Terror in Equestria 11: Death and Destruction

An Unpleasant Return

After flying for many hours, Ruby and Brevity arrived in Canterlot well after dark. When they landed the scene seemed eerily similar to what had happened in Faustica earlier in the year. The courtyards were littered with the bodies of citizens, guard ponies could be seen laying dead and the silence was deafening. They continued to look for survivors but when none were to be found, they headed to the palace where there were lights on.

Unlike it would have been in the past, there were no guards present to question them so they were able to just go right in. When they finally arrived in the throne room, the tension was thick and they could see a great amount of sorrow on the faces of the leaders. Ruby was the first to say anything, "What happened? Did Colgate and her general attack?"

This question was not well received, "No!" screamed Celestia, "It was the same beast and it's creature that attacked me in the past. It was what was once Twilight."

Luna added, "And then there was another one that joined her." She pointed her wing towards her sister and continued, "But thanks to Celestia, both are no more."

Both knew about Celestia's past and how at times she could be a liability because of how emotional she could get and were shocked to hear this. Brevity commented, "Well it is good that you took care of them." She then began to look around and continued, "Where is Galaxia, where is thy mother? She is normally with thee."

The throne room went silent before the royal sisters broke down crying in agony. "She was killed in the attack." cried Luna. "She was killed by one of the beasts."

Celestia's cries became more angry as she continued, "And the attack probably happened because you two were gone." She pointed her hoof at Ruby and screamed, "Colgate probably saw both of you were gone and knew it would be a prime time to attack." Her yells became louder, "This is all your fault! Had one of you stayed, my mother would probably still be alive."

Ruby flared up her horn in anger, "Do not blame me for this. I had to go help Brevity get the remains of my sword. Without that, we'd all be as good as dead."

Luna too became angry, "So you are saying is that us losing our mother was worth it just so you could be sure and get the remnants of your sword?"

One pony was watching the argument and realized that this kind of arguing was not only not getting anything done but it was causing a great amount of disharmony. LaurFa fired a bolt of energy into the ceiling and yelled, "Stop it, all of you!" She calmed down and continued, "You know what, we need to focus on defeating Colgate and with the way you three are right now, she could probably come in here by herself and slay all of us." She again raised her voice, "We need to focus! We need to focus on fixing Ruby's sword."

The throne room went silent before Luna would speak up, "Very well but what do we focus on first? Do we focus on Ruby's sword" she pointed her wing towards Ruby and continued, "or do we focus on you resurrecting soldiers? We will need an army to take on Colgate."

This was something that none of them had thought about but it would not be too long until Ruby would make a suggestion, "I think we need to focus on rebuilding the army. If it were to just be us marching on the black tower, we wouldn't stand a chance."

Brevity replied, "Very well, thou shalt go out into the courtyard and revive fallen soldiers......."

Celestia interrupted, "No, she shall revive ALL of our citizens. No one pony shall be put ahead of another."

"Celestia, I am not sure how many times I can cast that spell without draining myself." said Ruby "I have only used it once in the distant past."

Celestia replied, "Well revive as many of them as you can." The then pointed her wings at the others and continued, "And we shall figure out how we can restore your sword."

Brevity was not overly fond of the idea of them trying to figure that out on their own but agreed with Celestia's suggestion. She levitated her saddle bags to Celestia, "Good luck. I doubt you will be able to do anything without my presence but if you can figure out what to do, that would be much appreciated."

New Discoveries

Once Ruby headed out to begin reviving as many of the fallen that she could, Celestia and the others headed into the royal library to see if there were any books at all on restoration spells. Brevity, LaurFa and Celestia, always being the positive one, believed that if they looked hard enough, that they could perhaps find something. Luna had her doubts though that anything involving restoration spells for foreign objects would be in there.

Once they began the long, arduous search for the right book, they could tell that this search would not be a quick one. Each pony began looking in a separate corner of the library and while many spell books were found, including ones to reassemble simple objects that were destroyed, none of them were seeing anything that would include what they needed. After two hours of looking, Luna threw her hooves up in the air, "Ugh, this is hopeless." She turned towards Celestia and continued, "Sister, there is likely absolutely nothing like that in here!" She raised her voice and continued, "Unless we look in the restricted section, we're probably not going to find anything!"

Celestia's head shot up when Luna brought that up, "That's it! Something like that would only be found in the most secure part of the library." She headed towards a door in the back and continued, "Come on sister, let's go and check in there."

Luna began to follow her as did the others until Celestia stopped and sternly said, "No, the rest of you can not come in here. The restricted section is reserved solely for Luna and myself."

This not only did not sit well with the other leaders but it brought out a bit of suspicion in them. Brevity continued to approach them and asked, "And why is that? Art thou hiding something of thy own in there? Dost thou have evil relics of thy own locked away that thou dost not want the rest of us to see?"

