Terror in Equestria 9: Return of Tambelon

Departing Tambelon

Three days had passed and the storm outside refused to relent while temperatures inside continued to remain chilly. What bothered everypony was that Twilight's health was not improving, it seemed to continue to get worse and White Magick was still not talking to anypony except for one, Colgate. Nopony had been able to eat since before the battle and in the case of those Grogar took captive, it had been nearly a week.

They had begun to have hunger pains and Applejack couldn't take it anymore. She tapped Colgate on the shoulder and asked, "Colgate, I don't know when you're ready to do this but I think we really need to get going."

Colgate replied, "Well let me talk to White Magick and Twilight to see if they are ready to go." She approached White Magick and asked, "White Magick, do you think you're ready to go? It's been three days and everypony is getting quite hungry."

White Magick's stomach was growling loudly and he was beginning to feel a bit of hunger pain himself. He replied, "Yes, I am ready to go" he looked down to his wife's corpse and continued, "besides, I want to get my wife buried before she starts to decay."

Colgate nodded and headed to Twilight. Twilight had heard what they had been talking about and before she could ask anything, Twilight said, "Yes, I'm ready to get home. I want to leave and never see this horrible place again."

Colgate replied, "Very well then." She called out to everypony else and continued, "Alright everypony, let's get going. Once I get my soldiers rounded up we will all head for home."

White Magick picked his wife up in his aura and followed Colgate out the door, followed by everypony else. Colgate headed to a much larger yet somewhat damaged building where her troops were gathered. She opened the door and yelled, "Come on troops, we're heading for home."

Her soldiers were also very hungry and began to cheer at the news. Once everypony was gathered out in the courtyard they all readied themselves to take off to the south with the exception of Scootaloo, who was returning home to the Crystal Empire. Before she left Colgate grabbed a hold of her and said, "You have a safe trip home Scootaloo."

Scootaloo replied, "You know I will and besides, if I run into anything dangerous I'll slay it!"

Colgate chuckled, "I know you will but still, when I get home I'm tapping into the eye and making sure you're ok. You are like a daughter to me after all."

Scootaloo embraced her former mentor and took off to the north. She levitated Bray onto her back and ordered, "Hold on, this is going to be a long flight."

Bray replied, "Don't worry, I'll hold on tight."

Colgate took to the sky and was followed by everypony else. White Magick, Colgate, Bray and her army were headed to the southeast while everypony else was going to return to Ponyville before others would then head to their homes. As they were getting ready to part ways, they all said their good-byes before parting ways.

Return to Ponyville

The flight back to Ponyville seemed agonizingly long for those who had been taken captive given that they had not eaten anything in nearly a week. For Twilight, who had been abused much more than her friends, it was so bad that halfway there Celestia wound up having to grab her in her aura to carry her the rest of the way home.

By the time they finally reached Ponyville, everypony was exhausted as they landed at the base of Twilight's castle. Despite having been carried in her aura for half the way, Twilight was by far in the worst shape, in even worse shape than she was when she was untied in Tambelon. The moment Celestia saw the bad shape was in, she carried her into her castle and got her put in bed.

Celestia sat by Twilight's bedside and began to weep seeing what a truly horrid shape she was in. It looked like Twilight's wounds were beginning to get infected and she seemed to be getting weaker and weaker as time passed. Celestia grabbed her hoof and began to cry, "I'm sorry this happened to you Twilight, I just wish I could have been here to protect you from Grogar."

Very weakly Twilight began to cry as she asked, "Princess Celestia, am I going to die? Is this going to kill me?"

Celestia lowered her head and replied, "I don't know but...."

LaurFa had entered the room and interrupted, "Not if I have anything to do with it." She cast her gaze at Twilight and continued, "Once I think you are in good enough shape, I will transport you to Alicorn Island where the very energy of the land will aid in speeding up your recovery."

Celestia's ears perked up as she asked, "Really, you'll do that for her?"

LaurFa replied, "Of course I will, I would do it for anypony that I'm not on bad terms with."

Twilight was happy that LaurFa would offer to do this but wanted to know one thing. She asked, "LaurFa, would it be too much trouble for you to stay here until I'm ready to be transported there so that you won't have to make an extra trip?"

LaurFa replied, "Of course I can Twilight, it wouldn't make much sense for me to have to make an extra trip back and forth."

Twilight cast her gaze at both ponies and asked, "When do you think I will be well enough to make this trip?"

