A day and a half had passed since Ruby and White Magick had departed Faustica and despite them being incredibly tired and wore out, they had been flying non-stop for the most part so they could get home and bury Blue Star before his corpse began to rot. When they finally saw the hills of the Everfree, both of them sighed in relief.

"Well we're almost home." said White Magick.

"I know" replied Ruby, "and the first thing we are doing when we get home is burying Blue Star."

White Magick nodded and they headed down into the hills and landed. Once they landed, it was incredibly quiet and it seemed a bit darker than normal. This did initially unnerve them but they figured that they would soon run into a patrol that would be out searching for outsiders. As they continued towards the portal, things just didn't seem right to them as they had yet to run into any patrols. The closer they got to the portal, they began to get nervous as there seemed to be nothing but silence.

When they got to the entrance they would be horrified when they saw the bodies of several patrol ponies. Ruby was the first to say something, "Wasn't the attack on Faustica enough, now she has to come and kill some of our citizens too?"

White Magick added, "We better be careful, for all we know she could be waiting in Unicornia, waiting for us to arrive and then slay us."

Ruby scoffed at the comment, "I think she would know better than to go there. Our citizens are more than strong enough to repel any attack from her." She turned towards the portal and ordered, "Grab their bodies so that they may be buried."

White Magick did as ordered and they headed through. Once they crossed into Unicornia, like it was in the hills, there was nothing but silence. This unnerved them as normally their citizens are out and about and conversing with one another. Eventually they saw something they never imagined, when they got into the city they saw nothing but corpses. They knew that there was only one thing that would cause it, an attack by Colgate and her army.

Ruby went into a rage, "Curse her, curse her! Does her blood lust know no bounds?"

White Magick was in such a state of shock that he couldn't even say anything. As they continued to walk around the city and head towards the base, all they saw were corpses and once they got to the base, White Magic would go into a fury when he saw not only every single soldier laying on the ground dead, but also seeing his top general's head planted on a spear. He screamed, "How did she do this, is she really that powerful?"

While the two were out looking at the carnage, Colgate and her troops were hiding in the palace. When Colgate saw White Magick standing by the remains of his top general, she got an idea. She began to snicker which prompted Dark Night to ask, "Colgate, what are you thinking?"

Colgate snickered, "Just wait, this is going to be priceless!"

She cast a spell on Blazing Glory's head, causing it to speak, "Your Majesties, this is your fault! Had you just trusted Colgate, all our citizens would still be alive."

Both Ruby and White Magick stood there in a state of shock as the head spoke to them. Colgate found their shock rather amusing so she had the head continue, "I don't get why you distrusted Colgate so much. All she did was eat the dark goddess's heart and take a couple relics home with her for safe keeping." The head then began to laugh, "It's not like she created evil beasts and practiced forbidden magic or anything!"

At that moment they both knew that Colgate was there, they knew she was using her magic to have the head speak. White Magick yelled, "Where are you? Show yourself you little coward!"

Ruby began to head towards the palace. Along with being able to pick up on ponies' thoughts, she was also able to tell where they were coming from. As they continued towards the palace, Ruby ordered, "Be ready for her attack, I have a feeling she likely brought soldiers with her."

White Magick gave her a nod and remained silent. When they got into the palace, the first place they headed was the throne room. Once they arrived, they saw many dark Alicorn and changeling soldiers and up on Ruby's throne was Colgate. Ruby was in no mood for a conversation with her foe, she wanted to attack her. She flared up her horn and fired a bolt of energy at her, striking her and knocking her backwards.

Ruby took off towards Colgate with her sword drawn, ready to slay her. As Colgate was getting up she ordered her troops to attack. As soon as the orders were given, changeling drones and dark Alicorn soldiers came swarming out of every nook and cranny. Colgate had hoped that this would send the two into a panic but it did not. Both began firing energy at them, taking them down. Colgate was not thrilled seeing so many of her soldiers going down but was not about to allow it to stop her from achieving her ultimate goal, wiping the monarchs out.

While White Magick was busy taking out soldiers, Ruby's focus was on Colgate. She glared at Colgate and asked, "Why? Why are you doing this? Was Faustica not enough?"

Colgate jumped forward, began to swing her sabre towards Ruby but would be stopped when her blade struck Ruby's. Ruby then swung her sword towards Colgate but missed. She yelled, "So this is how you want to perish? You are picking death by the blade over death by magic?"

Colgate did not reply and again swung her sabre. The two got into a fight, both believing that they could take out the other. Both took swing after swing at one another. Ruby believed that the straight design of her sword could eventually knock Colgate out and Colgate believed that the larger and curved design of her sabre would eventually shatter Ruby's sword.

While they were fighting, White Magick continued to take out Colgate's soldiers and despite not having his own blade, he was able to knock Dark Night backwards. White Magick was becoming frustrated because unlike how it was with the drones and regular dark Alicorn soldiers, he could not seem to harm him. Colgate saw this and yelled to her remaining soldiers, "Circle him, circle him!"