The question angered the two sisters, "No Brevity. You must understand, as long as we have been alive nopony but us has ever been allowed in the restricted section." Luna snapped.

Celestia added, "Even back when I had my magic school, even my brightest and most promising proteges were not allowed in there. It is called a restricted section for a reason, it is restricted to just the two of us."

LaurFa decided to be more subtle than her sister, "Listen, we just think that if you allow us to join you that we may find what we are looking for much more quickly."

Celestia and Luna looked at one another and nodded. Celestia said, "Very well, we shall make an exception just this once."

Luna added, "We are breaking with many millennia of tradition but you may join us."

Brevity and LaurFa did not say much of anything as they followed the two into the restricted section. Once they entered, they all had to light up their horns as there was no lighting in there. There were many, many cobwebs in there given that nopony had entered in millennia. The Creator Goddesses began to look around and did see things that one would normally not find in a library, things such as armor and what appeared to be enchanted swords, many enchanted swords, swords that seemed to have an aura to them.

LaurFa headed over towards them and asked, "Princesses, what are these? What are these swords doing in here?"

Brevity added, "And what of the armor? We would think they would be in thy armory, not thy private library."

Celestia gave the two a glare as she was not one bit happy that anypony outside of them now knew that they had enchanted weapons hidden away but knew that she would have to answer the question. "They are swords that were forged prior to the founding of Equestria. They could very well be the last weapons with the magic of Ponylanders flowing within them."

The room went silent as LaurFa and Brevity were trying to process what Celestia had told them. Neither one could imagine that Celestia would be hiding something that could be so useful in their quest, weapons that could have stopped evil ages ago. Brevity finally spoke up, "Perhaps these are what we need to defeat Colgate."

Brevity added, "Colgate's dark weapons are from the Ponyland era, perhaps these could counter the blades that she and her general possess." She then began to look over the armor and noticed something about it. She noticed that it looked much stronger than the armor that guard ponies wore and that it covered more of a pony's body and added, "And it appears that these are from the same era as the swords."

Celestia knew what Brevity was hinting at and realized that perhaps the time had come to finally use the weapons from an earlier era that they had kept locked away. She sighed, "Very well, we shall bring them out and take them into battle."

LaurFa replied, "Good but now let's see if any of the books in here contain the type of spell we need."

The four then began to look through the books and unlike it was in the main library, there were plenty of books regarding warfare and weapons, some books dating back to the final days of Ponyland. Luna was looking through one and gasped, "I think I found it!" The others headed to her and she continued, "Restoring ancient and enchanted swords."

They all began to read through it and in the middle of the book, it spoke of a "diamond blade from the island of immortality" and the energies needed to restore it should it ever be shattered. It then continued on to say that the energy of the one who wields it must be used to restore it.

Once they read this they then began to read further on to see if it contained any kind of spell but they would be disappointed when they discovered there wasn't one. Brevity spoke up, "It looks like Ruby will have to write her own magic to do this." Brevity grabbed the swords and armor in her aura and continued, "Well it looks like we will have good news and bad news to break to Ruby."

Celestia commented, "Let's just hope she doesn't get too angry about having to write her own magic."

The others agreed and headed back to the throne room. When they arrived they noticed that Ruby had two unicorn guard ponies with her. Celestia gave her a smile and exclaimed, "You did it Ruby, you were able to resurrect some of them."

Luna was not quite as enthusiastic in her response, "That is all? Two is all the more you were able to resurrect?"

Ruby replied, "Listen, resurrection spells drain a lot of energy from a pony and they aren't something that can just be used en masse."

Celestia was curious about one thing, "What about civilians, did you resurrect any civilians?"

Ruby gave her a smile, "Yes, I was able to. I was able to resurrect one mare and one stallion to slowly but surely rebuild the city's population."

Neither one of the sisters was thrilled that she could only bring back one of each since such a limited gene pool would lead to ponies with many genetic problems being born but knew that they had more pressing matters on their hooves. LaurFa held the book up that they found and levitated it to Ruby, "As it turns out, this book does have information about your sword in it but" she sighed before continuing, "It is you who must restore it. It is the wielder who must fix it."

Ruby began to read through the book and saw that it contained no spell in it. This did not surprise her though since the ponies of the final years of Ponyland did not keep copies of their spells along with information regarding the object it was for. She set the book down and said, "Well, it appears as though I will be writing my own magic." She pointed towards the armor and swords and continued, "And what is that? Where did those swords and armor come from."

Celestia had a feeling that when she told her about it and how old it was, that she would likely become angry so she readied herself to speak and speak in a way in which nopony could interrupt her, "This armor and these blades are from before the founding of Equestria. They were found in the ruins of Dream Valley immediately after my sister and I were sent to rebuild this land and make it inhabitable for ponies again."

Ruby screamed, "What....."

Celestia cut her off, "Just listen. We discovered them and locked them away after we built Canterlot to keep them from falling into the wrong hoov...."

