Terror in Equestria 9: Return of Tambelon

Breakfast in Maredrid

Morning had arrived in Maredrid and everypony was woken up by the sun. As they all stretched and got out of bed, they knew that they had a busy day ahead of them, especially once they arrived at Colgate's black tower. They knew that the moment they arrived, that she would likely immediately put them to work training and possibly duplicate her hoof soldiers.

The first to arrive in the dining hall was Colgate, well rested and ready to go. She began to pace around for twenty minutes until everypony else finally arrived. She gave them all a look of disapproval and asked, "What took you so long? We have a busy day ahead of us and I want to get home as soon as possible."

Luna was not thrilled that she would behave like that in her castle. She stood tall, spread her wings wide and replied, "Colgate, I know you are ready to go but this is my castle and I will wake up when I want to."

Colgate rolled her eyes and everypony got sat down waiting for the chef to come and take their orders. After their orders were taken Luna asked, "So Colgate, what plans do you have for us today?"

Colgate replied, "Well that will depend on what time we get back and it will depend on what I feel needs to be done." She saw unsure looks coming from Celestia and her parents and continued, "I may decide for us to begin training today or I may decide to wait until tomorrow so that I can do some research on how best to handle Grogar."

Ruby gave her a smile and replied, "Don't worry Colgate, whenever you have us do it, I am ready to train and train hard." She turned over towards Fluttershy and added, "I will do everything I can to aid in the rescue your friends."

Scootaloo added, "And I want to help you slay Grogar!"

White Magick continued, "And I want to make sure that Twilight is rescued before too much happens to her."

Ruby gave him a scowl and everypony else could sense her displeasure over his concern over what seemed to be mostly Twilight. As Colgate looked around at all the other ponies, they nodded in agreement over her plans for the day. Once their breakfast arrived they all went quiet as Colgate kept true to the rule regarding meals that she has had in place ever since she became a leader, no discussing business matters during meals.

The Return to Colgate's Tower

After breakfast most everypony wanted to sit for a few minutes and continue their more lighthearted discussions except for one. Colgate stood up, headed for the exit and asked, "Well everypony, are you ready to go?"

With the exception of Scootaloo, everypony else was slow to stand up and this irritated Colgate. She gave them a glare and continued, "Look, we need to get going at once." Her glare intensified as she stared straight at Celestia and added, "Especially if you want your precious little Twily rescued before Grogar has princess steak."

Ruby couldn't help but laugh over the comment while everypony else, especially White Magick sighed in disgust. Finally Colgate led them all outside and ordered, "Alright everypony, come gather around me and please please please, try to fly fast enough that Scootaloo, Fluttershy and I don't have to carry all of you."

Colgate took off skywards and everypony gathered around her as she cast the necessary spells. They took off towards the northwest and despite only half of them matching Colgate's speed, they were able to break the sound barrier and reached Colgate's tower in a decent amount of time. After arriving at her tower and undoing the time spells, everypony landed and with the exception of Colgate and Scootaloo, their wings were tired and Colgate could sense it. She headed towards her tower and ordered, "Follow me, I will lead you to the VIP sleeping quarters. That is where you will stay until we head off to battle."

Many of the ponies looked up at her blue eye and got a case of the shivers. It reminded them of the times back when one pony or another was always spying on the world, always full of distrust and always ready to attack. Colgate saw their reactions and commented, "Very impressive if I must say so myself."

Celestia mumbled, "Yeah, very, very good to spy on us all."

Colgate turned around and snapped, "Look at it this way Tia, if I didn't have this eye I never would have known that your little Twily had been captured."

Colgate's constant disrespect and calling Twilight little Twily was really getting on Celestia's nerves. She yelled, "Would you stop using terms like 'little Twily' when discussing her?" She became a bit more emotional and continued, "She is a leader just like you and me, she does not deserve....."

Colgate interrupted, "Huh, I guess little Twily was right about you back in the day, you get too emotional." She got up in Celestia's face and asked, "Am I going to have to send you home because of how emotional you are?"

Celestia replied, "Well no...."

Colgate interrupted, "I hope not. I need as many ponies for this as possible and I certainly don't need any emotional weak links."

Celestia sighed in frustration as Colgate led the other leaders up to the VIP sleeping quarters before heading down to the archives to do some studying. Not only did she want to see if there was anything about how to take care of Grogar without having to ring the bell, she also needed some time away from those who seem to think Twilight is so important, especially Celestia.

Rewriting the Spell

Once Colgate got down into the archives she headed to the very back, where her duplicate collection of White Magick's library was. She began looking through the books, especially those regarding the evil villains of Ponyland and was becoming frustrated when she couldn't find anything about what his collar was even made of, much less what it would take to cut it off.

