Saddle Arabia.  We moved to Alicorn Island and made it an island for Alicorns and powerful unicorns.  Our sister learned a spell that allowed her to transform unicorns into Alicorns."

Celestia interrupted, "Wait, you are really confusing me.  I know you are Brevity Thrash but you speak as though you are somepony else talking about her or you are part of a group that she is part of."

Colgate said, "Celestia, everypony else, Brevity speaks differently than most ponies do.  So just know she is talking about herself, ok?"

Brevity continued, "Thanks Colgate.  Ok, continuing on, Brevity tried to figure out how the energies involved in that spell worked but she just couldn't get it right.  While LaurFa was transforming many powerful unicorns into Alicorns, the one unicorn that deserved to be one the most was not transformed into one."

Pinkie asked, "Who was that?"

Brevity replied, "That unicorn was Brevity's star student, Starswirl the Bearded.  LaurFa claimed that he did not understand friendship and that was her reasoning for not transforming him.  The thing is, he did understand friendship.  He was a shy pony like we were.  It was because of her stubbornness and refusal to transform our student, the one who wrote more magic than anypony else, into an Alicorn is what led us to war."

Rainbow Dash asked, "Ok, you and your sister went to war.  What does this have to do with you being banished?"

Brevity seemed a bit agitated by this question.  She rolled her eyes and continued, "Well both of us had many, many loyal changelings and dark unicorns in our armies.  We engaged in a great war that not only decimated our armies but caused a lot of non-combatant unicorns and Alicorns to die as well.  Finally her forces were triumphant and Brevity was banished to the moon Titan, a moon of Saturn."

Applejack asked, "What?  I don't understand that astronomy stuff much."

Starswirl said, "Saturn is a large planet with rings and Titan is a moon that orbits around it that is shrouded in an orange haze.  I discovered both of them when I developed a love for astronomy after my dear teacher was banished."

Applejack asked, "So basically it was like how Celestia banished Luna to the moon and how Luna banished Celestia and Twilight to the sun?"

Brevity replied, "Yes, it is.  Why powerful ponies like to banish other ponies to celestial objects is beyond us.  Brevity has other plans for her, which we will not reveal at this time."

Brevity then looked into the crowd and saw a yellow Alicorn with a pink mane and tail.  She asked, "You with the yellow coat and pink mane and tail, who are you?"

Fluttershy replied, "My name is Fluttershy.  Wait a minute.  The name Brevity Thrash sounds so familiar.  I feel like I should know you."

Brevity replied, "You should.  Brevity does know you.  We escaped Titan for a while a little over a thousand years ago and briefly took control of you, causing you to transform into us and we made everypony scared of you."

Fluttershy flew up to the platform and said, "Brevity, I hope that after this meeting we can hang out and get to know one another!"

Brevity replied, "Brevity hopes that we can as well!  Ok, Brevity better finish telling everypony about her life story and then we can do that."

Brevity continued, "Ok, does anypony have any other questions?"

Apple Bloom asked, "Brevity, so y'all are a goddess?  Does that mean you could take out Twilight and LaurFa just like that?"

Brevity replied, "Brevity wishes so.  The thing is though, LaurFa, our sister, is a goddess as well and Twilight is a dark goddess so it will be tough.  However, we have Colgate, who is also a goddess, on our side so we believe it will be a fair fight."

Sweetie Belle said, "Oh thank goodness, I was worried for a minute."

Brevity asked, "Anypony else have any questions?"  Nopony said anything.  Brevity said, "Well Fluttershy, shall we go talk since we do have similar appearances and know a bit about one another?"

Fluttershy replied, "Sure!  That would be wonderful!" 

Brevity and Fluttershy headed over to the cafe while everypony else returned to what they were doing before the meeting.  Colgate was thrilled that everypony accepted Brevity for who she was and listened to her life story.  She would soon discover that Brevity would be the best ally anypony could ever have.




> New Friends and an Amazing Revelation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Five days had passed in Maredrid and Twilight and her envoy were ready to set sail for Ridead.  General Dark Hooves asked, "Twilight, will we be taking any forces with us or do you think we will be ok without them?"

Twilight replied, "Well I do know armor spells and loyalty spells so we should be fine.  I don't want to have too many forces on board to feed.  So until we get to Faustica, it will just be you, my brother, Queen LaurFa and myself."

Shining Armor asked, "What all do we have the ship stocked with.  It will take anywhere between 10-14 days to get to Ridead."

Twilight replied, "Well we have what should be enough food and water for three weeks.  I figured we better be prepared in the event we run into bad weather.  Raise the anchor, let's get going!"

Shining Armor raised the anchor and they began their voyage southward.  They had a strong northerly wind pushing them along nicely.  Dark Hooves said, "It would be nice if we had a good tail wind like this all the way to Ridead.  If we did, we would be able to get to Saddle Arabia much quicker."

Twilight replied, "It would be but once we get further south we will probably encounter nasty crosswinds which will slow us down considerably.  For now let's just enjoy the nice weather!"

Back in Ponyville Brevity and Fluttershy were sitting down to lunch at the local cafe.  Brevity asked, "Fluttershy, we would like to get to know more about you.  What has happened to you in your past?"

Fluttershy replied, "Well I was born in Cloudsdale like a lot of pegasus ponies are.  I was an only child and sadly my parents didn't really do much of anything with me.  I always felt shunned and that really hurt my self-confidence."

Brevity said, "That is terrible, how could two parents not care any about their child?"

Fluttershy replied, "I am thinking that a lot of it might have to do with the fact that I was a very weak flyer at the time.  For some reason, I just couldn't fly as fast as the other foals and I had trouble remaining airborne."

Brevity asked, "From what Brevity understands, pegasus foals are often put in flight camps to help them improve their abilities.  Were you put in a flight camp?"

Fluttershy continued, "Yes, I was.  It was awful for me.  I was always made fun of and laughed at by almost everypony, especially by three jock pegasus foals.  The one pony who did not laugh at me was Rainbow Dash, she held up for me and challenged the jock ponies to a race to defend my honor."

Brevity asked, "Brevity has met Rainbow Dash and she seems like a very nice pony.  Before you continue on with your history, how did you and Rainbow become Alicorns?"

Fluttershy replied, "Well this was over a thousand years ago, before Twilight became evil.  She needed more ponies to be Alicorns to help her in her quests and to defend Equestria, so she transformed not just Rainbow and myself, but three of her other friends into Alicorns as well.  She also transformed Supreme Commander Colgate, Lyra, Lemon Hearts and Starswirl into Alicorns as well.  You might find this odd but she transformed a lot of us to aid her in taking LaurFa's jade Alicorn."

Brevity looked shocked when she heard this.  She asked "Really, she took LaurFa's jade Alicorn?  Is that what Colgate now uses to watch over the whole world?"

Fluttershy replied, "Yes.  At one time Twilight was the only one that could use it but then Colgate learned how to use it and drained Twilight to where she no longer had the ability to use it."

Brevity asked, "How did she get the jade Alicorn away from LaurFa?"

Fluttershy replied, "Well at one point she drained your sister and banished her to the void.  She then released your sister to aid her in her quest.  She cast a loyalty spell on your sister after she had drained her significantly."   

Brevity said, "Wow, that is amazing.  Now back to what you were telling Brevity about yourself."

Fluttershy continued, "Well, like I said, Rainbow challenged the jock ponies to a race.  I was standing on a cloud and I waved the flag to start the race.  Well I was knocked off the cloud and my wings froze shut.  I plummeted to the earth but at the last moment I was caught by some butterflies.  Since then, I have lived here on the ground."

Brevity asked, "Butterflies caught you?  Brevity would like to know if that has anything to do with your cutie mark."

Fluttershy replied, "Yes, it does.  I was caught by them and once I was on the ground Rainbow Dash broke the sound barrier creating a sonic rainboom.  This scared all the animals but I was able to get them to come back out by talking to them telling them everything was ok.  I learned I was able to communicate with them on a higher level and that is when my cutie mark appeared."

Brevity smiled and said, "That is wonderful Fluttershy!  What happened with the pegasus race?"

Fluttershy replied, "Well I wasn't there so it was a while before I learned what actually happened.  Rainbow Dash won the race easily."

Brevity asked, "Have you ever taken part in any races?"

Fluttershy replied, "Yes, I have.  One time Rainbow Dash was bragging about how she was going to easily win this race up in Cloudsdale.  At that point I had never taken part in a race and I didn't really feel like a normal pegasus.  So I decided to enter into the race with nopony else except Princess Celestia knowing about it.  When my friends, especially Rainbow, saw me at the starting line, they were not impressed and Rainbow said I was only going to make a fool of myself."

Brevity asked, "What wound up happening with the race?"

Fluttershy replied, "Well the race started out the same way Rainbow Dash said it would, with her taking a huge early lead and me lagging way behind.  I knew I wasn't doing good but I just wanted to feel like a normal pegasus just once."

Brevity asked, "Did you ever catch up to the rest of the pack?"

Fluttershy continued, "Well yes, I did.  I remember I think it was at the third turn that two of the jock pegasi that always made fun of me were standing there making fun of me.  This sent me into a rage.  My blood was boiling and I picked up a huge amount of speed.  Now by this time Rainbow had already broke the sound barrier but very quickly I broke the sound barrier which made me only the second pony in history to do it.  I soared past my competition but Rainbow was still well ahead of me once we passed the fourth and final turn.  I could still hear those jock ponies voices in my head making fun of me.  I continued gaining speed and then I did the impossible, I unleashed an even louder and brighter boom.  I hit Mach 2.  I soared past Rainbow Dash and won the race.  I had never been happier in my life."

Brevity got a huge grin on her face and said, "Wow, that is beyond amazing!  You sure showed everypony else that you were a force to be reckoned with!"

Fluttershy replied, "Yes, I did.  I finally felt like a normal pegasus, in fact, I felt like a true champion.  Ultimately I wound up entering many races and I won all of them.  All I had to do was remember those jock ponies making fun of me and I easily won races."

Brevity asked, "What caused you to stop competing?"

Fluttershy replied, "When all of Equestria fell into chaos the races stopped being held.  I remember I was looking forward to a race when news had broke that Sombra and Chrysalis had taken over the Crystal Empire.  Then they corrupted Twilight and she became the ruler of Equestria.  Then there were several years of chaos until she was banished to the sun.  After that though, the culture of this world had changed.  Pegasus races were not very high on anypony's priority list while keeping a ready and alert military were, and still is."

Brevity asked, "After Twilight and her minions are defeated and this world returns to any state of normalcy, will you resume racing?"

Fluttershy replied, "Yeah, I plan on it.  I know I am an Alicorn now but I still have that competitive spirit within me.  Chances are it would probably be just me and Rainbow since Alicorns have much more wing power than regular pegasus ponies do, unless other Alicorns get into racing as well.  Rainbow and I would probably become judges for normal pegasus races.  Enough about me now.  I see you have the same cutie mark as me, how did you get it?"

Brevity said, "Well, this is something from our past that is hard to remember as it happened before we came to this world.  I will try my best to remember."

Fluttershy asked, "Did you have a situation similar to mine?"

Brevity replied, "No, we did not.  Brevity remembers this was when we lived on a different world, before coming here.  We remember watching over the lands from Mt. Marelympus and we saw the animals fighting all the time.  I was always worrying about them killing each other and my sister was always busy writing books.  Well one day I flew down into the grasslands and stood between a hungry pack of wild dogs and a newborn gazelle and it's mother.  I talked to the wild dogs and they understood every word I said and I could understand them.  I used my magic to create meat for them.  That was when my cutie mark appeared.  I was so happy.  When I returned home my sister was very angry when she saw that I had my cutie mark before she got hers."

Fluttershy asked, "Were you the younger sister?"

Brevity said, "Wait a minute?  Am I speaking in the first pony to you?"

Fluttershy replied, "Yes, just like you were with Starswirl."

Brevity said, "You know something Fluttershy, you seem like the real sister that I never had.  Now to answer your question regarding whether I was the younger sister, I honestly don't know.  It seems like I have been around forever.  To tell you the truth, I don't even remember having any parents, it is almost as if my sister and I have been around forever."

Fluttershy asked, "Do you ever remember a time when it was just you?  A time before LaurFa?"

Brevity replied, "No, I do not remember a time before LaurFa.  I have a strong feeling that we came into existence at the exact same time.  I know Colgate is a goddess with those blue eyes but LaurFa and I are a different kind of goddess, we are Creator Goddesses."

Fluttershy looked confused and asked, "A creator goddess?  What is a creator goddess?"

Brevity replied, "The definition of a creator goddess is a pony that has been around forever and my tyrant sister and I are the only two there are.  We are the ones who used our magic to create everything, the galaxies, the stars, the planets and even the very ground we are standing on.  However, this information is to be shared with nopony, not even Colgate."

Fluttershy asked, "Will this ever be known to anypony else but us?"

Brevity replied, "My so-called sister knows about it as well.  However, there is one thing that she has forgotten.  While I could never get the transformation spell right she could never get the spell to unmake things right."

Fluttershy asked, "What do you mean a spell to unmake things?"

Brevity replied, "Since her and I are creator goddesses, we can unmake things.  Just as we used our magic to make them, we can unmake them and I have a feeling that I am now powerful enough I could unmake her.  During my time on Titan I went deep into thought and searched within myself and rediscovered so many things that I had lost to time."

Fluttershy asked, "Do you think LaurFa has lost a lot of her ancient knowledge?"

Brevity replied, "Yes, I believe she has.  Time takes its toll on all of us.  I guess banishment does have one positive.  It allowed me to go into deep thought and regain all the knowledge I had so long ago."

Fluttershy asked, "Do you think you could show me how an unmaking spell works."

Brevity smiled and said, "Sure, but I need you to look away as I will glow brighter than a thousand suns when I do this."

Fluttershy looked away while Brevity began to levitate and started glowing so brightly that her glow was visible from the entire planet.  She pointed her horn at a high hill, ripped it out of the ground and recited, "For this object was created in ancient times, long long before nearly anypony's time, the atoms that hold this together are strong but that won't last for long, for what was made can also be unmade for even atoms ultimately will go to their grave."

As Brevity finished saying this the hill she was levitating glowed, began to shrink in size until it simply vanished, as though it never existed at all.  Finally Brevity stopped glowing and floated back down to the ground.  Fluttershy saw that the hill was gone but that no explosion had taken place to destroy it.  Fluttershy asked, "Brevity, why wasn't there an explosion when you unmade that hill?"

Brevity replied, "Because my magic caused the bonds of everything that held that hill together to simply vanish.  This involves stuff that Starswirl and I could talk to you more about later."

Fluttershy asked, "Does this involve science and those atoms you were talking about in your spell?"

Brevity replied, "Yes, it does.  Let's get back to town and grab a bite to eat.  Unmaking things uses a lot of energy and I am so hungry!"

Fluttershy said, "I am getting hungry myself, lets go get a bite to eat."

While Fluttershy and Brevity headed back to the cafe the light from Brevity's glow had reached the other side of the planet.  As Twilight and her envoy were sailing south towards Ridead LaurFa saw a pink and yellow glow on the horizon and then move across the sky above them.  

Twilight asked, "What in Equestria was that?  Is Colgate altering the atmosphere to try to scare us?"

Shining Armor replied, "Well I'm not sure what it was.  I have never seen light that looks like that.  It looks almost like the colors of Fluttershy's coat, mane and tail."

The colors of this brought back a memory within LaurFa that she had forgotten.  She began to remember a few things from her past, her life from before the modern era of  Alicorn Island and Faustica. She did not want to say anything to Twilight though, because she feared Twilight yet she had forgotten the truly powerful magic that she used to know. 






> An Unexpected Delay
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Several days had passed out at sea when finally Twilight and her envoy could see Ridead on the horizon.  Twilight smiled and said, "Finally, Saddle Arabia is on the horizon!  It will be so nice to set hoof on dry ground!"

Shining Armor asked, "Ok, we know that Lemon Hearts is in Ponyville to aid Colgate in her cause so it will be her top officers that are in charge there.  What are we going to do if they ask us about that yellow and pink light that circled the planet?"

Dark Hooves said, "Well we don't exactly know what it was so we will just tell them the truth, I don't know what it was and none of the rest of it was, so we have nothing to hide."

Finally they reached the dock and lowered the anchor.  There they were met by Lemon Hearts's top officers, General Green Lightning and General Iron Seas.  Iron Seas asked, "Who are you and what brings you here?"

Twilight replied, "Well I am the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle.  This is my brother, Shining Armor standing next to me.  The white pony with the red mane and tail is LaurFa, queen of the Equine Empire and the dark Alicorn is Dark Hooves, he is LaurFa's top dark Alicorn general.

Iron Seas said, "Follow Green Lightning and myself to the palace.  We need to discuss some very important matters with you."

Twilight was unsure as to what was going to happen.  She knew that Lemon Hearts had probably told her officers about them and that a not so pleasant fate awaited them.  Finally they reached the throne room in the palace where they were met by more officers.

Colonel Rock Slide commented, "General Iron Seas, looks like we have some tourists."

General Iron Seas said, "No, they are enemies.  The purple one with green eyes claims to be the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle."

Captain Green Cloud said, "I remember before Lemon Hearts left she gave us a detailed description of what this so-called dark goddess looks like and this pony is an exact match of her."

Twilight shouted, "HOW DARE YOU REFER TO ME AS A SO-CALLED DARK GODDESS.  I AM THE DARK GODDESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE, NOW BOW DOWN BEFORE ME!"

Major Deadly Breeze commented, "Yep, this is her.  She even has the attitude that Lemon Hearts always talked about."

General Green Lightning ordered, "Ok boys, cover them in ooze.  They are the enemy and they must be detained."

Twilight and her envoy were immediately covered in ooze.  This sent Twilight into a rage.  She shouted, "YOU DO NOT DO THIS TO A DARK GODDESS!  FREE US OR DIE, ALL OF YOU!"

Green Lightning shouted, "Twily, shut up.  I am in no mood to put up with your screaming."

General Iron Seas ordered, "Ok prisoners, I want you to introduce yourselves so we will all know your names."

Twilight said, "Well I am the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, the queen of all queens and supreme ruler over all of you so I demand that you release us from this ooze or I will kill all of you!"

General Iron Seas laughed and said, "Oh how cute Twily.  With that ooze covering you guys, all of you are powerless.  Now what about the rest of you?"

Shining Armor replied, "Well I am Shining Armor, Grand Prince and first in line to the throne of the entire planet."

Green Lightning interrupted, "Don't you mean you used to be?  I know Colgate has placed somepony else in that position over in Equestria."

Dark Hooves said, "Well I am General Dark Hooves, I am the top dark Alicorn officer in LaurFa's military in the Equine Empire."

Colonel Rock Slide asked, "What caused you to join LaurFa's side?"

