Terror in Equestria 11: Death and Destruction

One week had passed since Colgate had transformed Scootaloo into a beast and in Canterlot, the leaders had not been doing much in the way of making plans for battle, except for one. Princess Celestia had been sitting there on her throne with the thoughts of revenge running through her mind, revenge against the pony who was responsible for the deaths of her parents.

That day while they sat down to lunch, Luna, LaurFa and Ruby were talking casually while Celestia had a scowl on her face. She was getting sick and tired of them not making any plans for battle, much less marching on the black tower. She finally couldn't take it anymore and yelled, "When are we going to make plans to march on the black tower? When are we going to avenge the deaths of my parents?"

The other three looked up in disdain. Ruby would be the most displeased though, "Princess Celestia, we have been waiting for you to bring it up but all you have done is sit there and think about this."

LaurFa added, "Look, all this time you could have had the soldiers training for this but you have done nothing, nothing at all!"

Luna continued, "Sister, we have been waiting on you. We just figured you weren't ready."

Celestia sighed, "Well I am and after lunch, we are going to the base and informing the troops that the time has come, the time has come for us to wipe out Colgate and save this world from her oppression."

The rest of their lunch was quiet and tense. What seemed to be a carefree day for them turned into a stressful day. Celestia's fellow leaders had noticed she was changing as of late but given her suddenly less pleasant behavior, they knew it would be best to not say anything.

Once lunch was over, the four headed towards the base. As they were headed there, Celestia was walking in a way that none of them had seen her do before. She had become more confident but they couldn't help but notice that she had begun to walk more like Colgate, like not just a strong leader, but a military commander.

Once they arrived at the base Celestia yelled, "Attention!"

The troops had never heard Celestia demand their attention in that way before but knew that it was likely something important. One of the soldiers asked, "What is it Princess Celestia?"

Celestia began, "Alright troops, the time has come. The time has come for us to march on the black tower and slay Colgate. The time has come to not only avenge the deaths of my parents but to also save this world from her oppression."

The soldiers knew about Colgate's army, what it consisted of and how she could easily duplicate them. The head soldier asked, "Princess Celestia, how are we going to do that? Colgate could duplicate her forces many times over! There are so few of us, that would be a suicide mission."

Celestia was not thrilled over the question. For the first time in her life, Celestia flared up her horn in anger. She yelled, "Look, I'll duplicate all of you just like Colgate duplicates her soldiers. It is the only way we can pull it off."

The soldiers knew that regular ponies had never been duplicated before but given Celestia's less than pleasant mood, they didn't question her over that but one did have a question, "Princess, how are we going to train for this? How are we going to train to go up against changelings that could cover us in ooze?"

This was something that did not cross Celestia's mind. The question did frustrate her but she knew the soldier made a good point. She replied, "Well we can do our best to keep armor spells cast and regarding training for them, all we can really do on the battle field is remain alert."

One of the pegasus soldiers asked, "So how are we going to do this? How are us pegasus soldiers going to be of any use? We can't hold weapons and we have no magic."

Celestia replied, "I have a plan for that and that will involve making you huge so you can go up against large creatures that Colgate has." She then turned to the unicorn soldiers and continued, "And we are going to have to transform you into Alicorns because given the nature of Colgate's army, you'd be sitting ducks not being able to fly." She then turned to her fellow leaders and finished, "And we shall train with our swords since Colgate seems to have developed a like in using blades in warfare."

As she began to leave the base she ordered, "I am going to need ten unicorn soldiers, NOW!"

Ten of the unicorn soldiers nervously followed Celestia, unsure as to how this spell to make them Alicorns would work. Once they got into an open courtyard Celestia ordered, "Alright troops, I need your attention while I do this. Like I said, you would be sitting ducks if you can't fly."

Princess Celestia knew that Twilight had used spells in the ancient past to transform unicorns into Alicorns. While she was somewhat responsible for transforming Twilight so long ago, these soldiers had not written their own magic so transforming them wouldn't be so easy. She put her hoof up to her forehead and sighed, "Troops, go back to the base for now. I just realized that I am either going to have to do some studying to find the necessary spell or I will have to write my own magic."

The soldiers headed back to the base while Celestia returned to the palace to do some research. She knew that finding information on such a spell would be difficult given that the only pony known to actually write such a spell was Twilight. When she headed into the library, she knew that such a spell wouldn't be made available to just anypony so she headed to the restricted section.

She began to look through the section regarding spells to see if any such spells were in any of the books. She continued to look for nearly two hours before she realized that they had no such spells on record, "Ugh, nothing, absolutely nothing!" she screamed.

She then realized that there was one place that may very well hold the information she was looking for, the archives in what was Twilight's castle. She immediately headed into the throne room where she was greeted by the other leaders. "Sister, why didn't you transform the unicorn soldiers into Alicorns?" asked Luna.

"Because I don't know the spell." Celestia replied "She then began to head towards the exit and continued, "And the only place I know I can find it is in what was once Twilight's castle."

Her fellow leaders gave her a look of concern, "Princess Celestia," LaurFa began, "are you sure you should be going there? Are you sure that place is safe?"

"Sister," Luna added "you know she was a dark goddess. For all you know she may have put a curse on the place to keep ponies out."

Celestia countered, "Luna, Twilight did not become a dark goddess again until after she was struck with the rainbow of darkness. The last time she was in that castle, she was a good pony."

Ruby sighed, "Very well, you know what is best even though I think it would be better if you simply wrote your own magic for this."

Celestia let out a sigh of frustration before heading out. Once she was out of earshot Ruby asked, "Is it just me or does Celestia seem to be in too big of a hurry?"

LaurFa replied, "It seems that way. I would think she would write her own magic instead of flying off to try and find a spell that may not work for her."