This frustrated her but she knew that there had to be another way. She then thought about how she had brought up a life draining spell and wondered if she might be able to alter it. She knew she had seen that spell before in the Faustica collection so she headed into the next room and it did not take her long to find it. She opened it up to the proper page and it read,

"This pony is full of life
Yet this pony has caused a lot of strife,
The energy she has makes her strong
But that can not last for long,
From her to me the energy must flow
And with this my power shall grow,
Now the energy shall be mine
And all will be certainly fine."

She sat down and said to herself, "Ok, this is going to require some alterations since I am doing this on a male goat, not a female pony. I also need to think about how I will cause his energy will be directed elsewhere, such as maybe skywards rather than into me."

She sat there for roughly an hour trying to figure out what the right wording would be for this. After an hour of concentrating, she grabbed a pen and some paper and wrote down what she believed would work,

"The goat is full of life
Yet he has caused a lot of strife,
The energy he has made him strong
But that can not last for long,
His powers must become a thing of the past
For it is his tyranny that can not last,
Now his energy must go to the grave
And his death will come at the hooves of the brave."

Colgate looked over it and thought it sounded good but knew that she would have to find a way to test it and that meant only one thing, she would have to find a male goat somewhere. She said to herself, "Well I'm likely going to piss off a local farmer but I must find a male goat and test this."

After rewriting the spell Colgate put it in her saddlebags and headed upstairs where she would be greeted by Ruby and the other leaders. Ruby asked, "Colgate where were you? I was worried sick!"

Colgate replied, "I was down in the archives doing some studying about Grogar and how we can either cut that collar off of him or drain him of his very life."

The other ponies heard this and while they were not shocked, several of them sighed in frustration knowing that Colgate would not simply go in and ring the bell. To a couple it seemed like Colgate was more concerned on wiping out Grogar than she was rescuing those who were captured, White Magick and Celestia in particular.

Celestia asked, "Colgate, why are you so dead set on killing him when we already know how to defeat him?"

White Magick added, "Do you not care that Twilight may be suffering a lot right now?" Ruby nudged him causing him to add, "And that the rest of Fluttershy's friends may be suffering as well?"

Colgate rolled her eyes and sighed, "Of course I'm worried about them along with the future of our nation. If I were not, do you really think I would be making the plans I am?" She lit up her horn and became more intense, "If I didn't care I'd just sit up in my bedroom and watch Grogar turn Tia's little Twily into pony burgers and not have a care in the world."

Like she did earlier, Ruby broke down laughing over the comment but White Magick became furious. He yelled, "How can you say such a thing about a fellow pony." He turned to Ruby and added, "Look, I know you don't like Twilight and think she's trying to seduce me but Colgate's morbid remarks about her being murdered is nothing to laugh at."

Ruby sighed, "Yeah you're right" she then giggled a little more, "but I know Colgate isn't really serious about that so I don't see what's wrong with finding a little humor in it."

Everypony else sighed in frustration but Luna saw that Colgate had her saddlebags on and figured she was going somewhere. She asked, "Colgate, where are you going with your saddlebags on?"

Colgate replied, "I think I have rewrote the life draining spell to where I would not absorb any energy and I altered it for goats but I'm going to have to go and likely anger one of the local farmers."

Fluttershy knew where this was headed and did not like it. She gasped, "Colgate, you're going to go and kill some farmer's goat? That's just mean!"

Colgate gave her a slight glare and replied, "Fluttershy, I have to make sure this works." She raised her voice and continued, "Unless of course you don't care about the fate of your friends...."

Fluttershy interrupted, "But still...."

Colgate continued, "Look, sometimes sacrifices must be made and in this case, the loss of one goat's life will be worth it." She continued to give Fluttershy an intense look until she headed for the door. She finished, "And now if you will all excuse me, I must go and test my spell."

Testing the Spell

After leaving her tower, Colgate took flight flying over the countryside looking to see if she could find any farms that may contain goats. Once she saw a few farms she began to fly lower to get a better view but unfortunately for her, none of them had any goats. She said to herself, "I'll fly fifty miles or more if that is what it takes to find one with goats. This spell must be tested."

After two hours of flying she finally found a farm that had goats on the premises but the bad news was that the farmer was out taking care of them. While one part of her wanted to wait around until he was gone, the other part of her wanted to assert her dominance over her subjects and test her spell right in front of the farmer. Finally her dominance seeking side won over as she landed down between the farmer and his goats.

He immediately gave her a scowl when she landed and yelled, "You have ten seconds to get out of here before I call the cops! Nopony trespasses on my land and gets away with it."