Dark Hooves replied, "Well when LaurFa was given control of the Equine Empire by our beloved Dark Goddess, I was one of the duplicate officers she had created to protect Ponyville.  I went with LaurFa to Maredrid.  I have loyally served her since then."

Iron Seas asked, "Hmm..ok.  Which one of you is LaurFa?"

LaurFa replied, "I am LaurFa.  I am the pony who rules over the Equine Empire and all my loyalties go to Twilight."

Iron Seas asked, "Oh, and why do all your loyalties go to Twilight?"

LaurFa replied, "Because she is the one who freed me from the void after being banished there.  After being released I was the equivalent of a foal and she helped me return to what I used to be.  If it weren't for her, I would still be trapped in the void."

Rock Slide laughed, "Oh ok, so you feel like you owe your beloved Twily the world.  Now that we know this it is time to get you rabble-rousers in jail."

Iron Seas asked, "What about the purple one?  She seems to be their leader and I don't think it would be wise to keep her in the same place as the rest of them."

Rock Slide replied, "She shall be put in the dungeon.  I think it would be best if we held her indefinitely while the rest of them are sentenced to 150 years in jail."

Deadly Breeze commented, "I think that would be an excellent idea.  Let's get them locked up.  It is getting time for supper."

Iron Seas, Dark Hooves and Deadly Breeze hauled them into the jail while Deadly Breeze took Twilight down to the dungeon.  Twilight was shouting, "Why must you put me down here?  Why can't I be up with my friends?"

Deadly Breeze replied, "Because we can't have you communicating with the rest of your envoy, that's why.  It would not be in the best interests of Saddle Arabia.  We will be back soon with your supper."

Twilight grunted as Deadly Breeze headed back upstairs slamming the door to the dungeon behind him.  It was getting dark down there and Twilight knew that she couldn't create any light with her horn because of the ooze so she realized that she would just have to deal with the complete darkness. 

As Deadly Breeze headed back up to the main jail Rock Slide asked, "So Deadly Breeze, how is the alleged dark goddess handling it down there?"

Deadly Breeze replied, "Well I think she is handling things quite well.  She isn't as irate as I expected her to be."

Rock Slide said, "Well I think that may be a bad thing.  She may be scheming on how to get out of here.  How she would be able to do that is beyond me with her being covered in ooze, but still, we need to be careful."

LaurFa asked, "Look, Dark Goddess Twilight will get us out of here.  Trust me, she is the most powerful pony ever and she will find a way out."

Iron Seas laughed, "If she is so powerful then why is her magic rendered useless when covered in ooze.  She must not be that powerful."

Deadly Breeze added, "Come on guys, it is time for supper.  Don't worry prisoners, we will have your supper down to you before too long."

As they closed the door and headed back to the palace LaurFa said, "Look everypony, don't worry.  Twilight will find a way out of here for all of us.  Maybe she can use her tactfulness to sway one of them to join our side and they will free us."

Shining Armor replied, "Well let's hope she can do that.  If she can't, then we will be here for a very long time and she will probably be stuck here forever."

In Ponyville Colgate sees that they have been captured and realizes that she simply can't tell everypony this.  She knows how Twilight's mind works and believes that she will use mind control to brainwash an officer to set them loose.  She heads to Scootaloo's office to tell her the news.

Upon hearing this Scootaloo replied, "We can't let any of them know about this.  We can't have them becoming complacent and you are right, Twilight will probably be able to brainwash an officer to set them loose."

Colgate said, "Yes, chances are that will happen.  I will continue to monitor the situation.  I have a feeling that Twilight will manage to do this within a month, so don't ease their military exercises any.  Also, we need to get Brevity and Celestia fitted for armor, so they will need to be taken down to the armory."

Scootaloo asked, "So what was going on before you came down here?"

Colgate replied, "The sun had set and they were turning in for the night.  The officers were headed to the palace for supper so there isn't much of anything else to see for now.  Let's just relax for now.  There will be more to see tomorrow."

Scootaloo asked, "Does this mean that I can head back to the farm early today?"

Colgate was sort of irritated by this question.  She rolled her eyes and said, "Sure, go for it.  I will go check on things at the base."

Scootaloo headed back to the farm while Colgate went over to the base and decided to do things like things would be done on any other regular day.  Colgate seemed to be pretty stress free but ultimately she would be proven wrong in how quickly Twilight would be able to get her forces and herself out of prison. 
> Preparing the New Recruits
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.


> An Unlikely Escape
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three months pass and Twilight and her envoy are still imprisoned in Ridead.  Supper time arrived but it was not the generals that brought them their food.  Instead it was the two majors, Major Deadly Breeze and Major Dark Caves.  Shining Armor saw them come in and asked, "What happened to the generals that usually bring us our food?"

Dark Caves replied, "The generals and colonels are heading off to a meeting with the higher ups of the Equine Empire regarding some damaged fence along the border, so we are the ones who will be bringing you your food."

Deadly Breeze added, "It is so chilly in here.  Isn't there any heating in here for you guys?"

LaurFa replied, "No, there is not.  We have asked about that and Iron Seas yelled at us telling us that we are prisoners and that we should not expect comfortable conditions."

Dark Caves asked, "Where is Twilight Sparkle?  I need to take her meal to her."

Shining Armor replied, "She is down in the dungeon.  Be careful, she is always angry whenever anypony or anychangeling goes down there."

Dark Caves nodded and headed down to the dungeon.  He used his horn to create some light since he had never been down to the dungeon before.  Twilight began to get agitated believing that Iron Seas was coming down to mock her once more before giving her her supper.  She saw that it was a different dark Alicorn.  She asked, "Who are you?  I can tell you aren't Iron Seas."

Dark Caves replied, "I am Major Dark Caves."  He then continued "Why in the world are you covered in green ooze?  You are no threat to anypony.  Let me melt this ooze away."

Dark Caves fired some energy at the ooze covering Twilight and melted it away.  Dark Caves then asked, "Twilight, what would you think about getting out of here?"

Twilight's ears perked up and she replied, "I would love it but how.......wait  a minute, you aren't trying to set us up to get executed are you?"

Dark Caves replied, "No Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, I truly believe that you and your friends need to be freed."

Twilight asked, "How are you going to pull this off?  Won't the generals and colonels catch you?"

Dark Caves replied, "They have just left for the Equine Empire to meet with the higher ups over there.  Tonight when I come to pick up your dishes, that is when I shall free you."

Twilight asked, "Aren't you afraid of being caught by the other officers?"

Major Dark Caves replied, "No, I am not.  I have this all planned out.  Before I make my decision final, there is one condition that I have for your release."

Twilight asked, "What is that?"

Major Dark Caves replied, "You must allow me to come with you guys.  If you guys are gone and I am still here when the generals and colonels return, they will kill me since right now I am the head officer in charge."

Twilight said, "You have yourself a deal.  I think it would be great for you to come with us.  After all, I can sense that you will be loyal to me and our cause."

Dark Caves replied, "Yes your Majesty, I will do anything possible to aid you in any cause you have."

Twilight said, "Well you can start by just calling me Twilight or Twily since you are on my side now.

Twilight asked, "But what about our ship?  There will be no food or water on board."

Dark Caves replied, "Trust me, I have been sneaking food and water on board that ship during the middle of the night for the past four nights.  Nopony else knows that I have been doing this.  Well I must be getting back upstairs so nopony else thinks that something is up."

Twilight nodded as he headed back up to the main jail.  For the first time in months Twilight was able to create some light with her horn to see to eat her meal.  This made her very happy and she finally had hope that she would be free again.

Once he got back up to the main jail Dark Breeze asked, "Dark Caves, what took you so long?  Was she being rather difficult tonight?"

Dark Caves knew that he would have to lie.  He replied, "Yeah, she was being difficult.  You know how prisoners are when they see a lower ranked officer serving them their meals."

Deadly Breeze had a skeptical look on his face but decided to believe his fellow major.  He said, "Come on, we are having a party tonight since the colonels and generals are gone.  You know we don't get to do things like that very often."

Dark Caves nodded and they headed back to the palace.  LaurFa said, "Well it must be nice to be able to have parties while we are stuck down here."

It was around midnight when the party the lower officers were holding ended.   Captain Green Cloud said, "Wow, we haven't had this much fun in ages.  How long will the higher ups be gone?"

Major Deadly Breeze replied, "They will be gone for about another week, so we better enjoy it while they are gone and things are more laid back.  Come on guys, it's time to hit the hay."

They all started to head off to their sleeping quarters.  All of them except Major Dark Caves.  Deadly Breeze looked at him and shouted, "MAJOR DARK CAVES, are you not going to go to sleep tonight?"

Dark Caves shouted back, "Look Deadly Breeze, I am the one that Iron Seas put in charge and I'm not tired yet.  I will hit the hay when I am good and ready."

Deadly Breeze growled, "Whatever."  Deadly Breeze had his suspicions about why Dark Caves was staying up but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.  

An hour later when everypony else was asleep Dark Caves headed down to the jail to free the prisoners.  When he finally got down there everypony was sound asleep, except for General Dark Hooves.  He asked, "So, are you here to mock us?"

Dark Caves replied, "No, I am not.  I am here to pick up your dishes.  I must go get Twilight's first."

Dark Caves headed down into the dungeon where he found Twilight tapping her hoof on the bars of her cell.  She growled, "Well it's about time.  I thought perhaps you were lying about setting us free."

Dark Caves replied, "After me melting that ooze away?"  Dark Caves opened the cell and continued, "Alright, let's get your friends freed and then get out of here.  Dawn is six hours away."

As Twilight and Dark Caves headed up into the main jail her friends were stunned.  Shining Armor said, "Twily!  How did you manage to get us free?"

Dark Caves interrupted, "We have no time for playing twenty questions right now.  Let's get going."

Dark Caves opened the cell and melted the ooze away from them.  They then headed to the ship with great haste.  Once they reached the ship Shining Armor raised the anchor and they continued their trip south hoping that they would not get re-captured.  

Dawn arrived in Ridead and Captain Ice Wind and Lieutenant Dark Sky headed to the prison to serve their prisoners their breakfast.  When they got there they were stunned to see that the jail was empty and that the door to the dungeon was open.  Ice Wind ran down there to discover that the cell door was open and that Twilight was gone.  Both knew that Dark Caves had stayed up late that night before.

Ice Wind ran back upstairs and shouted, "THAT TREASONOUS RAT!   DARK CAVES WILL SUFFER DEARLY FOR THIS!"

Dark Sky asked, "Let me guess, Twilight is gone too?"

Ice Wind replied, "Yes, she is.  We must re-capture all of them.  Let's go get them!"

Dark Sky asked, "Oh and how are we supposed to know what direction they headed?"

Ice Wind replied, "Well I know they are headed to Neigh Zealand so we need to head south."

The two headed off towards the south at a great rate of speed.  Out at sea Twilight and her envoy were enjoying a northerly breeze that was pushing them right along.

Twilight signaled for Dark Caves to come over to her.  She said, "Dark Caves, I have some very good news for you.  You are being promoted to colonel for aiding us in our escape."

Dark Caves bowed down before Twilight and replied, "Thank you Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle.  I want you to know that I will do anything you ask of me to aid you in any quest you have."

Twilight replied, "Well the first thing I want you to do is just call me Twilight or Twily.  You are part of my forces now.  There is no need for you to be so formal."

LaurFa was looking off to the north and interrupted, "Twilight, I know you and Dark Caves are discussing things right now but you need to come take a look at this.  It doesn't look good."

Twilight saw this and she became very angry.  She shouted, "Damn it, can't we have just one voyage without something going wrong.  It is Ice Wind and Dark Sky.  Get ready to knock them out of the sky everypony!"

Dark Sky and Ice Wind were finally over the ship firing bolts of energy at the ship burning holes in the deck before Dark Caves and Dark Hooves finally shot them from the sky.  They crashed on the deck right in front of Twilight.  They looked up at her in fear knowing that they were in a world of trouble. 

Twilight glared at them and said, "Well, well, well.  What do we have here?"

Ice Wind asked, "Twilight, before you kill us or do whatever you are going to do could you let us explain why we chased after you?"

Twilight looked up for a minute and then looked down at the two dark Alicorns and replied, "You have three minutes to explain yourselves before I punish you, which will most likely result in your deaths."

Ice Wind said, "Well you see, we were the first ones to get up from our night of partying the night before so we were the ones who were going to bring you your breakfast.  When we saw that you guys were gone we panicked."

Dark Sky continued, "The thing is, if the colonels and generals returned and you guys weren't in prison, they would have killed us.  Please let us live, we won't try to re-capture you."

Ice Wind added, "It's not like we could anyway as we are vastly outnumbered."

Twilight shouted, "Then why were you firing energy at us.  I know what you are saying is nothing but lies.  I ought to kill you right now."

Dark Sky begged, "Please Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, there has to be some tenderness in your heart.  Please just let us live."

Twilight realized that she could make the two loyal to her.  She smiled and said, "Alright, I will not kill either of you.  But before you can go there is one thing that I must do."

Ice Wind asked, "What is that?"

Twilight began to glow and her eyes began to shine as she recited, "From another to me, that is where your allegiance will now be, you thought your old commander loved you like pie when all they wanted was for you to die. With me all shall be great, there shall be no hate."

Twilight fired powerful green energy at them that knocked them backwards.  They looked stunned at first but then they wiped their eyes and in unison they said, "Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, we swear complete and absolute loyalty and allegiance to you.  We will aid you in any quest you have."

Twilight smiled and said, "That is wonderful to hear.  First off, you two are getting promotions.  Ice Wind, you are now a major and Dark Sky, you are now a captain.  Also, I want you two to just call me Twilight or Twily.  You are part of my forces now.  There is no need for this formal stuff."

Major Ice Wind replied, "Thank you so much Twilight.  We promise you that we won't let you down."

Twilight said, "Well that is good to hear.  Now let's enjoy the rest of our voyage to Neigh Zealand."

Colgate saw all of this from Ponyville and went into a rage.  Her screaming and yelling could be heard all over Ponyville.  She started kicking holes in the wall and smashing things when Scootaloo headed up to see what was wrong.

When Scootaloo got up to the doorway Colgate was levitating a night stand and was about to slam it into the doorway when Scootaloo shouted, "Colgate, stop!"

Colgate slammed the nightstand into the wall and growled, "What do you want?  What is so important that you had to come up here now?"

Scootaloo replied, "Well I heard you screaming and I heard you smashing things so I thought I would come up and see if you were ok."

Colgate kicked another hole in the wall and shouted, "Well I am NOT ok.  Some goody-horse shoes dark Alicorn set Twily and her minions free and to make matters worse, the two dark Alicorns who set out to re-capture them have been brainwashed and are now loyal to Twilight."

Scootaloo asked, "Do we need to make any changes to our military exercises?"

Colgate had calmed down a bit and replied, "No, we just keep things going as we normally would."

Scootaloo asked, "So what are they going to do next?"

Colgate was a bit irritated by this question and replied, "Well you will continue to make sure things are running smoothly at the base while I keep an eye on Twilight and her minions along with repairing all the damage I did in here."

Scootaloo said, "Alright, I'm heading back down to the base."

As Scootaloo returned to the base Colgate used her magic to fix all the things she had damaged.  Very soon though repairing damaged walls and furniture would be the least of Colgate's worries and this issue will make Twilight and her envoy being freed seem like small potatoes. 










 
> The Great Betrayal 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Colgate had finally calmed down from her rant by supper time.  She along with everyone in her inner circle gathered in the dining hall for supper.  That night there was a larger than normal supper planned.  Despite her having had them for a while, Scootaloo still got excited over the large meals Colgate served, perhaps because of the time during her youth when she was an orphan she had very little to eat. 

Scootaloo noticed that Celestia looked very nervous and was biting her hooves more than she was eating.  Scootaloo asked, "Celestia, are you ok?  You seem to be eating more hoof than you are supper."

Celestia looked scared and replied, "Oh I'm fine Scootaloo.  I just have a lot of things on my mind."

Scootaloo asked, "Are you still upset because you can't get your power up to the same level as Luna can?"

Celestia snapped, "No!  That is not it!  Why must you continue to bring that up?"

Colgate shouted, "Look you two.  Supper is no place to discuss things like that.  Remember what I have been saying for over a thousand years?"

Celestia grunted, "Yes we know.  You have always said that armies who don't discuss military matters during meals do better than those who do."

Brevity asked, "Colgate, what do we have planned for after supper?"

Colgate replied, "Well I was thinking  that we could have a short meeting in the throne room.  Nothing serious, just touch base and after that enjoy one another's company."

Celestia became even more nervous upon hearing this and said, "You know what, I'm not hungry.  Somepony else can have the rest of my supper."

Scootaloo levitated Celestia's plate over to herself and devoured it.  She said, "Thanks Celestia!  I was still hungry anyway!"

Celestia just grunted and hoped that nothing would come up about her behavior during their meeting.

Supper was finally over and they headed to the throne room for their meeting.  Colgate was curious as to why Celestia was behaving so oddly and she wasn't the only one.  Everypony was wondering why she was acting so strangely.  Brevity Thrash was very suspicious of her and decided she would confront her over it.

"Celestia, why are you acting so strangely?  Brevity is worried about you." asked Brevity

Celestia was kind of afraid of Brevity but knew she better answer.  Celestia replied, "Well ok, I will admit it.  I am upset with myself that I can't get my energy levels up to Luna's."

Luna commented, "Come on dear sister, your powers are more than sufficient to defeat our enemies."

Celestia began to sob and said, "But still little sister, how would you feel if you were the older sister but your younger sibling had more power than you?"

Luna sighed and said, "Look Celestia, it wasn't all that long ago that you finished your 1,000 year sentence of banishment on the sun.  You will get your stronger abilities back soon enough."

Celestia started crying harder and harder and then took off for her room.  Brevity saw this and was not happy.  She grunted, "Well Brevity thinks she is up to something.  What we are not sure of right now but she is up to something.  Colgate, Brevity thinks we need to keep a closer eye on her."

Colgate replied, "I agree Brevity.  I don't know if she would betray us or not.  I wouldn't think so because she has it so good here.  She basically lives better than she did when she was a princess in Canterlot."

Luna added, "She does.  Yes taking part in military exercises was not part of what Canterlot royalty did but still, the meals we get here are far better than anything Canterlot ever had to offer, not to mention far more filling."

Scootaloo asked, "Do you think she is upset because she isn't the top pony in charge like she used to be?"

Colgate replied, "Oh I doubt it because she was gladly subservient to Twilight for years.  I think this has to do with Luna being more powerful than her.  Now let's stop with all this business talk.  Let's just enjoy one another's company.  Besides, I have some dessert coming in any minute."

Luna added, "Yeah and with Celestia not being here, that will mean more nomnoms for the rest of us!"

