Terror in Equestria 11: Death and Destruction

Colgate had been watching the events of the day transpire through the eye and while Ruby restoring her blade did not irritate her any, the fact that Celestia had been hiding enchanted armor for so long did. When she saw how the armor would simply conform to fit anypony's body, she was not thrilled. Unlike she would have in the past though, she did not go into a furious rage when she saw that her enemy had an advantage over her, she began to come up with a plan.

Once it appeared as though nothing else of any significance was going to happen in Canterlot, she headed down to the base to talk to both of her generals. When she landed she was pleased to see that they were engaging in normal military exercises. Once she arrived she yelled, "At ease soldiers, at ease!"

Colgate had been visiting the base a bit more in the past few months than she had been in the past but what surprised them was the calm in her voice. In past instances recently there always seemed to be a bit of urgency to her but not this time. Once she had got their attention, she approached her generals and said, "I need to speak to you two, alone."

"Is it anything really bad?" asked Dark Night

Lightning Storm added, "Are our enemies on the move?"

"No, not at all." replied Colgate. She took off towards the tower and continued, "Follow me."

The two followed her up to her balcony into her chambers before the three headed down to the throne room. Once they arrived Lightning Storm asked, "Colgate, if our enemies aren't on the move what is going on?"

Colgate began, "Well I have some expected news and some not so pleasant news."

Dark Night asked, "What is the expected news?"

"Well, Ruby did manage to reforge her sword but she wound up having to sacrifice a bit of her life force into it to strengthen it." replied Colgate

"Doesn't that concern you?" asked Dark Night "Aren't you worried that it may be stronger than your sabre now?"

"I'm not worried." replied Colgate. "Now for the bad news, I have discovered that the royal pony sisters have been hiding away enchanted armor from the last days of Dream Valley." She saw the eyes of her generals become filled with concern until she continued, "I do think we should go on a little trip, all three of us."

They knew enough about Colgate's nature that she wasn't about to allow her enemies to have any kind of advantage. Dark Night asked, "I take it you want to go and steal this armor?"

"You know me all too well general." replied Colgate.

"Why am I going though?" asked Lightning Storm. "In the past you have said I will slow you down too much in moving a time bubble."

Colgate replied, "Well I have a plan for that." She saw the two grow more curious as she continued, "I want us to fly the old fashioned way, without a time spell. I don't want them knowing that I did any long distance traveling."

"Colgate," asked Dark Night "won't that take us a very long time?"

Colgate replied, "It will take us much longer than what I would like but it will give us the element of surprise, something that we do not give our foes enough of."

Lightning Storm asked, "So when do you want us to leave?"

Colgate replied, "Tomorrow morning. Tonight we rest well, tomorrow morning we have a substantial breakfast and then we head out."

"How exactly long will this take? " asked Dark Night. "Are we going to have to wind up hiding out and sleeping in a sheltered area?"

To Colgate, this was an incredibly ridiculous question with an obvious answer but she did not show any disdain. She calmly replied, "Yes, tomorrow. It will take us all day, including a lunch break to get to Canterlot. Once we are within eyesight, I will cast an invisibility spell on us and once it gets dark, we'll go in and take what I want."

"Just like old times!" exclaimed Dark Night. "We haven't used that one in ages."

"We haven't but to do this, it will be necessary." replied Colgate. "Now get some rest tonight, the three of us have a long flight tomorrow."

The two nodded and returned to the base while Colgate returned to her chambers to continue to monitor her enemies. One thing that did please her though was seeing that rather than returning all that armor to the restricted section, that they were placing it at the base. She got a smile on her face and laughed, "You all must want me to come and get it, huh?" Her laugh became louder as she continued, "Oh this is going to be easy, too easy!"

The following morning arrived and Colgate was more than ready to get going. She was so ready to get going that she didn't even invite her generals for a substantial breakfast nor did she eat anything more than she normally did. Once she finished eating, she headed to the base and was greeted by two concerned generals.

"Colgate, why didn't you come get us for breakfast?" asked Dark Night

Lightning Storm added, "Are we going to delay our trip?"

"No." Colgate replied. "We shall go today as we have planned. I did have a normal breakfast and I am hoping that the two of you had a decent one as well, I want to get going."

The two let her know that they did eat a bit more than normal so Colgate took to the skies and they followed her. As they were heading west, Colgate couldn't help but feel a bit irritated that because of her desires that the trip would take so long but then other thoughts crept into her mind, the thoughts of her enemies being in a state of shock her foes would have once some of that armor would be missing.

