Terror in Equestria 11: Death and Destruction

Three days had passed since LaurFa and her companions had departed Ridead and so far, their journey had been stress free. The weather had been fine, the seas had been calm and most importantly, there had been no tension among them at all. LaurFa remembered how Cosmos had a case of the shivers prior to their departure and said that he had a bad feeling. She approached him and asked, "Cosmos, remember how you had a bad feeling that something bad was going to happen?"

Cosmos still felt a bit nervous but he really didn't want to bring it up. He replied, "Well not really........."

He then got a case of the shivers, one that was much worse than what he experienced when they were setting sail, it was bad enough that it was clearly visible to LaurFa. She asked, "What was that about? It is probably 80 degrees out here, if not warmer!"

Cosmos replied, "I don't know what it is but I'm feeling it again. I'm feeling it that something bad is going to happen TODAY. Something that nopony would ever expect, something that will be unprecedented."

Given that everything had been going fine with their voyage she dismissed him, "Oh everything is going to be fine. Just calm down, alright?"

Cosmos was not thrilled that she would simply dismiss him the way she did so he headed to the back of the ship to seek some solitude while LaurFa headed to the front where she would join the rest of the monarchs. Celestia was the first to notice that her father was not with her. She asked, "LaurFa, where is my father. I thought he would be joining you."

LaurFa sighed, "Oh he had another case of the shivers and is now worried that something bad is going to happen, again. He thinks that something unprecedented is going to happen today."

Galaxia knew that Cosmos could get paranoid from time to time but normally it was just over trivial things. She replied, "Well hopefully it isn't anything too bad. I know he gets paranoid but I doubt we have anything serious to work about."

Celestia however was not in the same mindset, "Look, just because he often times gets paranoid does not mean that it is nothing to worry about." She saw looks of amusement from them and yelled, "Forget it, I'm going to go check on dad."

She stormed to the back of the ship to join her father. When she arrived, it looked like he was watching the horizon, almost like he was expecting something. She asked, "Dad, are you ok?"

Cosmos replied, "Not really. I have a bad feeling something may happen to us and LaurFa treats me like I'm just worrying over nothing." He raised his voice and continued, "I know my paranoia is often times unwarranted but this time things just don't feel right."

Celestia headed to the edge of the deck and cast her gaze towards the horizon as well. As she continued to watch she couldn't help but feel the same. She commented, "You know dad, things don't feel right. I don't know if Colgate is going to cast some sort of spell to summon a storm or what."

Cosmos countered, "Could be but what I feel like is going to happen will be unprecedented!" He became more paranoid and continued, "What if he resurrected some villain from the past and is sending them this way?"

Celestia initially snickered a bit until her father yelled, "So you don't believe me either?" He raised his voice further and continued, "Do you not remember how Colgate resurrected Ruby? Do you not remember how she knows necromancy spells?"

When he brought up the necromancy, it made Celestia think. She asked, "Who do you think she would have resurrected? Would it have been Grogar, Tirac or Tirek?"

Cosmos replied, "Well without his collar Grogar is harmless and without that Rainbow of Darkness, Tirac is harmless and I don't think she would risk resurrecting Tirek, he is simply too dangerous."

Celestia asked, "Who then....." She then saw something dark on the horizon. She pointed her wing towards the northwest and asked, "Dad, what is that?"

Cosmos stared at the approaching object and knew it wasn't something to be messed with. He knew it was something they would have to hide from. He yelled, "Run Celestia! We have to get everypony under deck!"

The two rushed towards the front of the deck and Cosmos yelled, "Everypony under deck! Something is coming, something horrible, something deadly!"

LaurFa couldn't help but chuckle, "Seriously Cosmos? I know you get paranoid but this is ridi....."

*SHRIEK!*

When they heard the shriek, they realized that Cosmos was right. They knew that they had best get into the cabin. As they were rushing into the cabin, a bolt of dark lavender energy struck Celestia, knocking her to the ground. Celestia was able to recover quickly and got into the cabin and shut the door. Celestia was in a great amount of pain and cried, "What happened, what was that?"

LaurFa looked out of the windshield and saw a large dark gray beast and what appeared to be a pony riding on it. She replied, "I don't know but it is something that I've never seen......" She then turned towards Celestia and gasped, "Celestia, it is HER!"

Celestia, still in pain, cried out, "Who? Who is her?"

LaurFa pointed at Celestia's burn mark and was shocked by what she saw. It was a six pointed star. Celestia saw it and was terrified, "It's Twilight! How can it be Twilight, she has been dead for 5,000 years!"