In her room Celestia was crying yet at the same time she was angry.  She felt as though Luna was mocking her by telling her that she will eventually get all of her old powers back.  She decided that the time had come.  She decided it was time to fly west to Faustica and wait for Twilight to recruit her and her parents to retake the world.

Finally around midnight everypony else headed to bed.  By this point, they had all forgot about Celestia's temper tantrum during their meeting.  Colgate took one final look through the great eye before turning in for the night and saw that Twilight's journey was going as planned yet it did not worry her.  By one in the morning everypony was asleep, except for Celestia.  She was ready for the long trip.  She went to her balcony and took off towards the west.  She said to herself, "Alright Celestia, don't look back.  You know you have it good here but you deserve better."

The following morning came quickly for Colgate as she had stayed up late the night before.  She got out of bed and before brushing her mane and tail she took a look into the eye and was not pleased what she saw off to the west.  She saw that Celestia had arrived at the coast.  She levitated a dresser and was ready to slam it into the wall but then realized that losing her composure was not the right way to go.  She flew down to Scootaloo's office and told her "Scootaloo, we have a serious problem."

Scootaloo looked up and asked, "What is wrong?"

Colgate growled, "It is Celestia.  She has betrayed us.  She has flown off to the west to the coast.  I am thinking she is flying to Faustica to join forces with Galaxia and Cosmos."

Scootaloo asked, "Well maybe she is going there to aid them in defeating Twilight when she shows up there."

This irritated Colgate.  She replied, "Or maybe she is going there to be with them when Twilight recruits them.  You know that Twily will quickly brainwash them to be loyal to her, that is if they aren't already loyal to her.  Let's talk about this later.  It is time for breakfast and I am hungry."

They headed to the dining hall and found Brevity and Dark Night were already there.  Brevity asked, "What kept you two?  Is there something wrong?"

Colgate replied, "We will discuss this after breakfast.  All I will say is that what has happened is not good."

Luna arrived just as Colgate was saying this.  She said, "Colgate, Celestia is not in her room and I can't find her anywhere.  I have a feeling she may have betrayed us."

Dark Night commented, "I think that Luna is probably right.  What are we going to do?"

Colgate growled, "Look, we will discuss this AFTER breakfast.  I am hungry and our food is arriving.  Let's eat."

Despite being angry Colgate basically inhaled her food that morning.  She wanted to hurry up and discuss what was going on.  Finally after thirty minutes everypony else had finished their breakfast and they went to the throne room where Colgate addressed them.

"Alright" said Colgate "I am sure you heard about what Luna and Dark Night were saying about Celestia and believing that she has betrayed us.  They are right, she took off in the middle of the night and has flown off to the west and is currently feasting on apples on the west coast."

Brevity suggested, "Well Brevity thinks that we should send our military after her and capture her.  We think she should be executed for this."

Dark Night replied, "I agree with Brevity but it is your call Colgate.  You are our Supreme Commander."

Colgate said, "Well I think we should let the tyrant go to Faustica.  She will be coming back here as a member of Twily's army.  Besides, I have plans for Twily and those she will have with her on their voyage from Neigh Zealand to Alicorn Island."

Brevity asked, "What kinds of plans are those?"

Colgate replied, "For now those plans are classified.  Once the time is right, you will find out."

This frustrated everypony else but they knew that Colgate keeps some plans classified for a reason.  Dark Night had a feeling that she was going to summon a super storm to destroy them but he wasn't going to say anything.

Scootaloo asked, "Colgate, is there anything else that we need to discuss?"

Colgate replied, "No there is not.  This meeting is adjourned.  Just keep doing things the way you always would.  As for me, I am going to go and monitor Celestia's movements."

Out at the coast Celestia had just finished gorging on apples and drinking water and she looks off to the west-southwest.  She thought to herself, "This is going to be a horribly long flight, but I know I can make it."

She took off and didn't fly too fast as she did not want to wear herself out.  She realized that if she flew too fast she wouldn't even make it halfway.  Finally around four in the afternoon Alicorn Island and Faustica were off in the distance.  She got a huge grin on her face and then sped up for the final mile of her journey.  Once she arrived in town she landed on the balcony of the royal palace.

Queen Galaxia saw something out there and rushed to the balcony thinking it may be an intruder but saw it was Celestia.  She asked, "So Celestia, what brings you on here?  Shouldn't you be over aiding Colgate in whatever plans she has?"

Celestia replied, "Mom, I feel like they don't appreciate me.  Colgate had me test my abilities and they were not up at the same levels as Luna's and Luna kept on talking about how someday my full abilities will return."

Galaxia said, "Well given that you just escaped from the sun not that long ago it will take you a while to become more powerful than Luna again."

Celestia asked, "And mom, why did you lie to Luna and I about Brevity Thrash.  You told us that she was just an old pony tale.  It took me seeing her when Colgate took her to Ponyville to know that she was real."

Galaxia replied, "I will tell you why.  A long time ago, before Brevity was banished LaurFa told us that she wanted to banish Brevity and that we were to never mention her existence to anypony and we wanted to keep our promise to her."

King Cosmos came out to the balcony to see what was going on and he ran over to Celestia and hugged her.  "Celestia!  What brings you here?  Did you finally realize that Colgate was simply using you as a pawn to keep her plans on how the world should be ran?" asked Cosmos

Celestia replied, "It wasn't that.  It was because I couldn't get my levels up to what Luna's were out on the testing range.  She tried to keep my confidence up by saying that I had powers strong enough to aid in defeating any foes and even worse Brevity Thrash's powers are so great that Colgate told her she could probably defeat an army of 10,000 all on her own.  That really hurt my self-confidence."

Cosmos asked, "So you finally discovered that Brevity really exists.  I figured that would happen when our lookouts told us about a blue Alicorn taking a yellow Alicorn with pink mane back with her to the east."

Celestia began to cry and said, "I just don't get it.  I thought Colgate was the perfect leader and would be perfect for the world.  But now I realize that in her world that the most power I would have would be being mayor of Canterlot if she didn't destroy it first."

Galaxia asked, "Canterlot?  Canterlot has been nothing but ruins for hundreds of years."

Celestia replied, "I know at the time of my return that it was in ruins but I wanted to believe that I could bring it back and restore it to the glorious city it used to be."

Cosmos looked at his daughter and could see that she was exhausted.  He said, "Come on my daughter, it is supper time and it looks like you could really use something to eat."

Celestia replied, "I am awfully hungry after that long flight.  Let's get a bite to eat."

Celestia and her parents headed to the dining hall to grab a bite to eat.  While they did this Colgate was monitoring their every move from her black tower in Ponyville.  Scootaloo was with her as she was watching this.  Colgate said, "You know Scootaloo, I think it is all for the best that Celestia betrayed us."

Scootaloo had a stunned look on her face and asked, "Why?"

Colgate replied, "Well I was watching their discussion over why she left us and she started crying over her feeling like she was nothing more than a pawn to me.  I swear, it seems like she will break down and sob over anything.  Well she is THEIR liability now, not ours.  Having a weak link like that would not have been in our best interests."

Scootaloo said, "Wow, I didn't know she was that much of a crybaby!  You're right, we don't need a weak link like that."

Colgate replied, "Well I am hungry.  Let's go get a late night snack before it is time to hit the hay."






> A New Acquisition & Bitter Arguments
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ten days had passed out at sea when Twilight and her envoy could finally see the north island of Neigh Zealand on the horizon.  Twilight said, "Finally, we are approaching Neigh Zealand.  It will be so nice to set hoof on dry ground."

Shining Armor asked, "Twilight, how do you know they will be accepting of us?  What if we get captured there as well?"

Twilight replied, "Don't worry big brother, that won't happen this time.  I forgot to cast the loyalty spell when we arrived in Ridead but I will not forget to cast it when we get here.  I am also thinking this will be where we get a Lieutenant dark Alicorn and our changeling officers."

LaurFa asked, "But Twilight, what about us having sufficient food to eat?  I thought you were going to wait until we got to Faustica to get the rest of our officers?"

Twilight replied, "Oh yeah, that was the plan wasn't it?  I guess I have a lot of things on my mind here lately."

Dark Hooves asked, "Twilight, what has been running through your mind?"

Twilight replied, "I just wish that I had not been so foolish over a thousand years ago when I left my spell book out when Colgate got her hooves on it."

LaurFa said, "Twilight, you can't go back and change things.  All you can do now is do what you need to do to take back this world which is rightfully yours."

Dark Caves added, "Yes and you know that all of us will do anything and everything to make that dream a reality."

Twilight replied, "Thank you everypony.  You don't understand how much that truly means to me."

There was a thud when they made landfall.  Shining Armor dropped the anchor but as soon as they stepped onto dry ground they were confronted by a changeling and a dark Alicorn.

Black Lightning, Lyra's top dark Alicorn officer shouted "It's them!  They are the ones Lyra warned us about!  General Green Dust, cover them in ooze!"

Before they could do that Twilight fired bolts of energy at them knocking them out of the sky.  Twilight walked over to where they were laying and gave them a look at could kill.

Twilight said, "Look you two, I know you are only doing what your precious queen has told you to do but I can make things far better for you."

Green Dust asked, "And how could you make things better for us?  Queen Lyra treats us like we were her own family."

Twilight glared at the two.  She was staring at them and she began to glow purple and her green eyes drew in their attention.  She recited, "From another to me, that is where your allegiance will now be, you thought your old commander loved you like pie when all they wanted was for you to die. With me all shall be great, there shall be no hate."

She fired a powerful bolt of energy which was absorbed by them.  They wiped their eyes and got up.  Black Lightning said, "Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, you have my complete and absolute loyalty.  I will gladly serve you in any way I can."

Green Dust added, "I shall do the same your Majesty.  Your wish is my command."

Twilight smiled at the two and said, "Well you can start by calling me Twilight or Twily since you are on my side now.  Could you lead us to the palace so we may meet the rest of the officers here?"

Black Lightning replied, "Yes we can do that but Lyra has given a detailed description of you and she has ordered them to kill you if they see you."

Twilight said, "Oh I think I can make sure they won't do that.  I do think that you will need protection from those loyal to Lyra though.  Everypony, gather around me."

The two generals wondered why Twilight wanted them to gather around her but they did not question their new leader.  They joined everypony else in gathering around Twilight.

Twilight began to glow purple, her eyes were shining green and her horn began to glow as she recited,  "The one without armor does not stand a chance, so it is what we must enhance, the unarmed one will likely receive death, with armor he shall continue to draw breath, without armor he will be torn to shreds like a rag but with armor victory is in the bag."

A great ball of purple energy shot out of Twilight's horn providing armor for her envoy.  They walked into town towards the palace.  Very quickly all of Lyra's forces started firing energy at them.  But to their dismay, the energy just bounced off of them and damaged a few buildings.  Very quickly they saw that the generals were with them and stopped their attack.

Colonel Dark Ice confronted general Black Lightning.  He asked, "General Black Lightning, I know it is wrong for me to confront a higher officer but I must ask, what the hay are you doing with the enemy and even more, why the hay are you being protected by her armor spell?"

Black Lightning replied, "Look everypony, I know that Lyra is a good leader and treats us well but with me I have the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle.  She will treat us much better and provide more for us than Lyra could ever dream of doing.  Green Dust and I have already sworn our loyalty to her.  I believe that it is in our best interests to join her side as well."

Dark Ice shouted, "NEVER!  I will never betray Lyra!"

Twilight glared at him and said, "You will betray Lyra if you know what is good for you!"

"Oh what?" asked Dark Ice "What, are you going to kill those of us who don't betray Lyra?"

Twilight became enraged and fired a powerful bolt of energy at him, incinerating him.  She then shouted to the rest of Lyra's forces, "This is what will happen if you don't join me!  Either join my side or die!"   

All the rest of Lyra's forces did not need the loyalty spell cast upon them.  The citizens down in Neigh Zealand were very fearful of Twilight but knew that they better bow to her.  Twilight flew up to the balcony of Lyra's castle to address her new subjects.  She started out, "Hello my beloved subordinates!  I am so happy to have you as my subjects!"  Her voice began to drip with sarcasm as she continued her address.  "I want you to know that if you have any problems you can just come to me for now and I will help you in any way I can!"

A citizen in the crowd asked, "I mean no disrespect your Majesty but I have no clue who you are."

Twilight could tell that the citizen seriously did not know who she was.  She answered, "I am the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle.  I want you to know that I am a very forgiving pony who treats all of her subjects very well."

Most of the rest of the crowd knew who she was and that she was lying, but they didn't dare say anything.  Twilight continued, "I am also sure you are wondering where Queen Lyra is."

The crowd asked, "Yes, we are.  Where is she?"

Twilight replied, "Well she has flown to Ponyville in Equestria to become a subordinate officer for Supreme Commander Colgate."

A pony out in the crowd shouted, "SHE DID WHAT?  She abandons us so she can be somepony else's lap dog.  The hay with Lyra, you have my allegiance your Majesty!"

The rest of the crowd began to chant "Down with Lyra, long live Twilight."

Twilight was standing up there on the balcony smiling at the newly loyal crowd.  She realized that she had won them over with a lie.  This made her feel very happy.

Shining Armor whispered to her, "Twily, how can you just lie to them like that?  What are you going to do when Lyra returns?"

Twilight replied, "Lyra WON'T RETURN.  She will be destroyed in the war in Ponyville!"

Shining Armor asked "What about all these ponies?  They basically worship you already.  Chances are they will want you to move here and be with them.  I doubt that you want to move down here now do you?"

Twilight growled, "Well duh I don't want to nor do I plan on moving down here.  We will cross that bridge when we get to it.  For now just let me enjoy the adoring cheers from the crowd."

Shining Armor just shrugged his shoulders as his little sister stood there waving and smiling at a crowd that loved her yet she just views them as mere subordinates. 

In Ponyville Colgate is watching this and realizes that Lyra must be notified of this at once.  She knew that her and Lemon Hearts eat at the cafe at that time everyday so she flew down to let Lyra know what was going on.

Lyra and Lemon Hearts were sitting down to lunch discussing various things.  Lemon Hearts asked, "Lyra, when do you think Colgate will have us being a normal part of her meetings?  After all, we will return to being queens of our countries after Twilight is defeated."

Lyra replied, "I hope it will be before too long.  I feel like I am wasting time by being here."  They both see Colgate flying down towards the cafe and Lyra said, "Well I suppose we might find out now."

When Colgate arrived she asked, "Lyra, Lemon Hearts, do you two have some time to spare?"

Lyra asked, "Why?  You sure don't seem to keep us informed on anything that is happening anymore."

Colgate replied, "Look you two, this is important.  There are things going on in both of your realms that you must know about."

Lemon Hearts asked, "Can't we at least finish our meals first?"

Colgate replied, "Fine.  Finish your meals, I will just wait here and you two can finish your measly salads."

This comment really bothered them but they realized that Colgate eats a lot of meat and eats large meals so they could understand why she would say that.  After they finished their meals they followed Colgate up to the throne room.  Once they arrived Colgate slammed the doors and looked at them very seriously.

Lemon Hearts asked, "Ok Colgate, what is this all about and what is it that is so important about happenings in our realms that you had to rush us through an enjoyable lunch."

Colgate rolled her eyes and said, "Well look you two.  There are major threats to your power in your countries.  Lemon Hearts, your generals and colonels have basically taken full control of Saddle Arabia.  Also, for a brief time Twilight and her minions were being held captive there until some goody-good major freed them.  Then after that a captain and a lieutenant defected as well."

Lemon Hearts shouted, "WHAT?  My military had Twilight and her minions in prison and I was not notified about it?  Why the hay was I not notified about it?  What, am I not important enough for you to share things with that involve MY realm until you see fit?"

Colgate stared down Lemon Hearts and replied, "Look Lemon Hearts, I kept you in the dark on this because I didn't want you to go leaving Equestria because we need you here.  Saddle Arabia needs you here."

Lemon Hearts shouted, "Look, you still could have told me about what was going on.  You are starting to act more like Twilight everyday it seems."

Colgate got in her face and screamed, "You know what Lemon Hearts, I can find somepony else to go over and rule in Saddle Arabia.  Remember, I am the one who elevated you to being a queen there instead of a mere steward."

Lemon Hearts shied down and realized that Colgate was right.  She replied, "Ok Colgate, I understand."

Lyra asked, "What about MY country, how long have you been hiding what is going on down there from me?"

Colgate replied, "Try around an hour.  I have been watching things down there and when I saw what was happening, I felt that it was necessary to tell you immediately."

Lyra shouted, "What is going on in my country?  Stop beating around the bush and let me know!"

Colgate glared at her and said, "Alright Lyra, I will tell you EXACTLY what is going on in your country.  Twilight and her minions docked there around an hour and a half ago and she immediately brainwashed your two generals and now she has managed to win over the rest of your military and the entire population of your capitol down there.  They adore her now and they bought into a lie she told them about you accepting a position working under me."

Lyra looked like she was going to head for the door when Colgate stood in front of her with her wings spread and she said, "You're not going anywhere Lyra.  You need to stay here and help me.  Remember, I can always give the monarchy down there to somepony else or I can simply hand power over there to the highest ranking officers who are still against Twilight."

Lyra started screaming, "How can you be like this.  You are WORSE than Twilight!  You act like the information you have is to be kept secret from everypony else.  It is almost like you and those in your innermost circle are like some secret government agency.  At least with Twilight she did it for her own best interests."

Colgate stood before both of them and said, "Look, I know the way I handled telling you this information was wrong, but seriously, we need you here.  Your nations need you here."

Lyra asked "But what about everypony turning against me and loving Twilight now?"

Colgate replied, "Don't worry about that right now.  Once Twilight is defeated you can easily brainwash them all to love you again.  From this point forward, you will be part of every meal here and every meeting, how does that sound?"

Lemon Hearts said, "Well that will make matters much better.  Both of us know that you and your inner circle discuss things none of the rest of us know and we are sure that you share everything with Scootaloo."

Colgate replied, "Well I do share everything with her because she is my second in command.  If anything was to ever happen to me, she would become Supreme Commander of Equestria.  Oh by the way, I will have a bedroom ready for you two to share.  It will have its own bath and balcony.  Since you two are going to be attending EVERY meal and EVERY meeting I need you to live here."

They looked at each other and Lemon Hearts said, "Sure, we can do that.  Just promise us that we will be kept in the loop of what is going on from this point forward."

Colgate replied, "Well given that you will be in all of these meetings you will know what is going on.  Now just hang around, your bedroom will be ready in a couple of hours.  Besides, you two need to get to know your way around in here better since you will be living here."

While the arguments they had with Colgate were bitter, both of them finally realized that Colgate knows what is best and in a couple of hours they were shown their room.  Lemon Hearts said "Wow, this is amazing!  It has a view to die for!"

