Colgate's Practice

After an exhausting night in her hospital Colgate finally woke up around noon. When she got up she noticed she was covered in scars and bruises from her fight with Lyra. Luckily she knew a spell to heal herself so she cast it before going out in public. She decided to treat herself to lunch for a job well done the night before. She headed into the cafe in a much more cheerful mood than she had been in ages. Twilight was in there with Fluttershy and asked, "Wow Colgate, you're in a good mood. Why is that?"

In the past Colgate would have had a bit of a nervous look on her face but her recent experience caused her to develop nerves of steel. With an absolutely cheerful look on her face she replied, "I was going through my financial records and my profits for the second quarter were up 13% from the previous quarter."

Twilight replied, "Wow, that would cause anypony to be happy."

Fluttershy interrupted, "Hey have you heard anything from Rarity? I know you sent her to a hospital back east but I'm worried about her."

Colgate replied, "Honestly I haven't. Dr. White Tooth doesn't allow the patients there to communicate with the outside world. He runs things kind of strangely but he does get his patients back on the right track."

Twilight was wondering why Colgate was alone and decided to ask about it. She asked, "Colgate, where are Pinkamena and Lyra? Normally you three are together."

Colgate replied, "Oh I gave them their bonuses and a week off so they headed to Manehattan for a week of rest and relaxation. I figured that once they get back, they will do even better than they have been."

Twilight replied, "Yeah I imagine so." She looked up at the clock and realized that they had to get going. Twilight and Fluttershy wished her well and left. Colgate was sitting there with a huge smile on her face. She was proud of herself for handling their questions and lying so easily without even showing a bit of nervousness. After she ate her meal she headed to the hardware store to make sure that what she had heard when she was buying her chainsaw was true. She wanted to know for sure if they stored their propane tanks in the basement.

That afternoon she headed into the hardware store and saw that the owner, Drill Bit was working the counter. He waved and said, "Good afternoon Colgate, what brings you in today?"

Colgate smiled and replied, "Well I'm looking to get a propane tank for my grill. My old one is rusting out."

Drill Bit asked, "What size of one do you want?"

Colgate replied, "Couldn't you just show me your supply and let me pick one out?"

Drill Bit said, "Unfortunately no. We store our propane tanks in the basement and customers are not allowed to go down there."

Colgate replied, "I understand that completely. My grill uses a ten gallon tank so that is what I would need."

While Drill Bit headed down to the basement to get what she needed Colgate was beyond ecstatic yet she did not show it. She was thinking to herself, "Tonight all my problems will be solved!"

Drill Bit came back up stairs with a disappointed look on his face. He said, "I'm sorry, but we are out of ten gallon tanks right now." He threw his hooves up in the air and said, "I had a delivery of fifty tanks yesterday and yet I forgot to order ten gallon ones."

Colgate replied, "Oh it is no problem. It isn't the end of the world if I don't get one right away."

Drill Bit had a concerned look on his face. He asked, "You don't plan on doing any grilling anytime soon do you?"

Colgate replied, "Goodness no! I'm not grilling anything until I get a new tank. Thanks for your concern."

Colgate headed home after learning about all the tanks downstairs. She realized she had only one more thing she needed to do before she could act on her plan. She had to check the details of her insurance policies for her home and business to see what all they covered and luckily for her, her policies would cover damages from explosions. She knew that with the natural gas pipeline that serves her side of town running right under every building, including her home and office, that she would easily be able to pull this off without harming herself financially.

Colgate waited in her house patiently until midnight, when everypony in town had fallen asleep. She headed over to the hardware store without being noticed. She was happy when she saw that all Drill Bit had on his door was a basic lock. She quickly unlocked it and headed inside. Snce she was just there earlier in the day, she knew where the entrance to the basement was. She silently walked down the stairs and turned the light on. There she saw over fifty propane tanks, of which twenty were stacked over by the baseboard heater. Colgate was giddy with excitement when she saw this. She said to herself, "Wow, I never knew he was so careless."

Colgate went around the room releasing the valves of all the tanks. She saw the thermostat by the exit from the basement and cranked it up as high as it would go. She quickly rushed out of the store and relocked the door. She knew that this was going to be a doozy of an explosion and would destroy her home along with her practice but she also knew that she needed to be at home when the explosions took place. Once she got back home she said to herself, "I know I'm going to get thrown quite a ways, get hurt and burned but if I'm not at home when this takes place, I will be suspected."

Colgate waited at her door with all the lights off. Very soon the basement in the hardware was getting very hot and the tanks by the heater became incredibly hot. Then *BOOM!* a huge explosion rocked the hardware store. The force of the explosion also blasted downwards, rupturing the gas pipeline. The flames caused explosions to strike every building the pipeline went under. Just as Colgate was getting ready to leave her house, *BOOM!* her house exploded and quickly was ablaze. As Colgate was thrown from her house she had caught on fire. She was flung all the way to the doorstep of Twilight's library. Luckily for her, she landed in a puddle of water from the rainstorm that afternoon.

She was laying there in agonizing pain. She saw the other buildings explode and burn in a violent fury. Finally her practice blew up and caught fire. Blueish white flames were consuming every building along the pipeline. While she was in agonizing pain and felt like she was going to pass out, she was ecstatic that the fire was burning that hot. She knew that the Equestrian Gas Company could not get to Ponyville all that quickly to shut the gas off to that pipeline so she should be in the clear.

Twilight heard the explosion and came rushing outside. There she found Colgate, laying at her doorstep, burned, bruised and nearly unconscious. She knew that she didn't have time to wait for any medics so she took her to the emergency room herself. Doctor Hooves was on duty that night and when he saw Twilight bringing Colgate in he shouted, "This is urgent everypony! We need to get her taken care of at once."

Before Twilight could even say anything Colgate was surrounded by the doctor and nurses. In the explosion Colgate had ruptured her spleen so she was rushed into surgery immediately. While she suffered a few broken bones, a ruptured spleen and third degree burns on over half of her body, Colgate survived. After surgery she fell into a coma and was placed in the intensive care unit at Ponyville Memorial Hospital.

No other ponies were rushed to the hospital that night as the pipeline that ran under that side of town served primarily businesses. It only served two houses, Colgate's and Mr. Breezy's, who was away on business in Canterlot. It was several hours before the gas company could come to get the pipeline shut off. Once the gas was shut off and the fire was put out, investigators discovered that the massive explosion had left nothing but one big, long crater where the buildings once stood. No evidence of the chairs, stolen meat grinder or the bodies remained. Despite being critically injured, Colgate accomplished her mission, she destroyed all evidence of her dental hospital.