Terror in Equestria 11: Death and Destruction

Receiving the Message

The sun was rising on Alicorn Island on Eqqus 2 and Brevity Thrash was just waking from a peaceful slumber. She stretched out and let out a yawn, "Ugh, not yet! We do not wish to get up this early!"

She shut her curtain, spread her legs out and attempted to drift back to sleep for a little while. That would be interrupted when one of her guards came racing into her room. "Brevity your Majesty, you have to come quick!"

Brevity gave him a scowl and groaned, "What is it? What is so important that it can not wait?"

"There is a reddish-white light flashing in the east. This may sound odd but it has a pattern to it!" The guard replied.

Brevity was not thrilled with having to get up but she knew what it was. She knew that her sister likely needed her back on Eqqus 1. She got up and groaned, "Well we shall see what it is. We shall see what kind of message is being sent."

Brevity got up and headed to her east facing balcony. Sure enough there was a light flashing but it was the way it was flashing that caused her to be concerned. She gasped, "For it to be this urgent I return, it must be bad."

Brevity focused on the flashing light further so that she could figure out exactly where she needed to return. Normally figuring out the exact location was easy but this time it was a bit more difficult. Something didn't seem quite right about the flashing nor did the energy that it was giving off seem as powerful but finally after ten minutes of staring at what was an incredibly frantic pace of flashing, she figured it out. "Neigh Zealand?" she pondered. "Why would it be coming from there?"

After wondering for a moment, she powered up her horn and recited the spell to return,

"To the old world we shall go even if it is just for a brief while or so
Whether it be simply for what happened for us to see or if it is this world some wish to flee
Now the time for us to go has come and a brief stay is what awaits some."

Brevity's Return

In Prancington, LaurFa continued to flash her horn frantically. She had been flashing it for a good fifteen minutes with no response, which was much longer than what it normally took. Finally she realized that either her sister did not see her flashing or that since she no longer had her creator goddess powers, that she no longer had the ability to contact her sister like that.

She sighed in frustration but then noticed a yellowish-pink ball forming above them. Once it popped, down floated Brevity. The very first thing she did was rush to her sister, embrace her and ask, "Sister, we got thy message! Art thou ok?"

"No, I am not ok nor is this whole planet!" replied LaurFa.

Brevity could tell by not just her sister's response but by the expressions of all those with her that things were indeed not ok. She asked, "What is going on? Why is it that thou contacted us?"

LaurFa replied, "It is Supreme Commander Colgate, she distrusts us all now and has begun her attack upon this world. She has created....."

Brevity interrupted, "That can not be so! We know Colgate, we know that she would never do such a thing. We know that all she has ever done was for the good......"

Celestia, who had been a direct victim of the first attack interrupted, "Brevity your Majesty, that Colgate no longer exists. She has grown distrustful of us all."

"What?" gasped Brevity.

Luna added, "Yes, she no longer trusts anypony. It was after her consumption of the dark goddess's heart that she began to change and it was just recently that she has began to use incredibly dark magic, magic of pure evil to unleash her wrath upon us all."

Brevity was still having a hard time believing them, "How so, tell us how thou knows this? Tell us why thou art accusing Colgate of these things?"

Celestia approached Brevity, spread her wings wide and raised her voice, "Because on the way here our ship was attacked. We were attacked by a dark creature riding a giant gray beast."

Luna added, "And the dark creature had Twilight's cutie mark on it BUT the mark was inside a much larger one, Colgate's cutie mark."

LaurFa continued, "And Celestia was stabbed by a cursed blade and it took everything I had to save her."

This caused Brevity's attitude to change entirely. When they mentioned the creature having Twilight's cutie mark inside Colgate's, she realized that they were not lying about the dark magic that was being used. She also knew about cursed blades and knew that there was only one place to get them.

"Wait a minute, she was stabbed by a blade from Midnight Castle?" Brevity asked. She then realized that it had been many, many millennia since that castle had even stood, she realized it was from the long passed era of Ponyland. She again became a bit skeptical and continued, "How didst she acquire a blade from there? That place hast likely been reduced to nothing many, many millennia ago."

"I don't know but given the dark magic that place was protected by, part of it may have survived and Colgate likely found it." She saw Brevity begin to scowl and continued, "After all, Tambelon was still there after many, many millennia of being gone." replied LaurFa.