Lyra added, "I know."  Lyra laid back on her bed and sank into it.  She continued, "and this bed is so comfy!  I hope once Twily is defeated Colgate will let me take this home with me."

Lemon Hearts laid back in her bed and she sank in.  She replied, "I know, mine is so comfy too!  I am so happy that we decided to stay!"

Colgate was standing around the corner from the entrance to their room.  She walked away and said to herself, "Well, this was a tough one but we convinced them to stay.  Give ponies enough luxuries, and you have them right where you want them!"





> Important Preparations 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Five days had passed since Twilight and her envoy arrived in Neigh Zealand.  Since their arrival, they had been feasting on apples, mutton, oats and drinking plenty of cider.  Shining Armor was starting to think that they should be departing for Faustica.  He looked at Twilight and said, "Twily, we have been here for five days.  When do you think we should be leaving?"

Twilight glared at her brother and said, "Look big brother, if you are wanting to leave immediately, it isn't happening.  We still need to get enough food on our ship for the voyage to Faustica, which could take anywhere between 10-14 days."

Shining Armor, while he knew his sister was the pony in charge, was not thrilled with the way she talked to him.  He growled, "Look sis, I just want us to get through the tropical areas of the ocean before the height of hurricane season starts.  You know how powerful hurricanes can be in the Pegasus Ocean this time of year."

Twilight replied, "Yes big brother, I do.  Ok, I will start having our ships stocked with food and water immediately and we will leave after breakfast the day after tomorrow.  How does that sound to you?"

Shining Armor sighed and replied, "Well alright little sis.  That will work just fine."

LaurFa interrupted, "You know what Shining Armor?  It better work because Twily is our leader and what she says goes."

Twilight walked over to where her dark Alicorn officers were discussing the upcoming voyage and was very happy that they were planning ahead.  She said, "Well guys, I am glad to see that you are already planning for the next leg of our journey.  I need you guys to start stocking the ships with food and water.  We will be leaving for Faustica the day after tomorrow after breakfast."

General Dark Hooves replied, "Alright Twily, we got you covered.  Do you want us to get Black Lightning, Green Dust and some of the other soldiers here to help?"

Twilight replied, "Yes, I do.  It could take us up to two weeks to get to Faustica from here.  The weather can be very unpredictable this time of year in the Pegasus Ocean."

Twilight headed off to the throne room to clear her mind as her officers headed to the training yards to grab the help they would need to prepare for the upcoming journey.

Dark Hooves approached Black Lightning and Green Dust with a stern look on his face.  He motioned for them to come over to him and said, "Look guys, we will be leaving her the day after tomorrow.  We need to stock the ship with apples, oats and plenty of water.  Do you think you could get some of your soldiers to wash out the empty cider bottles around here and then fill them with water?"

Black Lightning asked, "Yes we can but who will handle the apples and oats?"

Dark Hooves replied, "I along with Twily's other officers will handle those.  We aren't the ones to stoop down to washing out cider bottles."

Green Dust snapped, "Stoop down to washing out cider bottles?  Oh, so you think you are better than the rest of us since you came here with Twilight?  I hope a nasty storm hits you guys up on the way to Faustica and you wind up getting killed!"

"Whatever," grunted Dark Hooves "Just get to work.  I will have no problems notifying Twilight and trust me, she will punish those who disobey orders."

Black Lightning threw his hooves up in the air and headed off to gather some soldiers to handle the issue of stocking the ship with water.

In Ponyville Colgate is watching this and is contemplating making their journey to Faustica very difficult.  She heads down to Scootaloo's office.   There she finds her second in command going over different battle plans depending on the direction their enemies approach from.  Colgate shouts, "Scootaloo, we need to have a meeting tonight after supper.  We need EVERYPONY present."

Scootaloo asked, "When you say everypony, do you mean those that are on reserve as well?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, those that are on reserve as well.  I need the entire Apple family here, I need Fluttershy here, I need Rainbow Dash here, I need Pinkie Pie here....."

Before she could finish her sentence Scootaloo interrupted, "What about Rarity?  Do you need her here too?"

Colgate thought this was one of the dumbest questions she had ever heard.  She growled, "No Scootaloo.  Remember she moved to Manehattan 500 years ago when Canterlot was being abandoned?  I released her from all military duties since she would not be living here."

Scootaloo replied, "Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that."

Colgate asked, "Do you think you can go get everypony we need and bring them here?  This is an important meeting tonight.  While you are doing that, I am going to go notify the chefs that we will need more food prepared."

Scootaloo immediately took off to round everypony up.  She first headed to Cloudsdale.  She headed to Rainbow Dash's favorite cloud but she was not there.  She flew all over Cloudsdale when she finally ran into Fluttershy and Brevity Thrash.  She asked them, "Have either one of you seen Rainbow Dash?  Colgate needs all of us there tonight for supper and an important meeting afterwards."

Brevity replied, "Brevity thinks Rainbow Dash was planning on spending the whole day in Ponyville."

Fluttershy added, "She said something about joining Pinkie Pie over at Sweet Apple Acres for some sort of cider celebration."

Scootaloo said, "Well I need you two to come with me while we go round up everypony else."

The two Alicorns replied in unison, "Well let's get going then!"

They flew down to Sweet Apple Acres to find them making cider for the upcoming sales.  The only problem was that Rainbow was drinking cider almost as fast as they could make it.  

Finally Granny Smith had enough of this.  She shouted, "Rainbow Dash, you are going to break us doing that!"

Rainbow choked on her cider she was so startled.  Once she was through coughing she asked, "What do you mean Granny Smith?  Isn't there a lot of cider?"

Granny replied, "There is a lot of cider but you don't know how much it costs for us to make it through the winter.  We can't grow in the cold and we do need both cider and apples to eat and drink."

Rainbow asked, "Well can't you just use your magic to create more apples to make more cider with?  I know!  Why don't you just make more cider with your magic?  You are all Alicorns you know!"

Granny Smith smacked Rainbow over that comment.  She replied, "Well of course we know we are Alicorns!  But we are also Apples!  Despite us having all this advanced magic, we still do thing the way we have done since we first settled Ponyville!"

Applejack added, "Ya know Rainbow, cider made by just using magic doesn't taste nearly as good as cider that is made the old fashioned way.  I mean come on, remember when you tried making cider with your magic and how disgusting it was?  Think about that."

Pinkie interrupted, "Yeah Dashie, you don't change something that is perfect!"

Rainbow asked, "But you are Apples and Alicorns!  Wouldn't your magic make better cider?"

Applejack replied, "Rainbow, you don't......"

During their argument Scootaloo, Fluttershy and Brevity landed in front of them in the south field.  Scootaloo asked, "Can I talk to all of you for a minute?"

Applejack replied, "Sure Scoots, what do you need to talk to us about?"

Scootaloo said, "Well Colgate needs everypony who is in the military reserves to come to the dark tower for supper tonight and then we are having a meeting."

Big Mac asked, "What is this meeting going to be about?"

Scootaloo replied, "Colgate didn't tell me for sure but given the timing of it, I have a feeling it involves Twilight.  After all I overheard Lyra and Colgate yelling over something happening in Neigh Zealand."

Sweetie Belle asked, "Really?  Are the ponies in Neigh Zealand under Twilight's control now?"

Scootaloo replied, "Look, I don't know.  What I do know is that I need all of you to follow me to the tower now."

Applejack said, "Come on y'all.  We don't want to keep Colgate waiting.  You know what a rage she goes into if anypony isn't at least fifteen minutes early."

They all took off towards the dark tower and headed towards the dining hall.  Colgate, her officers along with Lyra and Lemon Hearts were already there when they arrived.  Colgate sighed and said, "Scootaloo, couldn't you guys have got here sooner?  Supper starts in fifteen minutes."

Scootaloo replied, "I'm sorry Colgate, I just lost track of time."

Very soon their supper arrived.  While the other ponies were used to Colgate's large meals this was the first truly huge meal that Lyra and Lemon Hearts had eaten with Colgate.  Lyra said, "Wow Colgate, I never knew that you served such huge meals!"

Colgate replied, "Yep I do and I have a feeling you are going to like it much more than you do those salads you eat at the cafe."

Lemon Hearts had already began to scarf her food down.  She stopped eating just long enough to say, "I love this food Colgate!  It is so much better than those salads at the cafe.  I'm through eating rabbit food, I want to eat hearty meals like you do!" 

Lyra added, "Me too!  With you feeding all of us like this, we're sure to defeat Twilight and her minions!"

Colgate replied, "I knew you would like it.  Now I say we should enjoy our meal before we head to the throne room for our meeting.  Oh, and don't be afraid to ask for seconds, we have plenty of food."


> Deadly Plans
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Colgate, her officers and guests finished their supper and were headed into the throne room.  Lyra asked, "Colgate, what is this meeting about tonight?  Does it involve Twilight?"

Colgate replied, "You will find out just as soon as we get this started."

Once they were all in the throne room Colgate slammed the doors and said, "Alright everypony, I know some of you are wondering what this meeting is about.  Some of you have asked if it involves Twilight.  It does involve Twilight and I know what is going on with her right now and I know of a way to make her life miserable."

Lemon Hearts asked, "Ok, since you have kept some of us in the dark we want to know everything that Twilight has been up to since she finished her sentence on the sun."

Colgate sighed and said, "Well, I'm sure you all remember how her and her tyrant brother fled off to the east once she arrived.  They headed to the east because they were headed to Maredrid.  Upon reaching Maredrid they met with the Goddess LaurFa."

Brevity interrupted, "And let us guess, our tyrant sister agreed to help Twilight?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, she did.  LaurFa has sworn complete and absolute allegiance to Twilight.  Her highest dark Alicorn officer, General Dark Hooves, has also sworn allegiance to her as well.  So she has already started to gather high level and well learned officers."

Luna asked, "And what did she along with her minions do after this?"

Colgate replied, "Well they set sail for Saddle Arabia.  Upon arriving there Twilight forgot to cast the loyalty spell on the generals who confronted them upon making landfall, which caused them to have a delay that they weren't counting on."

Lemon Hearts growled, "Yes, that is what happened, which is something you should have told me about since that is MY country."

Colgate walked up to Lemon Hearts, spread her wings as wide as she could and asked, "What did I tell you earlier Lemon Hearts?  You do know that I can still send somepony else to rule over there.  So if I were you I would not go complaining like that."

Everypony else looked at Colgate in shock.  Nopony else except for Lyra had seen Colgate confront somepony like that.  Colgate continued, "Well, in the end it was some goody-horseshoes major that released them when the generals and colonels over there were visiting the officers in the Equine Empire over some broken fence along their border."

Fluttershy asked, "With them being Alicorns, how were they able to keep them imprisoned?"

Colgate replied, "Upon arrival in Ridead, all of them were covered in ooze by the changeling officers which rendered their magic useless."

Applejack asked, "So, did Twilight gain any officers during her stay there?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, she did.  Major Dark Caves is the one who freed her and then two lower officers, Captain Ice Wind and Lieutenant Dark Sky took off after them but they were captured by Twilight.  She cast the loyalty spell upon them and now Twilight has four dark Alicorn officers."

Lemon Hearts slammed her hoof on the table and shouted, "Damn that Dark Caves.  I should have known that if any of them would betray me it would be him!  When they get here let me deal with him.  He will suffer dearly for his betrayal."

Granny Smith asked, "What happened once Twilight arrived in Neigh Zealand?"

Lyra shouted, "Well that tyrant Twily wound up brainwashing everypony down there and now they worship her.  That is what happened."

Colgate replied, "Yes, that is happened.  But I have overheard her talking with her brother about when they will leave for Faustica and I have a perfect plan to make that journey much more difficult for her and her minions."

Brevity asked, "What is that?  What is your plan?"

Colgate replied, "Well as you all know that journey will take them through the tropical waters of the Pegasus Ocean.  They will be going on a route that will take them fairly close to Dragon Island."

Luna asked, "Are you thinking about doing what I think you are going to do?"

Colgate replied, "I most likely am.  I think a huge, windy, rainy surprise will do the trick.  What I think will work even better is one that is two times more powerful than the one that Twily conjured up."

Pinkie asked, "Will you have it smash them into Dragon Island?"

While a lot of times Pinkie seemed to be too fun loving to pay much attention, this time she was very aware of what something like that would result in.

Colgate smiled and said, "Yes, that is what my plans are.  I am hoping that two things will happen.  First I want it to destroy their ship.  Second, I want at least some, if not all of them, to become dragon food."

Lyra sighed in shock upon hearing this.  She knew that Twilight was evil and that Colgate hated all those who help them, but she was shocked that Colgate would plan something out that would kill them before they would get there. Colgate could tell she was stunned.  Colgate flew over to her and stood in front of her with her wings spread casting Lyra in a huge shadow.  She shouted, "What's the matter Lyra?  Are you on HER side now?"

Lyra was shaking like a leaf as she replied, "No, I'm not on her side.  I just thought you would want to kill her here in Ponyville.  Wouldn't you get more satisfaction out of that?"

Colgate replied, "Good point.  Hopefully she will survive this.  She has developed a deep fondness for her new dark Alicorn officers.  If some of them were to get killed, it would be a crushing blow to her morale."

Lemon Hearts asked, "What do you think would happen to her if her brother was to get killed?"

Colgate got this sadistic grin on her face and said, "Oh that would be priceless!  You know, I could find a way to manipulate which ones are spared by the storm, even from here.  Thank you for bringing that up Lemon Hearts.  That would bring psychological warfare into this as well!"

Brevity jumped in and said, "Just don't kill LaurFa.  Let Brevity handle her, after all she deserves to be punished by us.  We want to see her cower down in fear when we are ready to unleash our wrath upon her."

Apple Bloom asked, "So what are y'all's plans?"

Brevity replied, "Oh you'll see.  This is something that Brevity wishes to keep to herself at the time.  We will tell you this though, after Brevity takes care of her we won't have to worry about LaurFa anymore."

Colgate looked stunned and said, "Well alright Brevity, I know whatever plans you have for her will be truly wrathful."

Everypony was getting tired and Colgate could tell this, as she was also getting tired.  She asked, "Alright everypony, it is getting late.  Are there any questions?  If not I think we need to adjourn this meeting.  I want a late night snack and then I want to hit the hay?"

Nopony said anything so Colgate adjourned the meeting.  While they were leaving Scootaloo asked, Colgate, "Do you think any of them are going to cause problems?  Lyra seemed to be acting kind of strange tonight."

Colgate replied, "No, I don't think we have to worry about.  I think she just didn't know what to do when I was talking about all of this.  After all, she does want to take all of them down here."

Scootaloo said, "I do like your idea of either killing her officers or even better, killing her brother.  Destroying her morale will aid us greatly."

Colgate replied, "That is the plan.  Look, let's stop talking about business.  I'm tired and hungry.  You have a good one Scootaloo."

Scootaloo nodded at her and flew back to Sweet Apple Acres. 


> A Deadly Voyage
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.


> The Aftermath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was midday in Ponyville and Colgate had not got any sleep in over 24 hours because of her non-stop watching of Twilight's situation.  General Dark Night headed up to her room and asked, "Colgate, when are you going to come eat and when are you going to get some sleep?  I know you have been watching all of this but still, you need food and you need rest."

Colgate turned around and the first thing Dark Night noticed was that her eyes were a deeper blue.  He asked, "Colgate, what happened to your eyes?  They are a darker blue."

Colgate replied, "Well I did put a lot of power into that storm and you are right, I need food and I need some rest.  I don't care if anypony else is hungry or not, I'm going to get something to eat!"

Dark Night said, "Well everypony is gathering for lunch right now anyway."

Colgate replied, "Well good.  This way I can hold a meeting immediately afterwards."

When Colgate and Dark Night arrived in the dining hall everypony was looking at Colgate strangely.  She looked like she was going to pass out and her eyes were a deeper shade of blue.  Brevity asked, "Colgate, what happened to your eyes?"

Colgate replied, "I cast the most powerful spell anypony has ever cast and I have been up for 36 hours straight.  We are going to have lunch and then have a short meeting so I can tell you what happened.  After that, I am going to take a nice, long nap."

The chefs brought their meal into them and Colgate devoured hers so quickly that she didn't even get to taste it.  She then lowered her head forward and took a short nap while everypony else was eating and talking among themselves.  Finally everypony was finished eating and Luna nudged Colgate's shoulder and said, "Colgate, wake up.  We are all done eating.  What do you have to tell us in this meeting?"

Colgate led them into the throne room where she addressed them.  "Alright everypony, the hypercane spell was successful beyond my wildest dreams and the psychological warfare that Scootaloo was talking about, well we were able to score a win there."

Scootaloo asked, "Did somepony in her envoy get killed?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, one did.  This one struck the dark goddess particularly hard.  It unveiled a side of her that nopony has seen in over a thousand years, she broke down crying uncontrollably."

Lemon Hearts asked, "Which one of her minions got killed?"

Colgate got a huge grin on her face and replied, "Shining Armor was the one who was killed.  Which has me thinking that we should have one of our changelings emulate her brother when they attack.  That will kill any morale she will have left by the time they get there."

Everypony looked stunned.  They never expected Colgate to have such detailed plans for psychological warfare, which is something Twilight never even thought of.  Lyra asked, "Colgate, what caused you to decide to use these kinds of tactics?  Even Twilight never once thought about psychological warfare."

Colgate growled, "Look Lyra, I'm not Twilight and I am tired.  Twilight wasn't bright enough to know how to take things to the next level like I have.  She was vicious and wrathful against her enemies but she never once thought about destroying the psyche of her enemies by taking the lives of those her enemies hold so dear."

Applejack asked, "Ah know you are happy Colgate but don't you think you're gloating a bit.  Y'all know that is something you have always warned about."

Colgate lifted her head up a bit and replied, "Yes, that I have.  I guess I am so tired that I don't even know what shouldn't be running through my mind.  This meeting is adjourned.  We will have a more detailed meeting after I get some sleep and monitor Twilight more."

Colgate headed up to her room and collapsed into her bed.  She fell asleep very quickly.  While she was getting some much needed peaceful sleep, the same could not be said for Twilight.

On Dragon Island dawn has arrived.  The skies are still shrouded in blue clouds and a blue drizzle is falling but the winds had stopped entirely and there was no more lightning.  Dark Caves walked over to Twilight to discover that she had finally fallen asleep next to her brother's remains.

She woke up and started crying again.  She was hoping that yesterday had been just an awful dream but she knew for sure that it wasn't.  She looked up at her colonel and said, "Dark Caves, everypony, we need to give my brother a proper burial.  We can't just leave him laying in here like this."

LaurFa nuzzled Twilight and replied, "I know we do.  I do believe that this cave would be a better place to bury him than outside.  That way his grave won't get soaked with water every time a storm moves through."