Colgate laughed, "You're going to call the cops on me?" She stood tall, spread her wings wide and continued, "Do you not know who I am?"

He looked closer and then it hit him who it was who was standing in front of him. He gave her a salute and replied, "Oh my goodness, Supreme Commander Colgate I am sorry for my initial reaction." His facial expression became curious as he continued, "What do I owe your visit?"

Colgate replied, "Lead me to your goats, well a male goat to be precise."

The farmer asked, "A male goat? What are you going to do with one of my goats?"

Colgate decided that rather than simply go in and sacrifice one of the farmer's goats without him knowing the reason, that she would tell him under an oath of secrecy why she had to do this. She replied, "I am going to tell you why but I need you to swear an oath to me that you will not tell anypony about this, ever."

The farmer said, "I won't tell anypony."

Colgate wasn't overly thrilled with his initial answer so she asked, "Under penalty of death, do you promise not to break this oath of secrecy?"

The farmer knew that whatever it was, it was serious business so he replied, "I promise under penalty of death, that I will never tell anypony about what you are going to tell me."

Colgate gave him a smile and began, "Ok, I don't know what you have been taught about this but Grogar, the city of Tambelon and all of his minions have returned. Not only has he returned, he has taken five ponies captive, five very important ponies and I along with my army are going to march in there, rescue those ponies and wipe out Grogar once and for all."

The farmer, like every other pony in Equestria, had been taught that Grogar and Tambelon were pure myth but he knew that with Supreme Commander Colgate telling him this, that it is no myth but had a question, "Ok, Grogar has returned but what does that have to do with one of my male goats?"

Colgate replied, "Here is where one of them come into play. I have altered a life draining spell to where it is designed for a goat instead of a pony and I need to see if it works." She looked over towards the goats and continued, "I need your strongest, healthiest goat for this."

The farmer was not thrilled with this. He yelled, "You will not take my strongest goat......"

Colgate grabbed him in her aura and said, "Don't worry, the government will reimburse you, ok?"

He had a nervous look on his face knowing that Colgate may very well take a lot more than a goat if he didn't agree. He replied, "Ok, I agree." He headed over to the goats and led his strongest, healthiest goat to Colgate. He asked, "Ok, here you go."

Colgate simply nodded, pulled her spell out for a moment and memorized it. Her horn began to glow and she grabbed the goat in her aura as she recited,

"The goat is full of life
Yet he has caused a lot of strife,
The energy he has made him strong
But that can not last for long,
His powers must become a thing of the past
For it is his tyranny that can not last,
Now his energy must go to the grave
And his death will come at the hooves of the brave."

As soon as she finished the spell, the goat began to shrink and the energy of its life shot out of its head. It wasn't even ten seconds until the goat was dead and Colgate knew she had achieved her objective. She gave the farmer a smile and said, "Thank you. Now I know this works and I can save Coastal Equestria and the rest of the world." She saw a disgusted look on the farmer's face which angered her. She gave him a scowl and continued, "Look, we will reimburse you for your goat, ok?"

The farmer knew of not only Colgate's status as leader of the country but also her powers. He nervously replied, "Ok, I understand. Thank you in advance."

Colgate nodded and headed back towards her tower. She was ecstatic that the spell worked and now felt that she could start training and making more formal plans for the invasion of Tambelon. Once she arrived at her tower she headed inside and was immediately greeted by the other leaders. Ruby was the first to ask, "Colgate did it work? Did your spell work?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, it did." She cast her gaze at everypony in the room and continued, "Alright, tomorrow we will begin training for this and I will begin to draw up my exact invasion plans. I want us to be ready for the invasion in two days."

Everypony nodded and Colgate finished, "Alright, get some rest everypony because the training I'm going to put you through tomorrow ain't going to be easy."

Fluttershy remembered how things were in the past involving the changelings and dark Alicorns. She asked, "Colgate, will the dark Alicorns and changelings be joining us too or will they not be aiding us?"

Colgate replied, "Yes Fluttershy, they will be training with us and some will be coming with us. I'm sure the changelings' ooze will aid us tremendously in not only subduing Grogar but his minions as well." She took a look at everypony else and noticed rather normal facial expressions and asked, "Any other questions?"

Everypony shook their heads and she finished, "Dismissed, training will start tomorrow morning immediately after breakfast."

Everypony headed up to their sleeping quarters for some relaxation before supper and Colgate began to scan the world with the eye. She zeroed in on Tambelon and saw that Grogar had put four of Fluttershy's friends to work mining and that Twilight was tied up, getting soaked with rain and smacked every now and then. Colgate couldn't help but chuckle, "I bet Ruby wouldn't mind seeing that trogal smacking little Twily!"