Colgate's Practice 3: Nipping the Problem in the Bud

Three long, stressful days had passed in the castle. Luna spent most of her time in her sleeping quarters trying to figure out what to do given everything that she had learned, General Pearly Whites spent most of his time with the regular soldiers to avoid the stress while Colgate and Amethyst continued to barely speak to one another and sleep in separate rooms. This really bothered Luna and made her feel rushed in making her decision.

Finally on the fourth day Luna made her decision. During breakfast, which had been like the other days which had been tense, Luna said, "Alright, we have come to a decision. We need to speak to thee in thy throne room after breakfast."

After breakfast the two nervously followed Luna into the throne room. Luna sat at the front of the room and said, "Colgate, Amethyst, thy queen hast come to a decision."

Colgate replied, "Whatever your decision is your Majesty, I will accept it."

Amethyst added, "As will I."

Luna kind of wanted to scare them before reading the verdict. She sighed in disgust, "Colgate, thou hast committed many, many crimes. Thou hast taken the lives of more ponies than most soldiers have, and for that thou must be punished!" Her frown deepened as she continued, "Colgate, we forbid thee from ever practicing dentistry again as thou can not be trusted. We know how thou is when it comes to bad patients, thy belief that they must be punished and because of that we can no longer trust thee."

Colgate's head dropped when she heard this, dentistry had been her passion ever since she was a foal and now that had been taken away from her. Tears were running down her face and she buried her face in her hooves. She began to cry, "I'm so sorry your Majesty. Please don't take the thing that I have been so passionate about my whole life away. I'm begging you, please let me remain a dentist."

Luna snapped, "Colgate, thou hast proven to us that thou can not be trusted. We know that if one of thy patients has cavities, gum diseases or any other problem that thou will torture them to death."

Colgate asked, "Your Majesty, Ponyville can not go without a dentist and the ponies here trust me. I am not sure if they would even see the dentist if I was to no longer be able to practice."

Luna replied, "Oh we are sure they would. Thou are not the only dentist in this country."

Colgate said, "You know something your Majesty? I have had many, many patients tell me that if I were not the dentist here in Ponyville that they would not even go to the dentist."

Luna glared at Amethyst and asked, "Amethyst, is what she says true?"

Despite the fact that they were angry with one another, Amethyst replied, "It is true your Majesty. It seems like every patient that comes in says the same thing during every single appointment."

Luna sighed, "Well maybe we will change our mind, if thou can convince us thou are trustworthy." She then turned her gaze to Amethyst. She asked, "Amethyst, while Colgate has committed many crimes, thou hast committed thy own crimes that we have made our decision on."

Amethyst asked, "What is that?"

Luna replied, "Given that thou did take part in some of the tortures of those who we did not give thee permission to torture, we are stripping thee of thy license to be a hygienist. We are sorry but thou hast proven thyself untrustworthy as well." Her frown deepened as she continued, "And the fact that thou hast smacked Colgate is most serious. Normally such an action would result in thee being banished to the sun but we shall let Colgate decide thy fate." She looked over at Colgate and asked, "Colgate, what dost thou wish to happen? Dost thou want us to banish thy abuser to the sun or for her to suffer some other fate?"

Despite the fact that she was extremely angry with Amethyst, deep in her heart she did still love her and that came to the surface. She began to cry, "Please don't do anything to her your Majesty. Please don't punish her."

Amethyst looked over and saw the look in Colgate's eyes and the tears running down her face. She could see that Colgate did still love her. This caused her eyes to light up and she asked, "Really Colgate, you don't want her to punish me?"

Colgate hugged her and replied, "Yes Amethyst, I don't want her to punish you. I am so sorry for how I have been here lately. I am so sorry I put going after the Cakes ahead of you."

Luna couldn't help but smile when she saw them interacting this way. She said, "Alright Colgate, we will not punish her." She stood there and put her wing up to her face as she went into deep thought.

Colgate saw this and knew she was thinking about something important. She asked, "Your Majesty, is everything ok?"

Luna replied, "Yes, everything is ok. We have decided that we shall allow thou to continue practicing dentistry and we shall not revoke Amethyst's hygienist license."

Both ponies rushed up to Luna and said in unison, "Thank you your Majesty, thank you!"

Luna replied, "We know thou are happy but thou must adhere to one agreement for us to allow thee to continue to do what you do. Thou must promise to never torture anypony again. If thou does so, not only will we strip thee of thy licenses, we will execute thee as well. Do we have a deal?"

Colgate and Amethyst replied in unison, "We have a deal your Majesty."

Luna replied, "Good but be warned, we will have ponies watching you and we will drop in unexpected every now in then so don't even think of trying to get away with any torture."

The two nodded knowing that their queen meant business. Colgate also wondered if she would still be head of the EDA. She asked, "Your Majesty, will I still be the head of the EDA? Will I still be in charge of approving new dental licenses and renewing existing ones?"

Luna replied, "Of course. Thou hast done an excellent job on that so we shall allow thee to continue to do so. She saw Amethyst looking like she was going to ask something so she continued, "And before thou asks Amethyst, thou shall continue to be Colgate's assistant, just as thou are Colgate's hygienist."

Before they knew it lunch time had arrived. Tensions were running high that morning but by midday those tensions had mostly eased. While Luna had a feeling that things had eased between Colgate and Amethyst, she still wondered if their love would be rekindled or if they would simply be co-workers with a romantic past.