Without being asked Twilight's officers quickly blasted a good sized grave to lower Shining Armor's remains into.  LaurFa levitated his body into the grave and then covered his remains with the rocks and dirt that Twilight's dark Alicorns had blasted out.  Twilight stood over his grave and said, "Goodbye Shining Armor.  I know you are in a better place now where death and destruction never happen."

Finally they leave the cave to figure out where they are and to check on the ship.  As they walked out of the cave the rain began to pick up a bit and they discovered their ship lay in ruins.  Twilight began to cry more and asked, "How are we supposed to even go anywhere now?  Our ship lay in ruins and I don't know any spells to repair ships."

LaurFa replied, "We need to figure something out because we can't stay on this island and I don't even know which island this is."

Dark Caves added, "And we need to find something to eat and find fresh water."

They walked deeper into the dense forest which provided good cover from the rain which had became heavy again.  There they found a small fresh water lake and numerous plum bushes.  Twilight said, "This will be a good place for us to try and get our bearings straight.  This forest provides good protection from the weather and there is water and food."

LaurFa asked, "Twilight, do you think we are on Dragon Island?  I know our path took us very close to it."

Twilight replied, "If it did we need to be careful.  I don't feel like becoming dragon food."

LaurFa asked, "Twilight, I just thought of something.  If we were to run into Spike do you think you would be able to cast your loyalty spell on him?"

Twilight replied, "I might be able to but there is a major problem.  I don't know if I would even be able to.  I do have to look him in the eye at a decent distance and if he is still mad at me, that will be impossible."

Captain Dark Sky heard lots of growling and roaring off in the distance.  He said, "Well I think we are on Dragon Island for sure.  For right now I think we should stay here where we won't be spotted."

This really frustrated Twilight and angered her a bit.  She shouted, "Look Dark Sky, last time I checked I am the pony in charge here, NOT you.  We can't hide here forever."

LaurFa replied, "Twilight, I think we should keep it down.  This is the last place we would want to have a dragon right in our faces.  Escaping would be next to impossible.  I do agree that we can't stay here forever.  I think we should go out and explore this place.  We need to know how far away we are from the coast."

Twilight got a smile and asked, "Do you think we will run into Spike?  You guys are too negative!  Yes there is a chance that Spike might still be mad at me but I'm sure he has forgiven me.  After all, who could stay mad at me forever?"

LaurFa rolled her eyes realizing that Twilight was on another ego trip as they followed Twilight out of the dense forest.  The rain had finally stopped but the skies were still shrouded in a dense overcast.  Everypony else could hear the roars of dragons off in the distance.  While this scared everypony else, it made Twilight excited and she led the her envoy in the direction of all the roaring.

Finally they crawled to the top of a hill and they saw dragons flying all over the place off in the distance.  Twilight was looking as hard as she could but she could not see any purple dragons which disappointed her greatly.  She said, "I'm not seeing him.  Maybe he is on the other side of the island.  I think we should fly over there and see.

LaurFa growled, "Twilight, are you nuts?  We will easily be spotted and most likely get eaten.  I think we should head back to the dense forest we were in and wait until tomorrow morning.  Can't you see that it is already starting to get dark?"

Twilight knew LaurFa was right and grudgingly lead them back to the dense forest where they were hiding out earlier.  Twilight grunted, "Ok, we're back here.  But tomorrow morning, after breakfast, we are heading to the other side of this island.  We are not leaving this island until I find Spike."

Dark Hooves replied, "No disrespect but what if he doesn't even live here?  Are there any other areas in the world where dragons live?"

Twilight, with a voice dripping in sarcasm said, "Oh, no disrespect but what if he doesn't even live here?  Are there any other areas in the world where dragons live?  Well duh there are other areas where they live, but right now most of them are here.  The area of Equestria they migrate to every other year is currently covered in snow, which very few dragons like and Spike hated the cold."

LaurFa rolled her eyes and said, "Well for now let's just eat some supper and get some rest.  We can go on your silly dragon hunt tomorrow.  I will tell you this though.  If we start getting chased by dragons I'm out of here.  I'm loyal to you Twilight but I will not allow myself to be eaten by a dragon just so you can find a dragon who might not want to see you."

Twilight flew over to the other side of the pond and pouted.  She felt like nopony else cared yet she knew that without them, that her quest to retake the world would be impossible so she couldn't kill them or banish them.  Finally darkness set in and everypony tried to get some rest.  They slept well knowing that the chances were slim that a dragon would find them in the dense forest. 




> Reunited
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following morning arrived and Twilight was as giddy as a school filly as they were eating breakfast while everypony else was rather annoyed by this.  Finally LaurFa decided that Twilight needed to be calmed down.  "Twilight," asked an irritated LaurFa "don't you think there is even the slightest chance that we might not find Spike or he may not even live here?"

Twilight replied, "Oh come on LaurFa!  I can feel it in my heart that this is where he is.  Look, we better get going.  I have a feeling I know how we will be able to find him."

Dark Caves asked, "And how do you think we will find him?"

Twilight replied, "Well ok, we need to fly along the southern edge of the island and loop around to the east side.  There I think we will find him."

LaurFa rolled her eyes and said, "Well ok.  Come on everypony, let's go."

Twilight led the way as they circled around the southern edge of the island.  They could see the dragons circling around the mountains in the central part of the island.  Finally they reach the eastern edge of the island but before they could land they were confronted by two dragons, Bone Crusher and Inferno.

Twilight had a nervous look in her eyes as the dragons were floating in front of them.  Bone Crusher asked, "What are six ponies doing on OUR island?"

Inferno added, "Yeah, you know what happens to trespassers don't you?"

Twilight nervously said, "Uh, hello guys.  We are just looking for a friend of mine here.  I promise we will leave as soon as we find him."

Bone Crusher roared, "Well none of us are friends with any ponies!"

Dark Hooves replied, "Well four of us are dark Alicorns.  We are not exactly ponies."

Inferno screamed, "Well you look enough like ponies that you must be ponies!  What shall we do inferno, shall we roast them and then eat them or shall we eat them alive?"

Twilight asked, "Uh, we were thrown here by that hurricane that moved through here a couple of days ago, so it isn't really our fault that we're here.  Do you think you could not eat us because of that?"

Bone Crusher interrupted, "I thought you said you were looking for a friend.  Which is it?  Are you looking for a friend or did you just get slammed here by a hurricane!  Inferno, I think we have a bunch of liars here!"

Inferno added, "I think we should roast 'em alive and eat them.  Let's start with the well decorated dark Alicorn!  He looks so tasty!"

Inferno grabbed Dark Hooves and started breathing short, quick bursts of fire on him.  His screaming could be heard all over the island.  Twilight was screaming, "NOOOO!  Please don't kill him!"  But it was too late for Dark Hooves.  He had already been cooked and eaten by Inferno.

Next Bone Crusher grabbed Dark Caves and began to do this same thing.  About half a mile away a purple dragon was sitting down to a dinner of fire rubies when he heard the screaming.  He knew that screaming could only come from one source, Twilight Sparkle.  While he was angry with her when she was banished, memories of how good she was to him as a baby came flooding back to him and he took off with great haste in the direction of the screaming.

By the time he arrived Dark Caves had also been cooked and eaten.  He swooped in between the two dragons and what remained of Twilight's envoy.  He shouted, "You leave them alone!"

Bone Crusher replied, "You can't stop us from eating them Spike!  I figured that if anyone would jump in to save ponies it would be you!"

Spike was larger than the other dragons and he quickly whipped the two out of the sky with his enormous tail, causing them to fall and suffer significant injuries.  He turned around and started to cry, "Twilight!  It's me Spike!  I'm so sorry for what happened so long ago!"

Twilight flew over to Spike and hugged him, well as good as an Alicorn and an adult dragon could hug!  Twilight replied, "Spike, thank you so much for coming and saving us!"

Spike felt like someone truly cared for him for the first time in over a thousand years.  He asked, "Twilight, do you think we could mend the fences of the past and be friends again?"

Twilight replied, "Of course we can!  I am so happy that you aren't mad at me anymore."

Spike said, "I could never stay mad at you forever.  I was just so upset with what you had done in the past when you took over the world.  I have done a lot of soul searching and realized that you did nothing wrong and that I was wrong for abandoning you.  I want to be your assistant again."

Twilight replied, "Of course you can be my assistant again!"

Spike asked, "I want to know what I can do for you?  I will do anything for you."

Twilight replied, "Well we were sailing north from Neigh Zealand towards Faustica and well, Colgate cast a hypercane spell and it threw our ship into the island.  My brother was killed when some wood from the ship impaled him through his ship and then two of my dark Alicorn officers were eaten by those dragons you cast out of the sky.  I am wondering if you could take us to Faustica."

Spike replied, "What, Colgate is responsible for the death of your brother?  I knew Colgate was always plotting something against you.  I will help you crush her.  Crawl on my back, all of you!  I will gladly take you to Faustica!"

Twilight replied, "Thank you Spike!  You are definitely my NUMBER ONE assistant!"

This comment made Spike very happy.  They crawled on his back and Spike took off towards the north.  Within four hours they could see Alicorn Island and Faustica off in the distance.  Spike landed down in the town square which caused everypony to scream in terror and fly off towards the other end of the island.

Galaxia, Cosmos and Celestia flew down to confront the dragon that had landed in the town square.  Cosmos shouted, "Be gone you beast!  You shall not terrorize the ponies of Alicorn Island."

Twilight and her envoy hopped off his back and Twilight said, "Cosmos, he is not here to terrorize anypony.  He is here to help us."

Galaxia flew up to Spike and could pick up the positive energy radiating from him.  She flew back down to Cosmos and said, "Honey, he is not here to terrorize us.  He is here to help.  Twilight, are you here to ask us to help you in your quest to retake the planet?"

Twilight replied, "Yes, I am.  I really need the help of you three to help me in my quest."

Cosmos said, "Well normally I would be against this but Colgate somehow managed to release HER and took her back to Equestria with her.  We know she will fight to the death for Colgate so that she can claim Alicorn Island for herself."

LaurFa's jaw dropped open.  She interrupted, "You mean she released Brevity Thrash?  This is not good.  We must stop her and Colgate.  If we don't, Colgate and Brevity may kill all of us.  Brevity still has an ax to grind with me over what happened so many years ago."

Twilight asked, "Wait a minute.  Brevity Thrash is real?  But Celestia, you told me ever since I first heard of her that she was just an old pony tale.  Why did you lie to me?"

Celestia replied, "Twilight, my mom and dad told me the same thing that I told you.  This was something that LaurFa did not want ponies further on down the line to know."

LaurFa added, "I even altered history books to the point of where she was not even included in any history book."

Galaxia interrupted, "Look, let's discuss all of this later, I am hungry and I am sure the rest of us are as well.  Let's go to the dining hall for an afternoon snack.."

Spike asked, "What about me?  I can't fit into the dining hall."

Cosmos replied, "Oh, we have a stockpile of gems in the event we ever were visited by a dragon.  So help yourself, I am sure you will like them."

Spike smiled and said, "Gems?  You bet I will like them!"




> Important Information
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Colgate was watching Twilight's arrival in Faustica from Ponyville and she was not pleased.  She said to herself, "Oh isn't this wonderful.  Well we better have spears made to take down that dragon."

On the way down to the dining hall, she ran into Lemon Hearts.  Lemon Hearts could tell she was not happy.  She asked, "Colgate, what is wrong?  You seem upset."

Colgate replied, "I am upset.  We are going to have an important meeting after supper.  Some things have happened that everypony must know."

Lemon Hearts was shocked that Colgate would tell her that it was important when nopony else was around.  She knew that this was important.  She said, "Wow Colgate, this sounds really serious.  Let's go down to the dining hall for supper.  The sooner we get supper ate, the sooner we can have that meeting."

Colgate replied, "Agreed.  Let's head down there."

When supper started everypony could see that Colgate had a serious look on their face.  Pinkie asked, "Colgate, you seem really stressed out.  Is everything alright?"

Colgate replied, "We will discuss that after supper.  For now, let's enjoy our supper."

The rest of their supper was oddly quiet as normally there is plenty of chit chat.  They finished their supper sooner than normal and headed into the throne room for their meeting.  Once they got there, Colgate slammed the doors behind her.  They could tell she was not happy.

Brevity asked, "Colgate, you seem very upset.  What is wrong?"

Colgate sighed and replied, "Alright everypony, here is what has happened.  Well I'm sure all of you know that Twilight's ship was slammed into a mountain on Dragon Island and Shining Armor was killed.  Well, some things have happened that are not so favorable for us."

Applejack asked, "So what has happened that ain't so good for us?"

Colgate continued, "Well, ultimately they circled around Dragon Island to the east side where they were confronted by two dragons.  The good news is that her two top dark Alicorn officers were seared with fire and eaten.  The bad news is that Spike heard Twilight screaming at the dragons to stop.  He headed over to where Twilight was and knocked the two dragons from the sky, thus saving the rest of them from becoming dragon food."

Brevity asked, "So how did Twilight handle all the death of her brother and her officers?"

Colgate replied, "Well naturally the death of her brother completely devastated her.  However, the death of her two officers didn't take much of a toll on her.  But then again when you are in danger of being eaten by dragons and then you are saved by another dragon, you aren't going to have much time to mourn."

Fluttershy asked, "What happened next?"

Colgate continued, "Ok, the worst thing possible happened.  Twilight and Spike made up and he is on their side.  They are just as close as they were before her coronation.  She even went as far as to say that he was her 'number one assistant.'  Alright, continuing on, Spike took Twilight, LaurFa and her two remaining dark Alicorns to Faustica where they were met by Celestia, Galaxia and Cosmos."

Luna asked, "So, what was Celestia's reaction to Twilight and her minions showing up?"

Colgate was getting agitated and said, "Well, they found out about how I went there and released Brevity."

Brevity interrupted, "So our tyrant sister knows that Brevity has returned?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, she does.  Because they know that you want to rule Alicorn Island yourself the royal family over there has sworn allegiance to Twilight.  They do not want you to rule over there Brevity.  The way they are thinking right now, LaurFa would rather have Twilight ruling the world with an iron hoof than have you ruling Alicorn Island."

Brevity asked, "Did she specifically say this?"

Colgate replied, "No she did not but I can tell the way they were talking that they will do anything to keep you off the throne over there.  Why else would Luna's parents and sister vow to aid Twilight when Cosmos himself said that normally they would not aid anypony in taking the world but that this changes things?"

Luna asked, "Did they say anything about me?"

Colgate replied, "The only ponies they were talking about were Brevity and myself.  Chances are they will have some sort of meeting similar to ours after they eat supper.  That is one way that Twilight and I think alike, eat our meal first and then have a meeting."

Lyra asked, "So is Spike going to help them in their attack on us?"

Colgate replied, "Chances are that he will help them in attacking us, which means that we will have a new form of exercises that we must engage in.  Taking on a dragon takes a whole new level of preparation."

Rainbow Dash asked, "Wait a minute, isn't it impossible to kill a dragon?  Their scales are tougher than steel.  They are impenetrable."

Colgate replied, "While that is what everypony believes and has been taught, there is one thing that not many know about dragons.  There is one tiny soft spot on their underside.  It is an area where there is no scale which exposes it's soft hide.  It is extremely difficult to strike but if you have the proper accuracy, use the proper force, a sharp spear and excellent eyesight, a dragon can be brought down."

Pinkie asked, "Is Spike like he was and can only breathe enough fire to cough up letters from Princess Celestia or can he breathe real fire now?"

Colgate replied, "Excellent question Pinkie.  He can now breathe fire like a normal adult dragon so I will need to do research and write an armor spell that will protect us from dragon fire.  I am sure it can be done."

Starswirl interrupted, "Colgate, while I did not write a direct spell to do it, a lot of information that could help you is in a book titled 'Defenses Against Natural Hazards.'"

Colgate replied, "I have seen that one down there.  Thanks for letting me know."

Scootaloo asked, "Is there anything else that we need to discuss?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, there is.  We need to have around 1,000 spears made.  We also need to have a replica dragon made to act as a target for us to fire against.  I want those tips to me made of solid titanium and be so sharp that even touching the point will break skin."

Lyra asked, "Who will be making these spears?"

Colgate replied, "Steel Hooves will be making them.  He is great working with all metals.  I will notify him of this first thing tomorrow morning after breakfast.  As far as anything else, this is all for now.  You are all dismissed."

Scootaloo followed Colgate out of the throne room and said, "It sounds like we have a very tough battle ahead.  I never imagined we would have to face up against a dragon."

Colgate replied, "I didn't either.  This will be tough but I have a feeling that with enough practice and discipline, we can bring the beast down."

Scootaloo said, "I agree, we just need to work as much as we can on this."

Colgate yawned, "Well Scootaloo, I am going to hit the hay.  Why don't you go to the farm and relax. Once Steel Mane gets all those spears made, we will begin high intensity exercises."

While Colgate and Scootaloo headed off to hit the hay, in Faustica Twilight, LaurFa, her remaining officers, Celestia along with her parents and Spike gathered for their meeting in the castle courtyard.  Galaxia cleared out the courtyard of all other ponies so that there would not be any risk of spies.

Twilight started things out.  She said, "Ok, our journey here has been rough and from what happened between Neigh Zealand and here, I know that Colgate will stop at nothing to kill every single one of us."

Spike asked, "She won't be able to kill me will she?"

Twilight replied, "No, she won't be able to.  There is nothing that can penetrate dragon scales.  We will need you to help the rest of us as much as possible."

Spike answered, "Don't worry Twilight.  I will do anything and everything to protect all of us from harm.  Colgate is a tyrant and anypony who helps her is my enemy."

LaurFa asked, "So, how do you know that Colgate actually came over here and released Brevity Thrash?"

Cosmos replied, "Our lookouts saw her and some of her minions come over in a time bubble.  We were frozen for a few minutes twice because of her time freezing spells."

Twilight asked, "Oh no wonder everything froze for a bit a while back.  So what is so special about Brevity Thrash?"

LaurFa replied, "Well she does have a great amount of power and the ego to go with it but don't worry, I defeated her in the past and I will easily defeat her again."

Twilight asked, "So how did you defeat her?"

LaurFa replied, "Well she started a war against me here on Alicorn Island just because I wouldn't transform her start student into an Alicorn.  I was able to get that spell right but it was something that she couldn't do.  It resulted in a lot of death and destruction but I was finally able to banish her to a distant moon.  How Colgate got a hold of a spell to release Brevity Thrash is beyond me.  But that is basically the story of how that unfolded.  As far as anything else regarding her, I honestly can't remember given that some things happened eons ago."

Twilight knew there was a lot more to the story than just what LaurFa was telling because of what Starswirl had told her but she didn't want to say anything.  She did not want to cause LaurFa to turn on her.

Cosmos asked Twilight, "Twilight, how well do you know Colgate and the way her mind works?"