After a long day of flying, longer than any of them would like, Canterlot was approaching in the distance. It was well after sunset, it was dark enough that only the lights of the city could be seen. "Halt." she ordered. "Alright generals, we may not have to do the invisibility spell after all. It is dark enough that we should be able to go in there, take what we want and then get going."

"So do you want us to take all of the armor or just some of it?" asked Lightning Storm

Colgate was not thrilled with the question. She yelled, "Well of course I want us to take all of it! Why would I have had us fly ourselves half to death for only a bit of it." She then raised her voice and continued, "And I want you to cover them all in ooze."

This surprised the two, especially Dark Night. He gasped, "Wait a minute, you don't want to kill them? You want to let them live?"

Colgate replied, "Yes, I want to let them live. Had I wanted to slay them, we would have brought weapons." She paused for a minute before snickering, "Besides, watching them cry and whine to their precious Celestia about this will be well worth it!"

Neither of the two thought it was that great of an idea to go in without weapons but then figured that Colgate was probably going to want to do things the old way, using only magic. Colgate looked towards the city and yelled, "Charge!"

Colgate and her generals then headed towards the city. They knew that to avoid detection that they would have to fly high but then something crossed Colgate's mind, she decided she wanted to spill some blood. She looked down and noticed that apparently Ruby had been able to resurrect more civilians as there were ponies out and about, some were out dining, which would make them sitting ducks.

She ordered, "Halt!"

Her generals stopped and Lightning Storm asked, "What is it Colgate? Why did you have us stop right over the city where we can be seen?"

Colgate pointed her wing down and ordered, "Grab some swords from their base. This city has too many living ponies for my liking."

Dark Night laughed, "Your thirst for blood is insatiable isn't it?"

Colgate replied, "Yes it is." She then realized something, she had yet to cast an armor spell on them. She ordered, "Gather around me, we will need an armor spell."

They gathered around her, she lit up her horn and recited,

"Into battle we are about to head,
Everything must be just right so we can come out ahead.
Our enemies possess a power of great might,
That is something that we must keep in sight.

A great armor is a must,
For without it our quest will be nothing but a bust.
The armor we shall possess shall be great,
It shall be so great we can destroy all hate."

Once she had cast the armor spell they readied themselves for attack and sped towards the base. Once they were right over the base, they decided to immobilize the soldiers first. She yelled to Lightning Storm, "Cover them in ooze, cover them all!"

Lightning Storm swooped down and immediately began to cover their foes in ooze, immobilizing their magic. After they were all covered in ooze, she grabbed a sword and yelled at the two, "Grab the armor, grab as much as you can!"

The two headed to get the armor while Colgate headed to accomplish her objective, kill as many civilians as possible. She flew over the area where ponies were out dining. When a figure swooped down and got their attention, they began to panic. One yelled, "It's her, it's Colgate! Everypony run!"

The ponies began to run and in their panic, they were bumping into one another. This made them easy prey as she would swoop down, take her sword and with some their throats were slashed and with others, she cut their heads clean off. After a couple minutes of screaming, crying and Colgate taking civilians out, the remaining royal ponies came rushing out. When they saw who it was, Ruby yelled, "Not this time Colgate, you will not wipe out everypony."

She began to fire energy at Colgate but would not be pleased when the energy simply bounced off of her and wound up killing a few civilians. When the others came rushing out Ruby immediately rushed to Brevity, "Brevity, unmake her, unmake her! She has an armor spell cast on her!"

Brevity took to the skies and hid in an area she did not believe that Colgate could see her from. She flared up her horn and recited,

"For this object was created in ancient times, long long before nearly anypony's time,
the atoms that hold this together are strong but that won't last for long,
for what was made can also be unmade for even atoms ultimately will go to their grave."

She fired the bolt of energy at Colgate but she saw it coming from her side. She quickly turned to her left and fired a bolt of energy at it and directed it downwards, causing it to strike several civilians. Colgate saw this and laughed, "Ha, even your unmaking spell can not undo me!"

She noticed that the other Alicorns were continuing to fire energy at her generals so she yelled, "Retreat generals, retreat! Your armor is about to shatter."

Her generals took off to the east away from the battle but Colgate's armor was also weakening but she wanted to wipe out Brevity. She took off towards her and thought to herself, "The time has come Brevity, the time for your demise has come!"