LaurFa replied, "Celestia, Colgate resurrected Ruby after five thousand years so she probably......"

She stopped talking when they felt the ship being lifted out of the water. Cosmos looked out the windshield and saw that the ship was grasped in a dark lavender aura, one similar to what Twilight's was in her last days, only darker. He said, "I don't know what's going to happen but we need to be ready." He pointed towards Celestia and continued, "You most of all. I am pretty sure she will do anything she can to terrify you before doing whatever it is she has planned."

Before she could reply the boat began to spin, causing them to get thrown around inside the cabin. Not only were they slamming into the walls, they were also slamming into one another. After what felt like forever to them, the spinning stopped but they could tell the ship was falling. They couldn't help but wonder if they were going to crash on land or fall into the ocean.

Finally they crashed on a small island. As it hit the ground, the ship broke into many, many pieces and everypony was exposed. Initially they thought that maybe Twilight would stop at simply destroying their ship until they heard another shriek. The approaching Witch Queen was not their only problem as they saw something moving under the ground. LaurFa yelled, "Its a Tatzlwurm! Get airborne!"

Despite the huge beast and Twilight being in the area, all but one of them took to the air. Cosmos had got up but couldn't get his wings to work. Galaxia screamed, "Get off the ground honey, it's going to eat you."

Cosmos yelled, "I can't my wings......"

He let out a scream as the worm surfaced and grabbed him with tentacles. As it began to pull him into its mouth he yelled, "Help me!"

The others took to the sky and began to blast the worm's tentacles with their energy, temporarily freeing him but the worm was not about to give it's meal up that easily. It again grabbed him and quickly pulled him in, head first. The other Alicorns continued to fire energy at it but would be surprised by what would happen next, the worm was pulled out of the ground and ripped open by the beast.

They knew that Cosmos was likely a lost cause so they tried to run away but would be stopped when the remains of the worm were dropped in front of them. When the worm hit the ground, it split open but it was too late for Cosmos, he had already passed. All of them were devastated, especially Celestia as she began to cry in agony.

Finally the beast landed in front of them and the pony riding it dismounted and approached them. The very first one she approached was Celestia. She hissed, "Well, well, well, what do we have here." She pulled out her sword and laughed, "Same old crybaby Celestia, wah-wah-wah!"

Celestia looked up at the figure that approached her and cried, "Twilight, is that you under that mask?"

The pony turned to the right and showed her her cutie mark. Celestia would be terrified by what she saw. While she did see Twilight's cutie mark, it was inside a much larger cutie mark, that of Colgate. She asked, "How Twilight, how did this happen?"

The figure moved its sword closer to her and hissed, "No longer am I Twilight. I am the Witch Queen of Marentreal, servant of Colgate, The Goddess of Terror."

All of them gasped, "The Goddess of Terror?"

The Witch Queen laughed, "Yes, the Goddess of terror." She saw that Cosmos had been killed by the worm and grunted in frustration. She knew that Colgate was not going to be pleased with her when she returned without the one Colgate wanted. She then turned to Celestia and hissed, "And now to do what I should have done ages ago!" She pointed her horn at Celestia and hissed, "I should never have let you go into exile that night in Canterlot, I should have destroyed you!"

The Witch Queen let out a loud shriek as she plunged the sword straight into Celestia's abdomen. She let out an agonizing cry of pain but the sword would be pulled out when Galaxia was able to grasp it out of the Witch's aura. Galaxia, LaurFa and Luna all began to fire energy at the Witch Queen. The Queen was not sure exactly what to do given that Cosmos was the only one her Master wanted so she grabbed her sword, mounted her beast and took off back towards the black tower.

Once she was gone, the remaining three rushed to Celestia and saw that her solid white coat had begun to go pale and that her mane had lost its normal wavy appearance. LaurFa put her hoof to her forehead and said, "She's been stabbed by a cursed blade."

Galaxia asked, "What's going to happen to her, what's going to happen to my daughter?"

Luna added, "Do you know some sort of healing magic to save her?"

LaurFa saw that there was a cave not too far away so she grabbed Celestia in her aura and ordered everypony in. Once they got into the cave, LaurFa sat Celestia down and replied, "I do know some healing magic but what she has been stabbed by was of pure black magic. It is going to take everything I know to save her."

LaurFa knew that this was going to be a challenge, a challenge that she was not sure that she would be able to complete. As she began to wonder how she was going to do this, Celestia laid before her continuing to cry out in pain, growing paler and growing colder. One thing LaurFa did know was that if she didn't get Celestia healed before too long, that she would become dark and corrupted, just like the Witch that stabbed her.