Twilight replied, "Well I know that she wants to prevent the world from being under the rule of me and me alone.  I hate to say this but she is a brilliant military mind but for a long time I never imagined her as the type to try to kill her enemies before they arrived at the battlefield.  This makes her extremely dangerous and a threat to our morale.  I will admit, when I lost my brother there was no way I could have faced her in battle."

Galaxia added, "This does make her more dangerous and it is obvious now that instead of banishing us if we were to lose, that she will probably either execute us or kill us in battle."

Twilight continued, "Also, she does have that eye that she can watch anything and everything that happens anywhere in the world."

Cosmos asked, "So can she just see what is going on or can she hear it as well?"

Twilight replied, "I think she can hear it as well.  It all depends on whether or not she is as powerful as me.  At one time I was the one with the power to use that jade Alicorn and I could see and hear some, but not all, things that were going on."

Spike asked, "Twilight, what if she is more powerful than you?"

Twilight replied, "Well nopony is more powerful than me but a pony with that kind of power could easily see and hear everything, even if we were inside a building and if powerful enough, that pony could even see and hear us if we were underground.  But don't worry, she isn't that powerful.  Chances are the most she can do is see us out here."

LaurFa asked, "But what about that storm that she cast?  You said that it was vastly more powerful than the one you cast on Rarity and your parents."

Twilight replied, "It was but I didn't want to make it more powerful than it needed to be.  After all, I would only use as much energy as I needed to.  I would never go for overkill on anything like that."

While Celestia believed that Twilight was lying about not going for overkill, everypony else began to wonder if Colgate was indeed so powerful that she could see and hear them no matter where they were.

Twilight asked, "Do any of the rest of you have any questions?"

Major Ice Wind asked, "When do you plan on replenishing your officers and when do you plan on duplicating non-officer dark Alicorns and changeling drones."

Twilight replied, "Well I will take care of the officer issue tomorrow and then handle the other dark Alicorns and changeling drones once we get to the west coast of Equestria.  Oh, and just so you and Dark Sky know, you are getting promotions.  Ice Wind, you are now a general and Dark Sky, you are a colonel."

"Wow!" said Ice Wind "I never imagined that I would reach the rank of general!"

Twilight growled, "Well if I were you I wouldn't be overly happy.  I say that because it is how you made it there.  You should never celebrate being promoted in rank because of the deaths of those higher ranked than you."

Ice Wind and Dark Sky looked at each other and realized that Twilight was right.  Ice Wind replied, "Ok, I understand that you are right Twilight."

Twilight looked at everypony and said, "Well I think we have discussed everything that we need to discuss.  It is getting late.  Let's enjoy one another's company and then get some rest."




> Further Preparations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day arrived in Ponyville and Colgate headed down to the blacksmith to discuss with him the need for spears.  Steel Mane saw her coming and asked, "Colgate, how is everything going?  I take it you need me to make some more armor?"

Colgate replied, "No, this is something far more serious.  Twilight will be launching an attack on us within a month or so and she is bringing a dragon with her."

Steel Mane gasped and replied, "Wow, that does not sound good.  What do you think will work?  I have heard that dragons are impossible to kill."

Colgate replied, "Well there is one little secret about dragons that not many ponies know.  There is a tiny spot on their underside where there is not a scale protecting their skin.  If we can penetrate that with a long, sharp object we will be able to bring him down."

Steel Mane asked, "I take it you need spears?"

Colgate replied, "Yes.  I am thinking we need 1,000 spears and I believe that titanium tips that are so sharp they would break anypony's skin if it is even touched will do the trick."

Steel Mane said, "Well you are in luck.  I just got a shipment of titanium in yesterday.  I don't know why but something kept telling me to order some.  My apprentices and I will get to work on this right away.  Oh, and what do you want the rest of the spear to me made of?"

Colgate replied, "Steel if it is possible.  I want these spears to be as strong as possible."

Steel Mane said, "Well we have plenty of steel so this won't be a problem.  Given that I have ten apprentices right now these should be ready in a week."

Colgate replied, "Thanks for the confidence in me but I'm sure anypony in my army could bring it down.  My second in command and I will be here in a week to pick them up."

As Colgate headed back to her black tower Colgate was kind of worried that Twilight and her minions might leave Faustica sooner than that and they would have no spears to use against the dragon yet she realized that spears aren't easy to make.  As she entered the black tower she ran into Scootaloo.  Scootaloo could sense the nervousness within her.

Scootaloo asked, "Colgate, what is wrong?  You seem really nervous."

Colgate replied, "I am kind nervous right now.  Steel Mane said it would take him and his apprentices a week to make the spears we will need."

Scootaloo had a nervous look and asked, "I don't know if we will have enough time to prepare for the attack.  What if they decide to leave Faustica early and attack before then?"

Colgate replied, "That is what I am worried about.  The best we can hope for is that Twilight and her minions take time to clear their minds over there for a while and then sail east instead of using a lot of energy flying here."

Scootaloo asked, "Do you think we better call a meeting and let everypony know about this?"

Colgate replied, "I do believe they need to be notified but I don't think we need a long meeting to tell them about this.  All we need is a brief get together after supper.  Nothing serious."

Scootaloo and Colgate headed to the black tower to discuss other matters regarding the attack as Spike isn't the only threat.  In Faustica the sun is rising and Twilight wakes up with her mane and tail in a mess.  She rushes down to the dining hall before brushing it as she had overslept.

Everypony else saw her come down in that state and Celestia asked, "Twilight, what happened?  You didn't even bother to brush your mane or tail this morning."

Twilight replied, "Well I didn't want to be late for breakfast.  You know how I feel about tardiness."

Galaxia stood up and said, "Well everypony, I am not sure if we are quite ready to attack them at this time, what is your thoughts on this?"

Twilight growled, "Galaxia, you know I don't like to discuss battle plans during meals.  Besides, I like to focus on my meal when I am eating."

Galaxia could tell Twilight was not pleased, but then again Twilight tends to be an unpleasant pony to be around a majority of the time.  Finally after breakfast they head to the throne room to discuss the upcoming attack.

Twilight addressed them, "Alright everypony, as you all know that within the month we will be going to attack Ponyville so that I may retake the world and control everything once more."

Celestia asked, "Twilight, what sorts of preparations do you think that they will be making to prepare for us?"

Twilight replied, "Well I do know that Colgate will be working on some sort of spell to protect their forces from dragon fire."

Cosmos asked, "Twilight, how do you know that she will be preparing for Spike?"

This angered Twilight greatly.  She screamed, "Cosmos, don't you remember how she can see what we are doing?  I know that she will have them preparing for Spike.  For all we know she might be having spears made to fire at him."

General Ice Wind asked, "Twilight, wouldn't that be rather wasteful on their part since dragons can't be killed?"

Twilight replied, "Actually general, it might not be wasteful on their part.  There is an old legend about an extremely small bare spot on a dragon's underside.  However, for the spear to penetrate the dragon's skin, it has to be made out of titanium and be extremely sharp, not to mention be fired with an extremely high amount of energy." 

Galaxia commented, "Wow, I didn't know that dragons had any kind of weakness."

Twilight replied, "Unfortunately yes, they do.  Luckily that is the only soft spot and it is next to impossible to hit."

LaurFa asked, "What if they were to get their hooves on titanium tipped spears?"

Twilight replied, "I'm not worried about it, I don't think there ever has been much in the way of titanium in Equestria and even if they did get some, it would be in a small quantity and there is no way their blacksmith could get it sharp enough to penetrate that tiny small spot.  Besides, the chances of an Alicorn launching one of those and hitting that spot is one in a billion, and that is if they have been practicing for weeks and has perfect eyesight."

Galaxia had a look of concern on her face as she thought that Twilight was underestimating the enemy.  She asked, "Twilight, I don't think we should so easily underestimate our enemy.  Aren't you worried that one of them might get a lucky shot or that they might have more titanium than you think?"

This sent Twilight into a rage.  She shouted, "You know what Galaxia, I think secretly you are on the side of the enemy!  You wouldn't be questioning me if you weren't.  Maybe I should banish you to the void right now.  I can't have tyrants among my ranks."

Cosmos got in between the two.  He said, "Twilight, if she were on the side of the enemy, she would not say a word and just let us go into battle unprepared.  No disrespect but I don't see any logic in your attack on her."

Twilight growled, "Ok, you are right.  I just want to make sure that everything goes according to plan."

Twilight was irritated, as always, when her suggestions and thoughts were proven to be illogical.  She headed up to her sleeping quarters and pouted.  She was worried that she was starting to lose focus and had to get her thoughts rational again.

In Ponyville Colgate was watching this and she was thrilled. She said to herself, "If Twily can continue to blow up like this and pout like a spoiled filly, she won't be all that focused when she comes here and our victory will be guaranteed!"
> Preparing for Something Big
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A week has passed in Ponyville and the spears are ready.  Colgate and Scootaloo head down to the blacksmith's shop to see if they are what they ordered.  Steel Mane saw them coming and said, "Colgate, Scootaloo!  I see you two are here to pick up your spears."

Scootaloo replied, "Yep, we are!  We need to start preparing for the dragon as soon as possible."

Colgate added, "Scootaloo, let's take a look at these first. Let's make sure they are sharp enough."

Colgate looked at the tips of the spears and could tell they were extremely sharp.  She just barely put her hoof on the tip of one of the spears and it cut her.  She knew that these would be perfect.  She said, "Steel Mane, you and your apprentices have done a perfect job.  This is exactly why you are the sole blacksmith for our military."

Steel Mane replied, "Well it is something that runs in my family's blood.  We have always had a knack for working with metal."

Colgate and Scootaloo levitated the spears and headed to the base.  Colgate said, "Alright Scootaloo, we will be having a brief meeting right after lunch and then we will start training everypony for this."

Scootaloo asked, "So will we be taking part in these too or will we simply be overseeing them?"

This question was one of those facehoof moments for Colgate.  She put her hoof up to her forehead and said, "Scootaloo, we will be taking part in them as well.  After all, this isn't like we are shooting energy at targets.  These will be the most difficult tests that any of us will ever be taking.  Now come on, let's get to lunch."

Everypony gathered for lunch and they could tell Colgate was planning something.  Fluttershy asked, "Colgate, I can see the wheels turning in your head.  What is running through your mind?"

Colgate replied, "I will discuss this in the meeting after lunch.  For right now let's just enjoy our meal."

Fluttershy nodded and the rest of their lunch went by as it normally would.  After lunch they headed into the throne room where Colgate addressed them.  She started, "Alright everypony, Scootaloo and I went and picked up the spears from Steel Mane this morning, they are perfect for the task at hand."

Brevity said, "Brevity takes it that task is killing the dragon that Twilight will be bringing with her."

Colgate replied, "Yes, that is what the task is.  However, there is something with these spears that you must know.  You must handle them very carefully."

Lyra asked, "Why do we have to handle them carefully?"

Scootaloo replied, "The spears themselves are made out of stainless steel but the tips are made out of titanium and are very sharp."

Colgate added, "The tips are so sharp that when I went to pick them up, i tested the sharpness.  I just barely put my hoof on the tip and it cut it, so these are extremely sharp.  Do not touch the tips.  The last thing we need is for us to become casualties to our own weapons.  Do you understand?"

Big Mac replied, "Eeyep!"

Colgate asked, "Everypony else understand?"

Everypony else replied, "Yep."

Colgate was very pleased with this.  She then told them to meet them down at the base in thirty minutes where they along with all the other soldiers would meet to test their skills.  Colgate asked, "Scootaloo, is the replica dragon ready?"

Scootaloo replied, "Yes, it is.  I even have the size of the soft spot accurate and it can maneuver like a normal dragon."

Colgate smiled and they headed down to the base.  She was amazed by what she saw when they got down there.  Every single soldier, both Alicorns, her other officers and ordinary soldiers were all there waiting for her arrival.  She looked at the dragon Scootaloo had made and it was beyond perfect to her.  

Colgate addressed her whole army.   She started, "Alright everypony, I am thrilled to see you here ready to start the exercises.  I think that with enough training, we will be ready to bring that dragon down.  If we can bring the dragon down, Twilight will be the only other real threat they will have.  Does anypony have any questions?"

One of the dark Alicorn soldiers asked, "Colgate, will we be firing at this dragon individually or will we be doing these exercises more like we would in the real life battle?"

Colgate replied, "We will be doing this like we would in real life.  Use your levitation skills to pick these spears up.  I have already told those in my inner circle this but do not, under any circumstances, touch the tips of those spears physically.  When I picked them up this morning I would up cutting myself when i tested them."

Lieutenant Dark Crystal said, "Wow, those must be really sharp!"

Colgate replied, "Yes, they are very sharp."

General Lightning Storm asked, "What about us changelings?  What are we supposed to do?"

Colgate replied, "All the changelings will be responsible for coating our enemies in ooze.  Just a note to everypony, be careful when throwing your spears.  I do not want to see us killing our own forces with errant throws.  Now let's get these exercises going."

Colgate set the dragon in motion and everypony began to fire the spears at the dragon.  As was expected, for about the first ten minutes, there were no strikes on the soft spot.  Finally Fluttershy was the first one to score a hit on the soft spot.  Brevity saw this and shouted, "Way to go Fluttershy!"

The exercise continued on for three more hours and there were just a few strikes on the soft spot.  Fluttershy scored six hits on it while Colgate and the other Alicorns scored anywhere from two to four.  Very few of the soldiers scored any hits.  This frustrated Colgate but she knew that with more practice, that everypony's accuracy would improve.

Finally suppertime arrived and Colgate shouted, "At ease soldiers!"  When she did this the exercise stopped.  Colgate continued, "You guys have done well.  We will continue our exercises at 0900 tomorrow morning.  Scootaloo, I want you to get all these spears gathered together and stacked nicely over at the base.  Those in my inner circle, after supper we will be having a meeting.  For the rest of you, you are dismissed."

After supper they all gathered in the throne room where Colgate said, "Well everypony, we did a little better than I had expected.  I think that by the end of the week we will have this down pretty good."

Applejack asked, "So what is going on with Twilight and her forces?"

Colgate replied, "Well they are thinking that I am going to write a spell to protect us from the dragon's fire, which I am going to work on tonight.  Twilight also seems to be underestimating our ability to bring Spike down."

Apple Bloom asked, "Why do y'all say that?"

Colgate replied, "Well for one, Twilight doesn't know how much titanium we have and she has vastly underestimated the abilities of Steel Hooves and his apprentices.  She is going on and on about how hitting a dragon's soft spot is next to zero and how we will never be able to hit it."

Sweetie Belle commented, "Well that sounds like Twilight, always getting up on her soap box and boasting about how great she is.  Just like last time, we will prove her wrong."

Colgate replied, "Yep, that is the case.  Alright everypony, you are dismissed.  Go home, get some rest and we will resume our exercises at 0900."

After that the exercises Colgate felt a sense of relief knowing that they were all on the same page.  She then headed down to the archives to figure out a spell to protect her forces from dragon fire.  She stayed up until midnight when she finally discovered what she needed to write the spell.  

She headed to her room and cast the spell on her dresser.  She began to glow and her horn was shining blue as she recited, "Dragon breath shall result in certain death, yet we must continue to draw breath.  His fire will make us burn but our death he will not earn.  While he desires for our burned bodies to decay, we shall continue to live so we may fight another day."

She then threw a lighted torch onto the dresser yet the torch landed on the dresser yet it did not burn.  She was pleased with this and extinguished the torch.  She headed to bed that night in good spirits knowing that her forces would be immune from the fiery breath of Spike.

In Faustica Twilight was holding a meeting outside in the courtyard with all of her forces.  She said, "Alright everypony, I think here in a few days we should set sail for Equestria.  We just need to remain calm and I will reclaim what is rightfully MINE."

Galaxia interrupted and said, "Don't you mean we will reclaim what is rightfully yours?"

Twilight glared at her and sneered, "Oh fine.  We will reclaim what is rightfully mine."

Cosmos asked, "When are we going to do exercises to prepare for this?  We can't just go into battle completely unprepared."

Twilight replied, "Oh, and where are we supposed to have these military exercises.  There isn't really enough room here on Alicorn Island and I don't want to duplicate the regular soldiers until we get to Equestria.  After all, we don't have the resources to feed that many soldiers for a four day voyage."

Spike asked, "Where am I going to ride during this voyage?  There isn't room for a dragon on a regular ship."

Cosmos replied, "We will take the carrier as well and you will ride on it.  There will be just barely enough room for you."

Twilight asked, "Well I think that pretty much covers everything.  In four days I shall replenish my rank of officers and we will set sail.  Let's go have a snack, I'm hungry."

As they headed to the dining hall Colgate was watching this and realized that their enemy would be quite unprepared yet that they still need to be at the top of the game, especially given that Twilight will have Spike with her. 






> The Calm Before the Storm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the week progresses everypony's accuracy continued to get better and better.  Within four days most everypony was getting multiple hits on the soft spot on the replica dragon.  Colgate was thrilled with this, especially as her accuracy had increased significantly.  She gathered her forces together and said, "Alright everypony, our performance has increased significantly.  I feel that we can decrease our daily exercises from two to one."

Lyra asked, "So when will Twilight and her minions start heading this way?"

Colgate replied, "Well if Twilight is sticking to her schedule, it will be today.  I will continue to monitor her and if they do leave today, I think two more days of exercises will be necessary and then we will clear our minds and wait.  I want us to be as focused as possible."

Brevity asked, "Colgate, how is that spell for protection for dragon fire coming along.  Brevity does not want anypony to get incinerated or even burned by the fire of the dragon's breath."

Colgate replied, "Well I wrote it the night after our first day of exercises and it works perfectly.  So don't worry everypony, we won't have to worry about the dragon's breath killing us.  It might make things a little bit warmer, but it won't make it hot around us."

This caused everypony to breathe a sigh of relief.  Colgate said, "Ok everypony, I am going to head up to my tower and see what Twilight is up to.  Once they arrive at the coast, I will duplicate our regular soldiers so that we will have plenty of them to take on Twilight and her forces."

Colgate headed up to her tower and tapped into the eye so she could monitor Twilight.  In Faustica Twilight had the ships ready to go.  She said, "Galaxia, I am going to need three dark Alicorn officers, five changeling officers and one regular soldier of each kind."

Galaxia asked, "Why only one regular soldier?  Aren't we going to need more than that?"

Twilight replied, "Uh Galaxia, you do know that I will duplicate the regular soldiers many times over once we reach the Equestrian coast.  Like I have said probably a hundred times before, we do not have the resources to feed an army that will be in the thousands."

Galaxia headed over to their base and grabbed the forces that Twilight wanted and led them over to Twilight for her to inspect.  She asked, "Galaxia, who are these officers you are bringing to me?"