Ruby again interrupted, "You know something? We probably could have used these weapons many millennia ago. We could have defeated lesser evils and stopped this from getting to the point where we're facing an evil we may not be able to defeat."

Luna was not thrilled with Ruby yelling at her sister, "Well we have them now, don't we?" She then motioned for the guards to approach them, "Come, let's see if this armor will fit you."

The guards approached her and she levitated the armor to them. They could tell that the armor was designed for ponies somewhat larger from them. The two began to try to put the armor on and then something magical happened, it immediately conformed to their bodies. They then put the helmets on and the same thing happened. This caused all the leaders to gasp. "Enchanted armor!" gasped Ruby. "I never once imagined such armor would exist."

Luna got a smile on her face, "I guess those Dream Valley ponies had much more advanced magic than any of us ever thought."

"It looks that way." Celestia agreed.

Luna then became curious as to whether the armor would only shrink to fit a pony's body or if it would expand to fit a pony as well so she attempted to put some on and just like it was with the guard ponies, the armor immediately conformed to fit her larger body. Given that there was still plenty more armor, this gave Luna hope. "Look at this, it expanded to fit me." She turned to her fellow leaders and continued, "It looks like we can go into battle with a huge advantage, enchanted armor."

Luna then pointed her wing towards the blades and continued, "And it looks like we will all have enchanted blades as well."

Ruby levitated one of the swords and began to examine it. She could sense the energy radiating from it and knew she had felt that before, it was the enchantment of Dream Valley blades. She gave Luna a smile, "Yes, it looks that way. I do think that we will stand a much better chance against the black tower now."

After seeing what happened, the other leaders too tried on some armor and it expanded to fit them perfectly. While the five knew that this did not guarantee victory by a long shot, that it along with reforging Ruby's sword, that their chances would be much higher. Now there was one more thing that they needed to do, restore Ruby's sword.

Restoring Ruby's Sword

After discovering that the armor that Celestia had kept locked away in the restricted section of the library was enchanted and would alter itself to fit any pony that put it on, Ruby decided that the time had come to try and restore her sword. She opened the book again and levitated the shards of her sword onto the floor and began to focus. She saw the other leaders gathering around her a look of disapproval and said, "Look, I know you're wanting to see this but I am going to need to be alone to do this. I can't focus with all of you around."

"Very well." replied Celestia

The other four along with the guard ponies left the throne room to give Ruby the solitude that she needed. She continued to read the same part of the book over and over until she felt that she might be able to figure something out. As she stood there looking down at the remains, she began to try to think about what the right words would be for a spell that would work. One thing she did notice soon though was that the shards of diamond were in a pile, not in the shape of a blade.

She then began to lay out the shards into the shape of a blade, with the thickest pieces laying right up against the handle since those were likely the ones that were there earlier. Once she took care of that, she again began to focus on what the right words would be. She knew that a simple spell like the ones that were used back at the time of Twilight's corruption would not be sufficient, she thought that a modern, more complex spell would be needed.

She went into a trance, she stared down at the shards and began,

"In battle the blade was broken
The way it is now makes it only a token,
Strong it is supposed to be
For the time that is not what we see

The diamonds are supposed to be strong
But in the past that did not last for long,
For strength is a must
Without it this blade will be a bust.

The energy flowing within me is great
The energy must be used to prevent hate,
With this the shards shall once again become one
When it is restored our enemies shall be done.

She fired a bolt of energy at the shards and they began to levitate into the air. They became encircled in light and it looked like they were fusing together and connecting to the handle. She would not be pleased though when the light faded and everything fell to the floor. "Damn it, damn it." screamed Ruby.

Ruby could not understand why the spell would fail when she felt as though she had worded everything right. She then realized that she could not simply put her energy into it to work, she remembered about how before she and Brevity had departed to retrieve the shards that it was brought up that life force may have to be sacrificed to restore it.

The very thoughts of actually sacrificing any of her life force made Ruby very nervous. So many different scenarios began to play out in her head. She began to wonder that if she did this, if she suddenly wouldn't be strong enough to take on Colgate, she began to wonder if she would even be fit for battle and she began to worry about giving up too much and suddenly becoming weak and frail.

After worrying and going through the worst case scenarios for over twenty minutes, she finally stopped thinking the worst and did what she had to do. She again arranged the shards into the shape of a blade and recited the spell. This time though she put a small amount of life force into it. She didn't put enough into it that it would lessen her strength but she did feel a slight tingle as she did it. This time, much to her delight, the spell worked.

Ruby held the blade up to herself and was analyzing it. For the most part it looked like it did when she first found it but upon further inspection, she noticed that it was a bit thicker, that it was stronger. She couldn't help but smile when she saw this. She then began to think about how suddenly she would have the advantage. She snickered, "Just you wait Colgate. With my stronger blade and our enchanted armor, you don't stand a chance!"