When the soldiers circled him, he immediately began firing at the ones right in front of him. This gave Dark Night an idea. He decided to attack from behind. When the soldiers to his rear saw Dark Night was behind them, they cleared a path for the general. Dark Night drew his blade and plowed it into White Magick's flank, bringing out a loud scream before he fell to the floor.

When she heard this, Ruby's primary concern went to dealing with Colgate to aiding her husband. She rushed towards her husband but saw that he was surrounded by changelings and that Dark Night had his blade drawn, pointed towards White Magick and ready to stab him again. She fired a powerful bolt of energy at him and yelled, "You may have stabbed him but you will not kill him!"

Ruby fired bolts of energy at the changeling drones and killed a good many of them. She struck the dark Alicorn soldiers but was only able to kill a few of them. She leaned over her husband and saw that he bad begun to turn pale, just like Celestia did when she was stabbed by a cursed blade. She shook him and said, "Fight the darkness, don't give in to....."

Before she could finish her sentence, Colgate blasted her with a powerful bolt of magic, throwing her off of White Magick. She went flying across the throne room and very quickly Colgate flew to where she laid. Ruby was laying there a bit disoriented but not knocked out. Colgate stood over her and said, "Embrace the power of the Goddess of Terror and perhaps I shall let you live." She drew her sabre and continued, "Or continue to fight me and meet your demise."

This was not an option for Ruby. She knew that Colgate had one of two goals, either kill her or stab her and cause the dark powers of her blade to corrupt her. She shot up with her sword drawn and again began to fight Colgate. The two continued to swing their blades at one another, causing the two to clash. Their fight continued on until with one powerful swing of her sabre, Colgate shattered Ruby's diamond blade. When this happened she knew that she had only one option, she knew that she would have to get away from Colgate and hopefully retrieve her husband before he succumbed to the darkness.

She took off towards her husband and noticed that he was surrounded by dark Alicorns and changelings. Colgate had a feeling that he would likely be nearing death and figured that Ruby should see for herself. She fired a bolt of magic at her and knocked her to the ground and caused her to land right on top of her husband. What she would see when she hit the ground terrified her, her husband had begun to turn black and his breathing was becoming erratic.

Despite being surrounded by enemies, she looked down at him and began to cry, "No, please no! Please don't give in, you're stronger than their dark magic."

Colgate saw this and while one part of her wanted to laugh, another part of her wanted to finish this off. She grabbed Ruby in her magic, levitated her off of her husband and ordered, "Finish him off Dark Night, finish him off!"

Dark Night did as ordered and plowed his sword straight through White Magick's chest and into his heart. He let out one final scream before he perished. When Ruby saw this, she began to cry uncontrollably but that would not last long as not only did she have Colgate with her sabre drawn coming towards her, she also had Dark Night with his sword coming after her. While this was one thing Ruby had never dreamed she would have to do, she took off and fled towards the portal.

As she was nearing the portal, Colgate was firing bolts of energy at her but was intentionally missing. Once Ruby had flew through the portal, Colgate stopped her pursuit and turned towards her troops, "Well troops, one down, one to go."

Dark Night knew how Colgate would normally behave, he knew that she would normally pursue her enemies and not stop until they were slain. He turned to her and asked, "Colgate, why didn't you go after her? Why didn't you hunt her down and slay her?"

Colgate gave him a smile, "I want to wait until the final battle to take her down. I want to slay her last and have it be her death that will bring about a new era for this miserable, pathetic world. I want to finalize our victory by killing her." She then turned back towards the palace and asked, "So, what are your plans for White Magick? What do you plan on doing with your kill?"

This was something that he never imagined that Colgate would do. He knew that she was a great leader as long as one was loyal to her, he never thought she'd refer to a kill in such a way. He asked, "My kill? I get to decide what to do with him?"

Colgate replied, "Yes. You are the one who killed him so what happens with his corpse shall be up to you."

Dark Night thought for a minute before asking, "I would love nothing more than to cut him open and eat his organs, I want his heart most of all."

Colgate again gave him a smile, "Then it is all yours. You killed him so you get the tastiest part." She then began to look around at all the corpses and continued, "I think we should all wait around for a few days and eat as much Unicornian meat as possible. I figure the best way to celebrate is to have our feast here, in what WAS her kingdom!"

Dark Night was ecstatic that he was going to be allowed first dibs on what was one of the highest level kill that any of them had achieved. As he grabbed White Magick's remains in his aura, Colgate went to where Blue Star's remains were and levitated them to herself. There were plenty of other corpses that still had meat on them so she continued, "Help yourselves troops, there is plenty more to spare!"

Colgate then flew up to the balcony that Ruby would address her subjects from and shouted, "I, Supreme Commander Colgate, the Goddess of Terror do hereby claim what was once the Kingdom of Unicornia for Coastal Equestria!"

Her troops began to cheer loudly before Colgate returned to the ground and began to dig in on the corpse of Blue Star. She felt proud that she and her army was able to wipe out an entire kingdom and hunt an entire race of ponies down to where only one remained. As she was feasting on the former queen's son, she began to think about the ultimate feast, the meal that she was looking forward to most, that of her former ally, Ruby Heart.

Author's Note

Hide in palace, attack upon entry and slay White Magick....and run Ruby out.