Colgate's Practice 4: Blood, Torture and Power

With the funeral and burial now complete, there were other pressing matters in Canterlot and once Colgate returned to the palace, she would find out what it is. A unicorn guard said, "Colgate, now that the funeral is over, you must learn how to raise and lower the sun and moon."

Colgate asked, "Me? Why me?"

The guard replied, "Because right now you are the leader of Equestria and it is your royal duty. We have had nearly two full days of day and temperatures across the land are getting pretty high."

Colgate asked, "So where is the spell for this?"

The guard replied, "It is in the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the library. Follow me."

Colgate followed the guard and couldn't help but feel happy that he had said it was her royal duty. She thought to herself, "Yes! It is MY royal duty and shall be for all eternity!"

Once they got to the gate the guard unlocked it and they headed in. He led her to the very back where a thin blue book was located. He levitated it out and said, "Ok, this is the book. You need to memorize the spells and learn the energies that are used to move the sun and moon."

Colgate replied, "Alright, I'll get to work on this immediately. I'd like to end this extremely long day as soon as possible."

The guard said, "Good. Now I must get going. Once you think you have learned everything, go out and end this horribly long day. This much heat can't be good for the country."

Colgate nodded and began to read through the book. First she read the spell for raising the sun,

"While the night can be nice
If it doesn't end there is a hefty price
For light is needed if crops are to grow
The sun is needed to keep temperatures from getting too low
Now the sun must rise
With that we will remain alive"

Next she read the spell to lower the sun,

"The light of the day is great
But with too much we may suffer a terrible fate
Too much heat will bake the land
And we don't want it all to turn to sand
Now the sun must set
Which is something none will regret."

Next up came the spell to raise the moon,

"The night is ready to appear
Yet the darkness can bring about fear
Total darkness can not be
For some light we need to see
Now the moon must rise
So we may see threats and remain alive."

Finally she read the spell to lower the moon,

"The soft light of the night is great
But it's departure can't be late
The night is ready to draw to a close
As is everypony's nightly doze
Now the moon must be dropped
As the day is something that can not be stopped."

After reading the spells she began to focus intently on the book. Her eyes began to shine white and she saw images from the distant past. She saw images of Starswirl teaching Celestia and Luna as fillies their new duties. The energies involved began to flow into Colgate, as did the strength required to perform the tasks. After finishing this she headed to the throne room where she was greeted by the same guard.

The guard asked, "So do you think you're ready to do this?"

Colgate replied, "Yes I am."

The guard said, "Follow me up to where you will do these duties."

Colgate followed him up to the high point on the castle and said, "Well here goes nothing."

First she would lower the sun.

"The light of the day is great
But with too much we may suffer a terrible fate
Too much heat will fry the land
And we don't want it all to turn to sand
Now the sun must set
Which is something none will regret."

Colgate began to stretch vertically and despite still being high in the sky, she began to lower the sun. Despite this being her first time of doing this, it was met with no fanfare as most everypony was still mourning the loss of Queen Luna and had no clue that she was going to do it.

Despite it being a bit more challenging than she thought, she was able to do it without getting exhausted. Next she would raise the moon,

"The night is ready to appear
Yet the darkness can bring about fear
Total darkness can not be
For some light we need to see
Now the moon must rise
So we may see threats and remain alive."

It was not long after she got the sun set and the moon raised that temperatures began to return to normal across Equestria. She returned to the palace where she was met by both the guard she had dealt with all day and by Pearly. Pearly said, "Congratulations your Majesty, you did well."

Colgate replied, "Pearly, you don't have to address me by any special title. Just call me Colgate like you always have.

The guard interrupted, "Well she isn't the queen yet. One of the ponies ahead of her in the line of succession still has 28 days to surface and come claim the throne. For now she is merely a steward, a caretaker of the throne."

Pearly asked, "So if one of them were to return, she would have to hand over power to the pony that returned?"

The guard replied, "Yes, she would."

Colgate laughed, "Well guess what, we're not going to have to worry about that because they aren't going to surface."

The guard asked, "How do you know that?"

She smacked him and ordered, "Pearly, let's take this rat down to the dungeon. I don't like him questioning me."

Colgate grabbed the guard and took him down to the dungeon. Once she got him down there she decided she must do something to prevent him from discharging any magic. Before the guard could even react, Pearly grabbed a hold of him and Colgate bit down on his horn, trying to rip it out.

He was screaming in agony as his horn was being bit on. While he was trying to discharge enough magic to throw Colgate off, given the panicked state he was in all he was able to do was release a few sparks. After a few minutes of him struggling, Colgate was able to rip his horn out and like she so often does, she began to suck the blood out of the wound.

She laughed, "Well Pearly, now that this rat is powerless, shall I let him know why the others will not surface?"

Pearly grabbed the guard in his aura and laughed, "Sure!"

Colgate began, "Listen, this is something that not many know but in my past I have killed many, many ponies for various reasons. I have killed them for simply having bad teeth to producing, selling and transporting sugary sweets. A couple years after Luna made me the head of the EDA, she ordered me to stop working on my mission to eradicate the cancer known as poor oral hygiene."

He asked, "Wait a minute, are you responsible......?"

Colgate smacked him and laughed, "Bravo, bravo! We have a real prize pupil here!"

He gasped, "Wait a minute, did you have something to do with the death of Luna?"

Colgate held his horn to his chest and snapped, "Yes, I did. Since she would not allow me to finish what I started decades ago I decided that the only way to make Equestria a better place was if I did what I had to do to become queen."

He yelled, "Well it will never happen! I'll expose you for what you did and it will be you who winds up dying."

Pearly intensified his hold on the guard while Colgate laughed, "Oh, you really think so? You are being held in my general's aura and I am standing right in front of you. How the hay do you think you'll get out of here?"

He screamed, "Well if I won't, the other guards will notice that I am gone! They will know that you are responsible for my disappearance and expose you. The rest of the guard will think you killed Luna and expose you to the public. They won't stand for it!"

Colgate laughed, "They are not going to notice one measly guard going missing. They'll probably just think you went out of town, went AWOL or something else."

Before he could say anything else Colgate began ramming his horn into his chest over and over. His final screams of agony brought out much happiness in Colgate. She figured that now since the one pony who may have snitched on her and reveal her crimes was gone, that all she had to do was wait 28 days and then claim her rightful place on the throne.

Pearly asked, "So what do we do now?"

Colgate replied, "Well we have 28 days to wait before I can become queen so all we can do is wait. Yes it is going to be an extremely long wait and having to be away from my practice for a month will be irritating, in the end it will be worth it."

Pearly and Colgate headed back up to the throne room realizing that soon Colgate's dream will be able to be a reality. While he was quite nervous in the beginning, now he had the same confidence Colgate did that she would become the official leader of Equestria and begin a new era, an era where cavities would become a thing of the past.