Galaxia replied, "The three dark Alicorns are Major Dark Storm, Captain Death Crystal and Lieutenant Piercing Ice.  The changeling officers are General Green Death, Colonel Sharp Spear, Major Choking Mist, Captain Green Storm and Lieutenant Moldy Ooze.  And then we have the two regular soldiers.  The dark Alicorn is Eternal Darkness and the changeling is Death Mist."

Colgate inspected them and she could tell that they were not loyal to her, that they were loyal only to Galaxia and Cosmos.  She said, "Alright Galaxia, thanks but they are going to need a loyalty spell cast on them."

This did not sit well with Galaxia but she knew that for Twilight to accomplish her objective, that it had to be done.  She watched with a scowl on her face as Twilight pointed her horn at them.

Twilight began to glow a deep purple and her horn had a purple bulb at the end of it as she recited, "From another to me, that is where your allegiance will now be, you thought your old commander loved you like pie when all they wanted was for you to die. With me all shall be great, there shall be no hate."

The energy she fired at them was powerful and knocked them backwards a little bit.  They very quickly wiped their eyes and had a different look in their eyes.  Twilight asked them who they were loyal to.  They replied, "We are loyal to the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle and no other."

Twilight replied, "Good, very good.  I am happy to have you in my army."  Twilight looked over at the rest of her envoy and continued, "Come on everypony, let's get going.  I want to hurry up and get over there before they have had too much time to prepare."

Her envoy nodded at her and they set sail for the east.  Twilight had an evil look on her face as she shouted to herself, "Oh Colgate, you are going to wish you were never born after we win this!"

Colgate was watching this and when she heard Twilight say this she replied back to herself, "Oh Twily, you are going to be in for the surprise of your life when you get here.  We are ready to take you down and your little dragon too!"

Two days pass and Colgate decides to have her forces rest and mentally prepare for the battle that is to come.  Out at sea, Twilight is contemplating what they are going to do as far as training goes.

LaurFa said, "Twilight, you do know that we may not be able to have any training exercises once we hit the coast.  After all, if we are doing those Colgate could easily bring her forces to the coast and decimate us before we even get to Ponyville."

Twilight screamed, "OF COURSE I KNOW THAT!"  Twilight then calmed down a bit and continued, "I know we won't have anywhere to prepare our forces and I know that we can't train them on enemy turf.  I honestly don't know what we are going to do."

Galaxia commented, "Well I think the best option we have is for you to duplicate our forces, tell them to fire energy at our foes, make sure the changelings know to cover our enemies in ooze and let Spike take care of the rest.  After all, it isn't like we are having to prepare to defend our turf against a dragon!"

Twilight smiled and replied, "Thank you for realizing that Galaxia.  Here I am the one leading the charge but you are the one who knows what we need to do most.  So here is the plan, once we reach the coast, I will duplicate the dark Alicorn soldiers and the changelings and then we head off to battle.  Everything will be just fine."

For the next two days everything was peaceful for both sides.  In Ponyville there was plenty of rest and relaxation while out at sea a much more confident Twilight continued her voyage east.  Finally shortly before dawn on the fourth day of the journey Twilight sees the coast off in the distance.  She starts jumping up and down like a school filly shouting, "The coast!  I can see the coast!"

General Ice Wind said, "I know Twily, very soon you will be back in your black tower."

Twilight added, "And sleeping in MY bed!"

The ships finally docked and they saw the bushes with the apples that everypony likes so much.  Before they started eating Major Dark Storm asked, "Regarding the regular soldiers, aren't you going to create them now so that they can eat?"

Twilight replied, "Oh, this is something you probably don't know.  The duplicates have just as full of stomachs as the originals do, so there is nothing to worry about."

After about an hour of eating and resting, Twilight decides it is time to duplicate her forces.  She orders her dark Alicorn soldier and changeling drone to float in an area away from everypony else.  She then begins to glow, her eyes shine green and her horn glows as she recites, "From one to two, two to four and so much more, when one is simple mere, more and more shall appear."

She fired the energy at the two soldiers.  There went from being one of each to being two of each.  She continued to repeat the spell until she had around 10,000 of each.  She looked at her newly formed armies and was very pleased with the results.  She said, "Ok guys, I think this will be sufficient.  Once we are around five miles west of Ponyville I shall cast the armor spell on all of us.  Now let's go!" 

With that all of Twilight's forces sped eastward towards their objective.  In Ponyville Colgate sees this and knows the time has come.  Her and Scootaloo round up everypony in the military.  They head over to the base where Colgate addresses them, "Alright everypony, Twilight and her minions are on their way.  She has approximately 10,000 dark Alicorns and 10,000 changeling drones.  Right now we only have around one thousand of each, so I need all the dark Alicorn soldiers and changeling drones to gather in that field off to the south of the base."

Her soldiers gather over in the field so that they could be duplicated.  Some of them were scared about what would happen to them regarding spells being put on them but they knew better than to question Colgate.  Colgate began to glow a bright blue, her eyes were shining blue and her horn was glowing as she recited, "From one to two, two to four and so much more, when one is simple mere, more and more shall appear." 

She continued firing energy at her forces until there were 16,000 of each.  She was happy with the results.  She then continued to address all of her forces.  "Ok, given the time that the left they should be here around noon.  Alright, we have already ate breakfast and I think around 10 we should have a small snack because chances are we won't get any lunch."

Brevity asked, "So what are we going to do with Twilight and her high level minions once they are captured?"

Colgate replied, "Well you said you will handle your sister so what you do with her is your choice.  Luna, I think you should be the one to handle Celestia and your parents.  I will handle Twilight."

Lemon Hearts asked, "What about Spike?"

Colgate replied, "Regarding him, we have to bring him down in battle or we can't capture Twilight and her higher ups.  Does anypony else have any questions?"

Nopony said anything so Colgate said, "Alright, around 1130 I will cast the armor spell on all of us, including the fire protection spell.  We will win this guys.  For now I will continue to monitor Twilight and her forces movements.  Once they are around fifteen miles west of town I will come down, cast the necessary skills and we will wait for her arrival."

Everypony shouted, "ALL HAIL SUPREME COMMANDER COLGATE, THE PONY WHO WILL LEAD US TO VICTORY!"








> Equestria's Final Battle 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was 1130 and Colgate was up in her tower watching Twilight's movement and noticed that her envoy was moving along exactly as expected.  She realized the time had come to cast both the armor spell and the spell to protect her forces from dragon fire.  She flew down to the base where everypony was waiting.  They all stood at attention when she arrived.  She said, "At ease soldiers."

Colgate looked at them and continued, "Alright troops, you have all trained well for this.  Everything we have done ever since Twilight returned to this world all leads down to this, the battle of your lifetime.  Once we win this, we will no longer have to worry about evil returning to our world as we have different plans for Twilight and her minions this time."

Applejack asked, "So what kind of plans do y'all have for them this time?"

Colgate replied, "You will see when the time comes.  Alright guys, the time has come for me to cast the necessary spells on you."

Everypony gathered together around Colgate. She began to glow a deep blue, her eyes were shining a deep blue and her horn was glowing a bright blue as she recited, "The one without armor does not stand a chance, so it is what we must enhance, the unarmed one will likely receive death, with armor he shall continue to draw breath, without armor he will be torn to shreds like a rag but with armor victory is in the bag."

Her energy encircled everypony and then was absorbed by their bodies.  Next Colgate would cast the spell to protect her forces from dragon fire.  Again she began to glow a deep blue but this time her cutie mark was shining as well as she recited, "Dragon breath shall result in certain death, yet we must continue to draw breath.  His fire will make us burn but our death he will not earn.  While he desires for our burned bodies to decay, we shall continue to live so we may fight another day."

After she had cast both spells her forces began to cheer and shouted, COLGATE, COLGATE, COLGATE, OUR ONE AND ONLY LEADER!"

Colgate replied, "Hey, we are all one well oiled military machine.  They will be arriving within thirty minutes.  Just stay calm, don't doubt your abilities and keep your eyes focused on the western horizon."

Twilight and her forces continue to head east and finally off in the distance Twilight can see Galaxia Ridge.  She orders her forces to stop.  She looks at them and said, "Ok troops, you see that ridge off in the distance?"

General Green Death replied, "Yes, I do."

Twilight continued, "That is Galaxia Ridge.  Immediately behind it is Canterlot and then a few miles away is Ponyville.  When we reach the top of the ridge we will stop and look off towards Ponyville."

Cosmos asked, "Why will we stop at the top of the ridge?  Shouldn't we just continue on into Ponyville and attack them?"

Twilight glared at him because she thought that his question was stupid.  She growled, "We will stop at the top of the ridge so we can take an assessment of what we will specifically need to do to wipe them out as quickly as possible."

LaurFa asked, "What about the armor spell that Colgate has most likely cast upon her troops?"

Twilight replied, "Ok, it will protect them for a while just as our armor spell will protect us for a while.  Eventually after enough strikes on the armor it will start to weaken and eventually both sides will be vulnerable.  That is why we need to be agile and be able to get out of the way of their bolts of energy.  Alright, everypony gather around me.  It is time to cast the armor spell."

All of Twilight's forces gathered around her.  She began to glow brightly, her eyes were shining green and a bulb of purple and black energy formed at the end of her horn as she recited, "The one without armor does not stand a chance, so it is what we must enhance, the unarmed one will likely receive death, with armor he shall continue to draw breath, without armor he will be torn to shreds like a rag but with armor victory is in the bag."

The energy spread outwards from her and was absorbed by her forces' bodies.  She said, "Alright, now let's fly to the top of that ridge so we can see what kind of forces Colgate has and how many soldiers we have.  Let's go!"

They sped off to the east with great haste until they got to the top of the ridge where they stopped.  Before looking off towards Ponyville Twilight looked off to the north and noticed that Canterlot was no longer there.  She then looked down and saw a huge pile of rubble.  She was not thrilled about this.  She shouted, "What the hay happened to Canterlot?"

LaurFa said, "Twilight, I thought you didn't care about Canterlot.  I thought seeing it as a pile of rubble would make you happy."

Twilight began to pout and screamed, "I didn't care for it but it is the fact that Colgate is most likely the one who destroyed it that angers me.  I was the one who was supposed to destroy it."

Spike said, "Twilight, you might want to look off towards Ponyville.  It appears as though Colgate has an army that is larger than ours."

Twilight looked off to the east and replied, "I'm not worried, I will just duplicate our forces one more time and then we will have the advantage and Colgate's demise will be certain."

Twilight motioned for all her regular soldiers to gather in one place.  Once they were all gathered together she began to glow and recited, "From one to two, two to four and so much more, when one is simple mere, more and more shall appear."

After her energy hit her forces the size of her army had doubled.  She now had 20,000 of each type of soldier.  Twilight said, "Alright troops, we are ready.  TO WAR, TO VICTORY!"

Her forces shouted, "GLORY TO THE DARK GODDESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE."  They then sped off to the east towards Ponyville.

In Ponyville Colgate and her forces saw Spike, Twilight and her army speeding towards town.  Colgate said, "Alright troops.  Remain calm, stay focused and try to weaken and eventually shatter the armor spell Twilight put on them.  FOR EQUESTRIA, FOR THE WORLD, FOR FREEDOM!"

Her forces began to cheer wildly and then focused on the enemy waiting for their arrival.  Five minutes later Twilight and her forces arrived.  Beams of energy began to fly back and forth between the armies to weaken their armor.  Colgate and her other Alicorns began to fire energy at Spike to quickly weaken his armor and very quickly it shattered.  After that Colgate's soldiers began to fire spears at the dragon quickly.

During the battle LaurFa and Brevity confronted one another.  Brevity shouted, "This payback is eons overdue, the time has come for Brevity to crush her sister!"

LaurFa replied, "Oh I don't think so.  Once we win this you will get banished to a much worse place than Titan."

The two Creator Goddesses began firing powerful bolts of energy at one another but it just bounced off of one another.  Spike continued to avoid being brought down as he was breathing fire on Colgate's forces but he became angered when it was not even affecting them.  He then decided to set all of Ponyville ablaze to kill everypony in town.  What he did not know is that Colgate had evacuated the entire town the night before.

Eventually everypony's armor was shattered and dark Alicorns and changelings began to fall from the sky.  Colgate's forces were firing at a much more rapid pace that Twilight's forces, which quickly erased any advantage in numbers Twilight had.  Twilight saw this and shouted, "Fire your energy faster you idiots."

Colgate and Twilight finally confronted one another.  Colgate glared at her and shouted, "Oh Twily, I thought we would never get to talk.  It is such a pleasure to see you alive and well before I crush you!"

Twilight shouted, "You're the one that's going down you pathetic wretch.  I'm not banishing you this time, I'm killing you!"

This sent Colgate into a rage, she fired a powerful bolt of energy at Twilight, leaving a burn mark over her cutie mark on her right flank.  This caused Twilight to fire energy back but she just couldn't burn Colgate with it.

The regular soldiers continued to knock one another out of the sky.  It was almost as though it was raining the corpses of dark Alicorns and changelings but Twilight's forces were being decimated much more quickly because Colgate's forces were more agile and more accurate.  On the eastern flank of the battle Spike was breathing fire at an Alicorn that had gotten separated from the other Alicorns.  He finally got sick of her surviving his breath so he swung his tail and knocked the Alicorn out of the sky.  When she hit the ground she broke her wing.  Spike was laughing as he was thrilled to take down one of Colgate's best Alicorns.

He stood before her laughing, "Well well well, what do we have here?  Why it is Fluttershy, the Alicorn who used to be a shy pegasus.  Hmmm...let's see, shall I eat you alive or shall I roast you and then eat you?"

Off in the distance approaching Ponyville from the east was a white Alicorn with purple mane and purple tail.  She saw the dragon tormenting this Alicorn.  She looked closer and saw that it was Fluttershy that had been injured.  She sped so quickly towards Ponyville that she broke the sound barrier before landing between Spike and Fluttershy.

She looked up at the dragon and shouted, "You will not eat my friend you dirty old beast!"

This hit Spike wrong and he got a sad look on his face.  He asked, "Rarity, is that you?"

Rarity shouted, "YES I AM RARITY BUT WHAT DOES IT MATTER.  YOU WILL NOT TOUCH MY FRIEND AGAIN!"

Spike said, "Rarity, it is me, Spike.  I always had a crush on you ever since Twilight and I moved to Ponyville.  You are as beautiful as ever."

Rarity shouted, "Oh, and you think I would want anything to do with you after you broke Fluttershy's wing?  You are just like all other grown up dragons.  You are nothing more than a dirty old beast!"

Spike roared, "So that's how it is!  I am going to eat both of you!  Get ready to meet your death Rarity!  Good riddance!"

Before Spike reared his head up to swoop down at them, Rarity saw Fluttershy's spear laying beside her.  She levitated it preparing to fire it at the dragon.  Spike reared up and swooped his head down to eat the two, but missed.  When he did this, Rarity saw the bare spot.  She said to herself, "Come on Rarity, when he does it again we will bring him down."

Spike roared loudly in anger after he missed.  He was levitating just above the ground when he reared up.  Rarity flung the spear with as much power as she possibly could.  "ROOAR" screamed Spike as the spear plowed through his hide.  Rarity levitated Fluttershy out of the way right as Spike crashed down to the ground.  When Twilight saw Spike fall she went into a panic and started firing more errant beams of energy and was soon being pursued by Colgate.

Over where Spike and Fluttershy laid, Rarity walked up to Fluttershy and asked, "Fluttershy dahling, what did that dirty old beast do to you?"

Fluttershy replied, "He threw me down with his tail and I broke my wing.  You need to get out of here, you don't have any body armor and I don't want you getting hurt."

Rarity replied, "Oh no Fluttershy.  I am going to heal your wing.  During my time in Manehattan I developed an interest in healing spells and I learned a spell to heal broken wings."

Rarity began to glow white and her cutie mark was shining brightly as she lowered her horn onto Fluttershy's broken wing and recited, "Broken is the instrument of flight, for the wing needs to heal and provide might, the bones shall be fused so the wing can be used."

A gentle, white flow of energy flew into Fluttershy's wing, healing it entirely.  Fluttershy began flying around normally.  She said, "Thank you so much Rarity, you are a life saver!"

They landed in front of Spike as he was groaning in pain.  Rarity said to him, "This is what you get for hurting Fluttershy and burning most of Ponyville to the ground.  May the rest of your suffering be painful before you die you old beast."

Spike began to cry and replied, "All I ever wanted growing up was your love Rarity, yet you always saw me as more of a cute child, nothing more.  You have no idea how much that hurt me."

Rarity shouted, "Oh give it a rest Spike,  I don't do inter-species relationships, that is just flat out disgusting."

Spike shouted, "You wretch, I should have known how snobby you would really be."  Spike rolled over to grab Rarity with his claw but as he rolled over on his underside he rammed the spear further into his body, causing it to go straight into his heart, killing him.

Fluttershy asked, "Rarity, is he dead?"

Rarity walked up to him.  She kicked him in the face but there was no response.  She replied, "Yes Fluttershy, he is dead.  Now let's go help Colgate finish this!"

Fluttershy said, "But Rarity, you don't have any body armor.  I don't want you getting killed."

Rarity replied, "I am much more agile than I used to be.  Let's go!"

They sped back into battle and started aiding everypony else in taking out what was left of Twilight's forces.  Finally, around four in the afternoon all of Twilight's forces had been decimated.  All that remained were Twilight, Celestia, LaurFa, Galaxia and Cosmos flying around the sky.  Finally those five were shot out of the sky and landed in the middle of the charred remains of Ponyville..  

Colgate saw that Rarity and Fluttershy had landed around Twilight and her minions.  Colgate asked, "Rarity, what are you doing here?"

Before Rarity could say anything Fluttershy interrupted, "Colgate, please don't be mad at her.  She was flying in from the east and she saw that Spike had knocked me out of the sky.  She fired my spear into the soft spot on Spike's underside and killed him.  She then healed me and we helped finish off the rest of Twilight's forces."

Colgate looked stunned.  She asked, "Really?  What caused you to come here Rarity?"

Rarity replied, "Well I had this voice in my head for several days telling me to fly to Ponyville.  I took off yesterday and when I saw that Fluttershy was down, that angered me greatly.  I would not let that old beast hurt Fluttershy, or anypony else for that matter."

Twilight began to shout obscenities at Rarity for killing Spike until Colgate smacked her.

Colgate shouted to her two remaining changeling officers, "General Lightning Storm, Major Deadly Cloud, cover them in ooze.  We can't have them trying to escape."

Twilight and her envoy were covered in ooze leaving them immobilized and unable to use their magic.  While the battle was bloody and fatal for tens of thousands, Twilight knew that the punishment that awaited her and her envoy would be much worse. 


> The Unmaking of Evil
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally the threat of the world being cast into chains was gone.  Colgate and her higher ups had just a few loose ends to tie before everything could return to normal.   They needed to punish Twilight and her envoy before this could happen.