Brevity saw Colgate coming and again cast the unmaking spell and like before, Colgate saw it coming and fired her own bolt of energy to counter it. This time the two bolts met in the middle and a struggle began between the two. Colgate knew that with her armor weakening that she had to unmake her or she could be the one that was unmade. The other Alicorns saw what was going on and immediately began firing energy at Colgate. Much to their dismay, Colgate's armor was still strong enough to deflect their energy and cause damage to the city and the death of multiple civilians.

As the battle progressed, Colgate's power became greater and greater as Brevity's energy began to get forced back into her. After an hour of a painful energy fight between the two, Brevity's energy was forced back into her and there was a great explosion accompanied by a strong wind. The energy that was released shattered Colgate's armor but more importantly, it unmade Brevity. Once Colgate's armor was shattered, she headed to the east and joined her generals.

When she got to them she cheered, "One more down troops, one more down!" Her voice became more of a yell as she continued, "Back to the tower, back to the tower!"

The three headed off to the east while in Canterlot, all had fallen silent. The four remaining Alicorns headed to where Brevity was and all that remained was a burn mark and damage to the wall she was up against in her final moments. This was the first time that LaurFa had ever experienced a death in the family as she cried out, "No, no! Curse you Colgate, curse you!"

The others remained silent and began to realize that defeating Colgate may not be possible as Brevity was the one who could have destroyed all of Colgate's forces with a single spell. The three stood there around the crying Creator Goddess when Luna commented, "That leaves only four. How are we even going to do this? Perhaps we should try negotiating with her."

None of them were particularly thrilled with the suggestion but Celestia would go into a fury, "Are you kidding sister? You honestly think Colgate of all ponies would negotiate?" She slapped her and yelled, "She wants to rule this world with an iron hoof and WE are at the top of her kill list!"

Nopony had seen this side of Celestia. For so long it seemed like Celestia was the weak link but after the slaying of Twilight and the beasts, they knew Celestia's mentality had become that of a pony who would stop at nothing to save the world. Luna was not thrilled by her sister slapping her but knew she was right, "I'm sorry dear sister. You are right, she won't negotiate."

LaurFa knew that she had to be strong and that despite having lost her sister, that they needed to check on the rest of the city, especially the troops, "Well everypony, we better go and see if we even have an army left."

What they would walk through was depressing for Celestia and Luna. With the exception of a few who had managed to take cover and those who had not gone out that night, every single civilian that Ruby had resurrected laid dead. Celestia yelled, "Curse you Colgate. You will not get away with this!"

By the time they reached the base though, they would be shocked by what they saw. While their forces were all covered in ooze, not a single one had been slain. When asked, one of the soldiers let them know the bad news about the armor, "Your majesties, they took almost all of the armor."

Celestia looked around and saw that all but four sets of armor were gone and was not pleased. She yelled, "How could you let them get away with so much armor? Why didn't you stop them."

The soldier was not thrilled with her yelling. He looked around and snapped, "Look, they had armor spells cast on them and we all got covered in ooze before we could stop them."

LaurFa felt that Celestia's reaction was not the best, "Celestia, calm down. They did the best they did in the situation that was thrown at them and besides, there are still four sets left, one set for each of us."

Luna added, "Sister, we need to free our troops of this ooze and make plans on how we are going to do this."

Ruby finished, "Look Celestia, getting emotional, regardless of what kind of emotion it is, will not help us." She raised her voice and continued, "And with the state we're in, Colgate and her generals could come back and slay all of us easily." She approached Celestia, calmed down and finished, "We need to free the soldiers and figure out the best way to march on the black tower if we don't want this world to live in an eternal darkness."

Celestia calmed down, "Very well." The four began to free all the soldiers from the ooze and once they were all freed Celestia continued, "Troops, ready yourselves. Ahead of us shall be the biggest battle of our lives."

One of the troops added, "Your Majesty, there are but one hundred of us. How are we going to go up against a force that Colgate could easily make several thousand of."

Celestia stood there for a minute in thought before replying, "While it has never been done with regular ponies, we will have to duplicate all of you many times over if we are to win." She turned to the other monarchs and continued, "Follow me into the palace so we may make these plans."

There was one thing that Luna noticed about Celestia's comment, that about regular ponies having not been duplicated. She commented, "Sister, regular ponies have been duplicated. Remember when Twilight......"

Celestia interrupted, "You are right sister but these duplicates will be created using our energy, not that of a dark goddess." She raised her voice and ordered, "Now follow me to the palace, we must make plans for our attack."

They knew that Celestia was bound and determined to take down Colgate and that the Celestia of old was gone. They knew the emotional Celestia that Twilight could so easily rattle had been replaced by a tougher, stronger Celestia, a Celestia that would not stop until Colgate had been slain.