Luna added, "And is likely outdated compared to the more advanced spells Colgate uses but all we can do is trust her judgement and hope it works."

As Princess Celestia was flying into Ponyville, she expected things to be like they had been for many millennia, ponies out and about, the market being set up and ponies buying things that they needed. When she landed, it was deathly quiet. Outside of the wind causing rusted out gutters to creek, there was nothing. Soon she would see why the town was so quiet. She saw that there were many cages in the town, each one had the decayed corpse of a pony in it.

When Celestia saw this, her blood began to boil yet she began to cry at the same time, "Curse Colgate, curse her! Does she have no regard for life?" She quieted down a bit and mumbled, "Of course not. She has but one desire, to slay any and all who don't serve her."

After passing many more cages, she finally arrived at the castle. Much to her surprise, the door was ajar so she headed in. Once she got inside, she could sense that something truly terrible had happened. She then remembered that it was a creature with Twilight's cutie mark that attacked her so she headed into the archives to see if Colgate had done something with her body.

When she arrived in the back of the archives, she saw that Colgate indeed must have got in there and stole her body because her casket was gone. Despite Twilight having done many horrible things to her lifetime, seeing this brought about a great amount of sadness in her. She knelt down next to where her casket was and sighed, "I'm sorry Twilight, I'm sorry about everything that happened to you." A tear began to run down her face as she continued, "If I would have waited to ascend you or extended your coronation, you may have never been corrupted."

Soon she realized that she had to focus on the mission at hand, finding Twilight's spell book. She started first with the back chamber but was eventually not able to find anything. She then moved to the middle chamber where the old Canterlot collection was and was unable to find anything. Then it hit her, any spell book of hers likely would be in the front chamber, where all of the books that were truly hers were located. It would not take long until she saw a book with a lavender spine and Twilight's cutie mark on it.

She pulled the book out and on the cover was Twilight's cutie mark and the words "My Spells" on it. The moment she grabbed the book, she felt a strange energy coming from it. She began to wonder if Twilight had perhaps enchanted the book but then realized that was likely not the case.

She then opened up the book and began to read through all the spells, everything from duplication spells, armor spells and loyalty spells. Towards the back of the book she found the one she would need, the spell to turn unicorns into Alicorns. She found the spell and read it out loud,

"The unicorn who has no wings is bound to the ground, they can not really get around, their smarts are great yet without flight they will be late, with these smarts they will be great and they shall never have a bad fate."

One thing she noticed was that it was written in a different way than the most ancient spells and the more modern spells were written. She continued to read over it and sighed, "If only she hadn't done this with Colgate, the world would be safe. She likely could have been reformed more easily, the amount of warfare wouldn't have been so much....." She then sighed, "Come on Celestia, dwelling on the past isn't going to defeat Colgate."

Celestia grabbed the book and headed back towards Canterlot. While she knew that Twilight's spell was very simple, she thought that may work to her advantage. While it was written by Twilight, she figured that something that simple could likely be cast by anypony.

Once Celestia returned to Canterlot, she headed to the throne room where she was greeted by the other leaders. She held up the spell book and said, "Well I found what I was looking for."

When they saw the book, frowns immediately developed on their faces. They had their concerns about her going to Ponyville to search for such a book to begin with but the fact that it was Twilight's personal spell book unnerved them, Ruby in particular.

She glared at Celestia and snapped, "Her personal spell book? You brought her personal spell book?" Ruby couldn't help but remember how Twilight had been a thorn in her side in one way or another from the moment she met her clear up until she breathed her last. She continued, "Look Celestia, I know you think that her spell may work but I honestly don't want to have anything to do with something SHE wrote."

LaurFa too had her concerns, "Celestia, you know she used these spells against the forces of so good for so long. What if this was to backfire?"

Luna was in a different mindset, "Listen everypony, if these spells will work for us, I don't see any problems. Besides, she used these against Colgate too."

In unison Ruby and LaurFa yelled, "AND LOST."

Celestia was not thrilled with her allies' comment. "But remember, there were times when she won too. It is true she never defeated Colgate with them but they did help her in global conquest so just give this a shot."

"Very well." sighed Ruby.

Ruby took the book and began to read through it. She couldn't help but snicker a bit when she saw how short and simple Twilight's spells were, "Now I know why she couldn't beat Colgate. These spells are so simple. Compared to what the ancient spells were like and the ones Colgate has written, a foal could understand and cast these!"

LaurFa added, "Princess Celestia, with the way you are acting, I almost can't help but wonder if you don't have a soft spot for her, deep within."

Celestia replied, "LaurFa, I know she did a lot of horrible things to a lot of ponies, myself included, but at one time she was my protege and I do think she had the smarts to write good magic and I think we should give them a chance."

In unison the other three sighed, "Very well, we shall give them a shot."

Celestia took the book back from LaurFa and headed to her chambers. Once she got in there, she locked the door and continued to read over the spells. Memories then came back to her, memories of when Twilight was just a filly and then her star student, the one that always outshined all the others. She began to sob quietly, if only I had waited to ascend her until after she defeated Tirek, none of this would have happened. She would still be alive and this world would be safe. She clenched the book closer to her and sobbed harder, "I'm sorry Twilight, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for failing you!"

In the black tower Colgate had been monitoring everything Celestia was doing and was not only elated by the sudden return of her emotional side, but entertained as well. "Wah-wah-wah! Same old crybaby Celestia!" Colgate laughed.

Colgate noticed that there was something about that spell book that seemed to affect Celestia, there was something about it that caused that deep hidden soft spot she had for Twilight to come to the surface. She then laughed, "Well now, it looks like one of my changelings will aid in bringing her down, time to make it look like her little Twily has come back!" She then began to snicker, "As her sweet, pre-corruption self!"