"Very well then." She then began to examine her sister more closely and noticed something. She noticed that her sister did not have the same regal appearance that she normally did and this brought out concern from her, "Sister, thy coat dost not seem as white as normal, what happened." She then remembered how she brought up having to save Celestia and continued, "Sister, did you sacri......?"

"Yes, I sacrificed my creator goddess tier powers to save Celestia when she was stabbed by that blade." replied LaurFa.

This did not sit well with Brevity, especially given that LaurFa was the only other creator goddess besides herself. She became angry, so angry that she forgot to speak in her normal way, "Sister, you are the only other creator goddess and now that is gone? Do you know....."

LaurFa was not thrilled with her sister's questioning and interrupted her, "You know what? If I had not sacrificed what I did, Celestia would have died and turned into the very thing that attacked us! What I sacrificed was for the benefit of all, especially Celestia."

Brevity sighed, "Well we suppose we can see thy point." She then cast her gaze at Blue Star's palace and continued, "It seems as though we have a serious problem on our hooves. Let us go to the king's throne room so thou can brief us on everything thou knows."

Briefing Brevity

Once Brevity had found out that her sister had sacrificed not only her goddess tier powers but her immortality, she was not one bit pleased. She and her sister had always been and believed that both of them always would be but now, that was all gone. While LaurFa had had her powers drained in the past, she knew that this time there would be no going back, she knew there was no way to restore them. She did know however that if they are to take on and defeat the world's new threat, that she could not dwell on it nor could she put any guilt trips on her sister.

Once they arrived in the throne room, Brevity was more than ready to get down to business and learn everything she needed to know so they could make a plan of action. She looked around and noticed that some leaders were absent. She turned to Blue Star and asked, "Your Majesty, where art the others? Where art thy mother and father, where art Scootaloo?"

Given that she knew more about their situation, Luna would respond, "Assuming Scootaloo made it to and out of Unicornia safely, she and the royal family should be in Faustica as we speak."

"What dost thou mean if they made it to and out of Unicornia safely?" asked Brevity.

Luna continued, "Up until recently, Scootaloo had been fiercely loyal to Supreme Commander Colgate but she has since joined our side. Also, Colgate has that eye and if she saw her betrayal and she were caught in Coastal Equestria, things likely would not bode well for her."

Celestia added, "And if all three of them were caught in Colgate's nation, they would likely have had horn caps placed on them and be locked away in the black tower's dungeon."

"Thou brought up Scootaloo once being loyal to Colgate but has since joined her side. What would prompt her to do such a thing?" asked Brevity.

LaurFa figured that it would likely be best if she simply told her sister about everything so that perhaps they could get everything out in the open and hopefully get sailing to Faustica before too long, "Sister, this all involves an ancient prophecy, Alicorn gems, Scootaloo telling Colgate about them, Colgate acquiring them, Scootaloo's betrayal and a gem of pure evil."

"An ancient prophecy?" asked Brevity.

"Yes, an ancient prophecy." LaurFa began, "As you know, the Alicorn gems allow the user to spy on the world."

Brevity nodded and LaurFa continued, "Well as it turns out, a prophecy book I was reading spoke of many of these gems in a cave on the west side of Alicorn Island. While I was skeptical at first, as it turns out, they do indeed exist."

"We take it that thou plans on giving one to each global leader so that thy new enemy can be spied upon?" asked Brevity.

"I wish." replied Laurfa. "The bad thing is, Colgate stole the gems, including a black one of pure evil and with the black one, if the prophecy is correct, she could unleash a wrath of unprecedented horror upon this world."

Brevity was still having a bit of trouble believing everything that her sister had been telling her as it seemed to be unbelievable, "Sister, we would very much like to see this prophecy book. Everything seems so overly dramatic."

Celestia yelled, "So you're saying you don't believe that I was stabbed by a cursed blade?" She pointed towards LaurFa and continued, "You could tell that your sister sacrificed her powers! She wouldn't just do that for no good reason."

Brevity sighed, "Very well, when dost thou wish for us to go to Alicorn Island?"

Blue star replied, "Given that these five had to fly here, I would say allow them to rest for a couple of days before we decide whether we are going to fly or set sail."

Brevity nodded and then said, "How about we get some food as we are most hungry."

The five leaders were not exactly thrilled with Brevity's skepticism despite hearing their stories, especially the attack on Celestia and LaurFa having to sacrifice what made her unique to save her. As they headed to the dining hall, all LaurFa could do was hope that when her sister actually saw the book and perhaps even the cave, well the parts that were safe to enter, she would fully believe them.