LaurFa gave her a smile, "Well now that you're away from Tambelon, in your bed and will be getting food in your system, I would say maybe a couple weeks and once I get you to Faustica, your healing process will speed up."

Twilight yawned, "That sounds wonderful but for now, I really want to get some sleep."

LaurFa nodded and Celestia remained by her side as she fell into a peaceful sleep. Celestia was happy that Twilight was back in her castle where she belonged. She did worry though that her healing process would be so slow that she would be unable to eat enough to survive long enough to make the trip, if there would be one at all. All she could hope for was that she would begin to heal since she was home.

Return to the Tower

As most everypony headed to the southwest in the direction of Ponyville, White Magick along with Colgate, Bray and her forces headed towards the southeast, first towards the portal to White Magick's realm and then Colgate would head east towards her tower. Once they arrived over the hills in the Everfree Forest, everypony stopped but remained airborne since Colgate had far too many ponies with her to be able to land.

As White Magick was holding the body of his fallen wife Colgate glanced at her body and then at him before asking, "White Magick, I don't know if you know when it will happen but I was wondering if I would be welcome at the funeral?"

White Magick held his head low and replied, "I am sorry Colgate but I think this would likely be best if this were kept as an event solely for the ponies of my realm. I know Ruby would probably want you present but when it comes to funerals, the ponies in general are very selective of who they want present, even among our own."

Colgate nodded, "I can understand that entirely but I do hope that we can have get-togethers every now and then just to talk."

White Magick replied, "Of course we can. You are an ally and I have come to think of you as a very dear friend and I definitely know that Ruby would want us to stay in close contact with as much as she liked you."

Colgate saw White Magick beginning to glance down towards the portal and knew that he was wanting to get his wife's body home and prepare it for burial. She embraced him and said, "Well White Magick, I suppose this is a see you later."

He returned the embrace and replied, "Yes, well see you later Colgate." He cast his gaze at Bray and added, "And you too. I'm so glad that we were finally able to free you from Grogar's control." He then cast his gaze at Colgate's army and finished, "And all of you as well. I am glad we had you by our side in this."

They threw him a salute before he flew down below the canopy of the forest. Colgate looked at her soldiers and suggested, "Well troops let's get home, I'm so ready to sleep in my bed again!"

Colgate took off to the east and was followed by her army. A couple hours later her tower and the city of Marentreal finally became visible. As they landed at the base of her tower she lowered Bray off her back, faced her troops and said, "Well troops, we accomplished our mission." She then let out a yawn and continued, "I don't know about you but I'm ready for a good long nap!"

Before anypony could say anything else, Bray asked, "Colgate, I'm glad you liberated me from Grogar and made sure that none of the other leaders punished me because of my past but I have a question. Where am I going to live and what am I going to do?"

Colgate chuckled, "I knew you were going to ask that and I've been contemplating that all the way home. I have decided that you shall live in the tower with me and my generals and you will have a job."

Bray asked, "What will my job be?"

Colgate replied, "Your primary job will be to relay messages between the soldiers on the base and myself. When you are not doing that, your other task will be to simply relax and enjoy life."

Bray was shocked at what he was hearing. Never in his life did he imagine that he would wind up in a situation where he could finally relax and not have to worry about being abused or treated poorly. He asked, "Seriously?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, oh and one other thing, prepare yourself for hearty meals because you will be joining my generals and I for meals." She got a smile on her face as she added, "And we all like our meals large and full of meat and I hope you do as well." She cast her gaze towards the stairs and finished, "Oh and I almost forgot, I need to get you settled into your sleeping quarters, follow me."

Bray did as instructed and was thrilled when he saw the size of the bed that he would now be sleeping in. He went in and immediately plopped down on what was the most comfortable bed he had ever laid on. He rushed to Colgate, embraced her and exclaimed, "Thank you Colgate, thank you!"

Colgate replied, "No need to thank me, you have earned it by aiding us in slaying Grogar and helping in freeing the ponies who were taken captive." She pointed her hoof into his room and continued, "Make yourself at home, I have some business I need to take care of."

Bray did as requested and Colgate headed up to her room. The first thing she did was tap into the eye to look for trouble. She first zeroed in on Tambelon and watched in awe as lightning struck one of the buildings causing debris to fall and ring the city's bell one last time, causing it to return to the deep, dark places of the world. She then scanned the rest of the world and noticed that everything was normal and that nothing was out of the ordinary.

She plopped down on her bed and said to herself, "Mission accomplished Colgate, hopefully no other evils will return to this world."