Brevity walked up to LaurFa and laughed, "Well, well, well, it looks like Brevity has won this battle against you, the final battle between us."

LaurFa scowled and replied, "Oh, and what makes you think this will be the final battle?  Whatever you do to me, I will eventually escape because you do know that since we are Creator Goddesses, that we can't be killed and you can't banish me forever."

Brevity mocked LaurFa saying, "Ooooh, look at me, I'm the high and mighty LaurFa.  I can't be killed, you will never be rid of me!  You'll see!  Brevity knows things that you could never imagine!"

Luna walked up to the rest of her family and said, "I just don't get it.  How could the three of you want to help Twilight conquer the world?  You know all you would be is stewards on Alicorn Island don't you.  You wouldn't have had any real power.  You would be nothing more than pawns in her hooves."

Cosmos shouted, "Don't you remember when Twilight took the Jade Alicorn that you were on Twilight's side with me?  So you are not this innocent pony who has never sided with her."

Luna growled, "Well that was then and I was under her loyalty spell.  Now I am a pony who thinks for herself and I will not fight for a pony who would put everypony in chains."

Twilight shouted, "Would you two shut up.  It is time for the Dark Goddess to speak!  Colgate, you won't get away with this!  I will find a way to get out of this ooze and you will face the wrath of the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle!"

Colgate laughed, swatted Twilight's horn and replied, "Oh Twily, you are so funny!  Just like last time, you are vanquished and you still think you can take everything back!"

Scootaloo asked, "Colgate, what are we going to do with them?"

Colgate replied, "Well initially I was going to transform Twilight into an earth pony but I am thinking something else."

Brevity walked over and whispered into Colgate's ear that she has an excellent punishment for Twilight and her envoy that would rid the world of them once and for all.  Colgate asked, "What is that Brevity?"

Brevity replied, "Oh, you'll see.  I will do this on Celestia first.  I want to see what the others' reaction will be."

Colgate replied, "Ok, go for it.  General Dark Night, lead Celestia over by that charred building."

Dark Night replied, "Will do Colgate, will do."

Dark Night led Celestia over by the charred building.  Colgate asked, "Do you have any last words Celestia before Brevity does whatever it is she is going to do?"

Celestia broke down crying and said, "Twilight, you said that we would win.  You said that this wouldn't happen to us."

Twilight shouted, "You know what Celestia, I have heard you cry more than anypony else I have ever known.  I sometimes wonder if you and Luna are even sisters.  She is strong, focused, fearless and calm and collected.  I remember how you cried when the first time I invaded Canterlot.  She did her best to fight but thanks to you and your crying, she had to carry you out of battle because the city was lost."

Luna said, "Yes Twilight, we are sisters.  She used to not be like that until after your coronation and corruption.  Continue on Celestia, I am sure we want to get these punishments done before it is time for supper."

Celestia replied, "I have nothing else to say."

Brevity said, "Ok everypony, Brevity needs you to look away as she casts this spell.  Brevity will shine brighter than a thousand suns."  

Everypony looked away.  Brevity began to glow extremely bright, her cutie mark was glowing brightly, her eyes began to shine a bright pink as she recited,  "For this object was created in ancient times, long long before nearly anypony's time, the atoms that hold this together are strong but that won't last for long, for what was made can also be unmade for even atoms ultimately will go to their grave."

Upon finishing the spell, a powerful bolt of pink energy struck Celestia, and she simply vanished into thin air.  Finally Brevity stopped shining and everypony looked and saw that there was no trace of her.  While Brevity had told everypony to look away, LaurFa saw a bit of what happened out of the corner of her eye and was horrified.

LaurFa shouted, "Brevity, an unmaking spell?  How the hay do you know that?"

Brevity laughed, "Oh dear sister, do you remember when I couldn't get the spell to transform a unicorn into an Alicorn right?"

LaurFa sneered, "Yes Brevity, I remember that."

Brevity continued, "Well at the same time Brevity knew the unmaking spell and you could never get it right.  Quite funny we think, Brevity saw your reaction to her unmaking Celestia.  So sis, look at the bright side.  Nopony will suffer during their punishments!"

LaurFa shouted, "Brevity, you do know you can't unmake me.  I, like you, am a Creator Goddess.  We can be banished but we can't be destroyed."

Twilight added, "Yeah Brevity, you can't do anything to her."

Colgate decided that the time had come to have Brevity finish off her sister.  She asked, "Dark Night, could you lead our distinguished guest of honor over to where Celestia was?"

Dark Night replied, "Of course!"  

Dark Night led an overly confident LaurFa over to where Colgate wanted her.  She kept on shouting, "She can't do anything to me!  You'll see!  After she tries her precious little spell and I'm still here, you'll let me and the rest of us go!"

Brevity laughed, "Yeah, uh huh Twilight."  Brevity again warned everypony to look away while she did this.  Again she began to glow brightly and her eyes were shining a bright pink.  She lowered her horn towards her sister and replied,  "For this object was created in ancient times, long long before nearly anypony's time, the atoms that hold this together are strong but that won't last for long, for what was made can also be unmade for even atoms ultimately will go to their grave."

Brevity fired a powerful beam of pink energy at LaurFa, and very quickly she disappeared without a trace.  The remaining three prisoners looked to see that LaurFa was gone.  They had a look of despair on their faces.  Finally Galaxia asked, "Brevity, how could you be so cruel to unmake your own sister."

Brevity replied, "LaurFa banished us eons ago and we decided that this was the perfect time for revenge.  A type of revenge that can not be countered.  Guess what, you are next."

Colgate interrupted, "Brevity, do you think you could just unmake the rest of them all at once.  It will be time for supper in an hour and I am hungry."

Brevity replied, "Of course we can do them all at once.  After all, we showed Fluttershy how we unmake things when we unmade that hill off to the northwest of town."

Applejack commented, "So that's what happened to that hill.  Wow, you're the most powerful pony I've ever seen!"

Brevity smiled and nodded at Applejack.  She then turned her attention to Twilight and Luna's parents.  Twilight shouted, "You can't unmake me!  I am the most powerful pony in existence!  You can't unmake a Dark Goddess!"

Brevity laughed, "Oh Twily, what are we going to do with you!  You are so arrogant it makes you so adorable and pwecious!"  Brevity walked over and pinched Twilight's cheeks.  Twilight tried to bite Brevity's hoof but missed.  Brevity continued, "Awww, our widdle Twily is so pwecious!  Hers tried to bite us!"

Everypony laughed as Brevity was talking to Twilight like she were a baby.  Twilight shouted, "HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT ME LIKE THAT!  YOU NEVER, EVER TALK DOWN TO A DARK GODDESS!  WHEN I GET FREE, I'M KILLING ALL OF YOU!"

Brevity grunted and said, "Ok, Brevity is sick of this.  Everypony stand back and look away one more time.  Twily and her pawns must go."

Brevity once again began to shine brightly and her eyes were shining a bright pink  Once more she recited,  "For this object was created in ancient times, long long before nearly anypony's time, the atoms that hold this together are strong but that won't last for long, for what was made can also be unmade for even atoms ultimately will go to their grave."

Brevity fired a bolt of pink energy and they vanished without a trace.  When Brevity stopped glowing everypony looked to see that they were gone.  The crowd began cheering loudly and chanting, "BREVITY, BREVITY, BREVITY!"

Colgate addressed everypony, "Ok, it is time for supper.  There will be no meeting tonight as tomorrow we will have one final meeting.  I do have some awards I will be handing out to those who showed the greatest amount of courage.  You are dismissed."

After a much bigger supper than normal, all of those in Colgate's inner circle headed home while Colgate headed to bed.  She felt a great sense of peace and had the best night of sleep in her entire life.






> A New Dawn
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following morning Colgate woke up and discovered that she was once again late for breakfast.  She said to herself, "Colgate, this is so unlike you!  You used to never be late for anything!"

After brushing her mane and tail she rushed down to the dining hall for breakfast.  Lemon Hearts saw her rushing in and asked, "Colgate, are you ok?  You are usually never late for anything."

Colgate replied, "I'm sorry everypony.  I just got to sleep last night and with there being no threats to not just Equestria, but the entire world I was able to sleep well."

Dark Night asked, "So Colgate, after this awards ceremony, what will be happening."

Colgate saw their breakfast coming and replied, "Everypony will find out after breakfast.  No business discussion during a meal!"

Their breakfast went as it normally would with friendly chitchat before they headed down to the base of the tower where everypony had gathered. 

Colgate addressed them, "Alright everypony, yesterday you all made me proud.  You fought for not just Equestria, but the entire planet and we achieved our objective, we defeated the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle and Brevity made sure the world's enemies would never return.  Before we continue though, I believe we need to take a moment to remember those who fell in battle."

There was a calm silence as a slight breeze blew through what was left of Ponyville.  Colgate continued, "Alright, now on to giving awards to the most distinguished ponies.  Don't get me wrong, you all fought valiantly but there were a couple who went above and beyond."

Everypony looked up at Colgate in anticipation of what she was going to say.  She continued, "First, I would like to give the Millennial Service Award to General Dark Night.  He has actively served Equestria for over a thousand years.  Yes at first he served Twilight Sparkle before she turned on the ponies of Equestria.  Since then, he has served Equestria under my command.  General, come on up so you may receive your award."

When General Dark Night arrived up on the stage Colgate levitated his medal around his neck.  He bowed to the crowd and then addressed them.  "Wow, I never imagined this would happen.  I remember back when I was King Sombra's general I always wondered why he never seemed that grateful towards his officers.  Yeah he would give you a pat on the back every now and then but nothing like this.  I am happy that I have served Equestria for over a thousand years.  You guys are all so amazing."

Colgate added, "Dark Night, I do want to let you know that you are eligible for retirement.  What do you think?  Do you wish to retire from the Equestrian Military or do you wish to continue to serve in the military?"

Dark Night replied, "I want to continue to serve in the military.  It has been an honor to serve Equestria for so long and I want to continue to do so."

The crowd cheered hearing this.  They knew he was 100% loyal to Equestria and was a good officer.  Dark Night headed back down into the crowd as Colgate was ready to announce the other pony who would receive a medal.

Colgate addressed the crowd, "I would like to again thank Dark Night for his one thousand years of service to Equestria.  Now for the other award.  This award is for a pony who throws herself/himself into danger despite it not being necessary, taking down a mighty foe and saving a friend from a horrible fate.  The Supreme Commander's Medal of Honor goes to Rarity!"

Rarity gasped when she heard this.  She stood there in shock.  Applejack was standing by her.  She nudged Rarity and said, "Go on up there sugar cube!"

Rarity flew up to the stage where Colgate levitated her medal around her neck.  Rarity was still in a state of shock.  Colgate said, "Rarity, go ahead and address the crowd."

Rarity, normally a pony who loves attention and likes to talk about herself, found it hard to find anything to say.  She finally began to address the crowd.  Rarity said, "Uh, hi everypony.  I am so honored to have helped out in this battle and I am so happy that Fluttershy is ok."

Fluttershy shouted, "Rarity, give yourself more credit.  You killed Spike which aided us greatly in the battle and you healed my wing!  YOU ROCK, WOO HOO!"

Rarity blushed and continued, "Uh thank you Fluttershy.  I want to apologize again to Colgate for everything that happened over a thousand years ago during the training exercises to go and get the Jade Alicorn yet I also want to thank Colgate so much for giving me this award.  I really wish she had two of them so that Fluttershy could have one too."

Colgate interrupted, "Fluttershy, come on up!  Rarity makes a good point.  You also are being awarded with the Supreme Commander's Medal of Honor."

Fluttershy cheered, "Wow!  I have had a lot of things happen in my life.  Starting out as a shy pony who couldn't fly that well, then hitting Mach 2 and becoming one of the best flyers in the history of Equestria and now this!"

Colgate said, "Well everypony, I again want to thank you for your service to Equestria and the world.  Now we must rebuild, which luckily with my magic will be very easy.  Scootaloo, could you go down to the camp the townsponies set up 20 miles to the south and let them know that it is safe to return home."

Scootaloo replied, "Will do!"

The crowd dispersed and Scootaloo headed south to let the townsponies know that they were victorious and that it was safe to go home.  While they were headed home, Colgate fired energy at all the spots where buildings once stood and new buildings appeared, just like the one that was destroyed.  She looked at this and was pleased, because she did not want anypony to be distraught upon their return.

After one last night in Colgate's black tower Lyra, Lemon Hearts, Luna and Brevity were ready to leave for the countries that they rule.  Colgate said, "Alright everypony, you have a safe trip.  Lyra, Lemon Hearts, I know you two will be welcomed home to adoring cheers.  Luna, I don't know how well you will be received in the Equine Empire and Brevity, considering that nopony on Alicorn Island even knows who you are, you will need to tell them who you are.  Also, I have no problems with the way you speak but I have a feeling that they will take to you better if you speak in the first pony rather than the third pony."

Brevity replied, "Alright Colgate, Brev....oops, I understand."

The leaders hugged before they headed towards their countries.  As expected, Lyra and Lemon Hearts were welcomed home with cheers of adoration but as Brevity arrived in Faustica and landed in the town square, she was greeted with odd looks.  One pony asked, "I mean no disrespect but who are you?"

Brevity replied, "We are, I mean I am Brevity Thrash.  I am the long forgotten Creator Goddess."

Another pony asked, "What do you mean long forgotten Creator Goddess?  Are you even more powerful than the Queen of all Queens, Goddess LaurFa?"

Brevity replied, "Well in some ways yes.  She was my sister."

The pony asked, "What do you mean WAS?  Did she die or something?"

Brevity replied, "Well she decided to aid the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle in an attempt to retake not just Equestria, but the entire world.  Ultimately Colgate's forces, which I was part of, were victorious and Twilight and all of those who were on her side were unmade so they would never pose a threat to the world again."

The crowd shouted, "SHE DID WHAT?"

Brevity replied, "She aided Twilight in an attempt to retake the world and put you along with everypony else in the world, in chains and become slaves to Twilight."

Another pony in the crowd asked, "You say you unmade those who were a threat to us.  What is unmaking mean anyway?"

Brevity replied, "It is a spell that I used to cause the very atoms that they were composed of to fall apart.  They simply vanished without a trace and will never be a threat again."

The crowd cheered, "WAY TO GO BREVITY!"

Another pony asked, "You said you were long forgotten.  Why were you long forgotten and why is there no mention of you in any history book?"

Brevity replied, "Ok, this is a long story.  Long ago, when ponies were quite new to this world,  LaurFa had the ability to transform other types of ponies into Alicorns.  She began to transform many into Alicorns, whether they wrote their own magic or not.  However, she would not transform my star student, who had written more magic than any other unicorn in history."

A pony in the crowd asked, "Are you talking about Starswirl the Bearded?"

Brevity continued, "Yes, I am.  Continuing on, I asked her why she wouldn't transform him and she said that she would not do so because he did not understand friendship.  I would have transformed him myself but that was one spell that I could never get right.  Ultimately things got to the point where we started a war.  In the end all of my forces were killed and I was banished to Titan, a moon of Saturn.  As for why no history book mentions me, she had all traces of me wiped out of every history book.  So all history that is in our textbooks just comes down from what she provided."

The pony asked, "How did you escape Titan?"

Brevity replied, "Well a blue Alicorn who is also a Time Lady and the Supreme Commander of Equestria, found the spell to release me and came over here and freed me.  This Alicorn, Colgate, is a very good friend of mine and an extremely powerful ally of ours.  In the future when a global summit is held, you will be able to meet her."

The crowd started cheering with adoration for their new goddess.  One pony shouted, "We need to change the name of this city!  How about Brevity City?"

Brevity replied, "While I am flattered that you are suggesting that I think that Alicorn City will be a good name.  It does not put its focus on one pony.  Instead, it puts the focus on all of us, which I think would be much better."

The crowd cheered louder knowing that their new goddess was much more down to earth than LaurFa.  Brevity was so happy that she was so well accepted.  She was hoping that Luna would be as well accepted in Maredrid.

In Maredrid Luna was flying towards the royal palace when the crowd rushed to her.  The crowd yelled, "Who are you and where is LaurFa?"

Luna replied, "Don't you remember how LaurFa left you guys and went off with the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle?"

A pony in the crowd shouted, "Oh yeah, I forgot but still, who are you?"

Luna replied, "I am Princess Luna, the princess of the night."

Maredrid has a culture which includes a more active night life, so the ponies cheered in adoration when they heard this."

Another pony asked, "Princess Luna, what happened with the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle and the rest of their forces?"

Luna replied, "Well, they attacked Ponyville hoping to defeat Colgate's forces, which I was part of, and retake control of the world.  LaurFa was willing to do anything to help Twilight put everypony back in chains, but we prevailed and the world's biggest threats are no more."

Another pony asked, "Did they die in battle?"

Luna replied, "No, they were unmade by Brevity Thrash, who was LaurFa's sister, well until Brevity unmade her."

The pony asked, "Wow, so the old legends are true!  Brevity Thrash does exist!  I always had a feeling in my heart that she was real and that everything that LaurFa said about her being an old pony tale was a lie."

Brevity replied, "Yes, she is real and is a strong ally of ours and a good friend of mine.  Right now the whole world is on the same page.  All the countries are allies with one another and hopefully there will never be any more battles, wars or anything of the such."

The crowd started to chant, "LUNA, LUNA, LUNA!"

Luna was ecstatic as she had never felt so loved before in her long life.  She said, "You are the best ponies anypony could ever hope to have as part of her extended family!"

One of the ponies asked, "Extended family?  Aren't you going to just call us subjects or peasants?"

Luna replied, "No, you all mean much more to me.  You are family to me.  I do hope that if you wish, you will stop by the palace and we can talk about anything, whether it be a problem you have or just friendly chit-chat!"

The ponies continued to cheer in adoration seeing how down to earth Luna was.  Colgate was watching all of the events around the world from her tower and was beyond happy.  Scootaloo was by her side and saw her smile.  She asked, "Colgate, is everything ok?"

Colgate replied, "Everything is better than ok.  Brevity and Luna have won over the adoration of the ponies in their empires.  Lyra and Lemon Hearts returned to adoring crowds and now that order has been restored to this planet, things will be far less stressful."

Scootaloo said, "Colgate, it is time for lunch.  I don't know about you but I am hungry!"

Colgate replied, "I'm hungry too Scootaloo, let's head to the dining hall and eat a good filling lunch."

Finally the biggest threats to the world had been unmade.  Twilight, LaurFa, Galaxia, Cosmos and Celestia had been unmade.  Shining Armor and Spike were dead.  King Sombra, Queen Chrysalis and Princess Cadence were forever trapped in the void.  While peace and harmony returned to not just Equestria, but the entire world will never forget the turbulent times that plagued the world.

The End