Terror in Equestria 11: Death and Destruction

Darkness was setting in as Brevity landed in the hills around the portal to what was once Unicornia. While Brevity was certain that going in and retrieving the remains of the sword would be easy, it was not. She knew that it was in the hills but she was not sure as to exactly where. When she landed, it was darker than she had anticipated so she flared up her horn to provide some light. When she lit up her horn, she realized that she must not have landed in the right area as there was no path.

Rather than flying back up above the canopy, she began to walk around, hoping that she would eventually reach a path that would take her right to her destination. After an hour of walking around, Brevity was becoming frustrated, very frustrated, "Ugh, where is that path? Why can't we find it? It has to be here somewhere."

As soon as she said that, she heard a voice coming from what appeared to be her left, "Brevity, is that you?"

It was the voice of Ruby. Brevity replied, "Yes, it is us." Ruby then lit her horn up brighter so that Brevity could find her.

Once Brevity found her, Ruby said, "I'm so glad I found you."

Brevity was not thrilled that somepony would be joining her on this quest as she figured that this was something that she could easily do on her own. She asked, "Why, why didst thou come searching for us? Brevity can do this just fine on her own!" She then became angry, so angry that she did not speak in her normal manner, and questioned, "You don't think I can do this alone, do you? The others don't think I can do this on my own either, do they?"

Ruby replied, "Well they sent me because......."

Brevity snapped, "They don't, do they?" She then looked towards the east and continued, "Now we know how Colgate must feel, we know how frustrating it is to not be trusted!"

The very mention of Colgate brought out a fury from Ruby, "What? You think you know how Colgate feels?" She flared up her horn in anger and continued, "Look, all of us simply realized that you wouldn't be able to use your magic there! This has nothing to do with distrust, this is simply us knowing a fact."

Brevity calmed down and began to let it sink in and then she realized that Ruby was right, "Very well, we know that thou dost not distrust us." She paused for a minute before continuing, "Well shall we go and retrieve the remains of thy sword?"

Ruby replied, "Let's do."

Ruby immediately began to head towards the portal and Brevity followed. The trip did not last too long as Brevity had initially not landed that far away from it. Once they reached the chasm where the portal was located, Brevity noticed the corpses of patrol ponies. She stopped and asked, "Ruby, what happened? Did Colgate come and kill them?"

To Ruby that was one of those no brainer type of questions and was not one bit pleased that Brevity would ask such a question. She snapped, "Well of course she did. How else do you think they were slaughtered?"

Ruby then pointed her wing towards the portal and the two crossed through. Once they got into the city, Brevity gasped in shock. She knew that Colgate had become bloodthirsty and sought revenge against those that distrusted her but never did she imagine that one pony could be responsible for so much death. She put her hoof on Ruby's shoulder and said, "I'm sorry Ruby, I'm sorry."

Ruby could tell that seeing all the death was even a shock to a pony who was as old as time itself. She replied, "I know, it is a lot to take in." She then turned towards the palace and continued, "Let's go and retrieve the remains of my sword."

Brevity followed Ruby into the palace and the moment they stepped inside, they both began to gag over the stench. Despite both of them having been around for ages, neither had ever smelled anything so foul in their lives. Eventually it was too much for Brevity to handle and she began to vomit. While Ruby was feeling like she was going to throw up herself, her desire to find what she needed overpowered it.

As she was passing by the discolored and butchered remains of White Magick, she began to cry in agony, "Why did this have to happen, why? Why does Colgate have to be so evil?"

Once Ruby began to cry, Brevity headed towards her and replied, "Because she has fused so much evil into herself. She's fused Grogar's collar into herself, she fused that black gem into herself and who knows what else she has done."

Ruby continued to cry for a few more minutes before calming down and continuing closer to what was her throne. There she saw the remains of her blade. Seeing all those shards brought back memories from the day she was ambushed, everything from the changelings and dark Alicorns taking down here soldiers, the attack and savage slaughter of her husband to Colgate shattering her blade and running her out of Unicornia. She began to scream, "Curse her, curse her!"

She began to levitate the shards into her saddle bags and hope that she wound up getting all of them. She knew that if she failed to recover even one tiny bit of the blade, that it could not be restored. She also knew about how good Brevity's eyesight was and called out to her, "Brevity, could you come here? I need to find every last piece of it."

Brevity did as requested and began to search for pieces that Ruby may not be able to see. Very quickly Brevity began to point out the tiniest of pieces so that Ruby could levitate them into her saddle bags. As Brevity was pointing out the smallest pieces to her, Ruby breathed a sigh of relief knowing that with Brevity having such good eyesight, that she would easily find it all and that with everypony working together in Canterlot, that it could be restored. After an hour of searching and retrieving the tiniest of pieces, Brevity found the handle. She said, "And last but not least, we have the handle."

Ruby embraced Brevity and thanked, "Thank you Brevity. Without you I never could have recovered all of it."

"Don't mention it" said Brevity. She then crinkled her nose and continued, "Now let's get out of here, we canst handle anymore of this stench."

Ruby agreed and they headed towards the exit. By this point the stench was getting so bad that Ruby did not even feel like hanging around any longer than was necessary, not even long enough to give her husband a proper burial. The two quickly rushed towards the portal and once they crossed back into Coastal Equestria, they breathed a sigh of relief, albeit a nervous one."

"Fresh air!" Exclaimed Brevity. "We never thought the air of an enemy's nation would smell so good."

Ruby replied, "Likewise but we need to get going. I know Colgate is likely just letting us do this but still, I have my concerns that she may decide to attack out of the blue."

Brevity nodded and the two took to the air and sped back towards Canterlot. As they were flying back to Equestria's capitol, both felt a sense of relief. Ruby in particular felt a bit more confident knowing that not only could she get her blade restored, but that chances are they could write the proper magic to make it stronger, strong enough to shatter Colgate's black diamond sabre and with any luck, slay her.

In the black tower Colgate was watching through the eye with not anger or disgust, but amusement. She had a slight smile on her face as she laughed to herself, "So you two think you can restore that thing? You two think you can strengthen it?" Her laugh became louder as she continued, "Well good, I always like a good fight but with the magic I know, I can make mine indestructible!"