Terror in Equestria 11: Death and Destruction

One hour had passed since Colgate and Celestia had completed their final preparations for the battle yet all both sides were doing was waiting on the other, staring one another down. Colgate was not one bit impatient as she knew that Celestia and her forces would soon attack. Celestia, who had been waiting for Colgate to go on the offensive, was becoming impatient.

She grumbled, "I thought she would have attacked by now. What is taking so long?"

Ruby replied, "Celestia, I'm betting she is waiting on us. If we want to have this battle before those huge pegasi start getting hungry, we need to charge in and win this."

Celestia said, "Very well." She then said one final thing to her forces, "Troops, it is now or never. Colgate could sit there and wait until we all starve." She then pointed her sword to the east and yelled, "CHARGE!"

Immediately her army charged towards the east and the first to get there were the leaders, riding on their pegasi. Colgate's beasts immediately met them in mid-air. The beasts began biting at the pegasi, hoping to rip their necks open but the pegasi were agile and strong. They butted heads with the beasts, knocking them backwards. While the beasts were fighting the pegasi, Colgate decided that she would thin out what appeared to be Celestia's larger army.

She had her beast swoop down into the charging forces, throwing many to the side and other Alicorn soldiers would find themselves being impaled by the beast's claws. Colgate continued to have her beast fly high into the sky and then back down to knock as many of the enemy soldiers to the side, stunning them and making them easy targets for her own forces.

The changeling that had taken on the form of Twilight saw his target and immediately took off after her. He landed in front of Princess Celestia and immediately she had her pegasus stop. She looked at the changeling in shock and asked, "Twilight, is that you? But how?"

The changeling was suddenly confused as it knew nothing about how a pony could be brought back from death. It replied, "I honestly don't know how but I'm back."

It did not take Celestia long to realize that what was in front of her was not Twilight but was a changeling. She levitated her sword and yelled, "You are no Twilight Sparkle!"

She swung her sword at the changeling and cut it in half. Celestia was not one bit thrilled that Colgate would order one of her changelings to imitate a pony that she once cared for so much so she decided that she would find Colgate and exact the revenge that she had wanted to for so long.

In the skies dark Alicorns and changelings were firing energy at their Alicorn foes. Both sides were firing energy at one another rapidly, hoping to break the armor spell of the others. Despite the complexity of Colgate's spell, both sides' armor was shattered fairly quickly and like it had been for twenty millennia, forces began to drop from the sky en masse. The power of the regular Alicorns was making quick work of the changelings at first but the dark Alicorns were easily burning their foes with energy and causing them to fall to the ground in pain.

Luna and her pegasus were doing battle with a beast and a rider that was once Rainbow Dash. The rider was quickly tiring of her beast and the pegasus simply butting heads so she ordered it to take off and try to get behind her foe. She was able to do so and before Luna could even react, the beast grabbed her in its jaws and consumed her. Celestia saw this and screamed, "Luna, no!"

It was too late for Luna but Celestia was not about to let this deed go unpunished. She had taken on both riders and beasts before and was confident that she could wipe them both out. She knew that the rider would be more difficult to kill so she flew off of her pegasus and took straight after the beast. She went straight after its head and while it was biting at her hoping to make a meal out of her, it couldn't get her. She began slashing at its neck and was able to get its head cut off, killing it.

The rider then let out a screech causing Celestia to fall to the ground and it took off after her. When it landed in front of her, it had its blade drawn, ready to kill her. It flared up its horn, struck Celestia with a bolt of energy and knocked her backwards. Celestia looked down at the burn mark and quickly realized that the one that attacked her was once Rainbow but she couldn't dwell on that. She knew that if the creature that was after her stabbed her, that she would likely succumb to the poison from the cursed blade rather quickly.

She got up on her hooves and began a sword fight with the rider. The rider was not anticipating that Celestia would be so good with a sword and was quickly getting frustrated. It began trying harder to hit its foe but it also left itself more vulnerable in the process. Celestia soon got a swipe on it with her blade. The creature let out a loud shriek, temporarily disorienting Celestia. She was able to get her bearings straight before the rider could so like she did with the first two she took out in Canterlot, she plunged her blade straight into where its face would be and wiped it out.

She then took off back to her pegasus and began going after the other riders. She had initially planned on going after Colgate first but when she saw how she and her beast were swooping down and then soaring high into the sky, she knew that handling the others would likely be the best option.

LaurFa soon crossed paths with the one that was once Pinkie Pie. She could hear the rider hissing, "Fun, Fun, Fun!"

LaurFa immediately instructed her pegasus to attack its beast and rather than butting heads, the beast had a quicker reaction time and clamped onto the pegasus's neck and was able to make quick work of it. Her pegasus fell so quickly that she didn't even have time to react so when she fell, she hit the ground hard. As she was trying to get up, she saw that the beast had landed near her and the rider was approaching her.

As the rider stood over her, with its sword drawn it again began to hiss, "Fun, Fun, Fun!"

LaurFa was able to get up and swung her blade at the rider. The rider quickly countered and before LaurFa could take another swing, the rider burned her with its energy, leaving its former cutie mark singed into the Creator Goddess's fur. The rider then took it's opportunity. Before LaurFa could react, it let out a loud shriek before plunging its blade straight into her heart. The rider began dancing around the remains hissing, "Fun, Fun, Fun!"

Celestia was in the area and knew that it was too late for LaurFa but saw an opportunity to kill yet another rider. She swooped down in front of it and yelled, "You may have killed LaurFa but you will not kill any others."

The rider knew of Celestia's nature and hissed, "Oh, what is crybaby Celestia going to do, drown me with her tears?"

Celestia flared up her horn and blasted the rider with a great amount of energy, knocking it onto its back. Celestia was able to get right over the rider before it could react and without saying a word, she plunged her sword straight into its dark face, killing it. Rather than celebrating, Celestia was able to mount its beast and take control of it.

The first thing she initially wanted to do was have it go after Colgate but she then changed her mind when she had it near the tower. She believed that if she could have it crash into the tower, that she could not only kill the beast but knock the tower over and damage her enemy's psyche.

One thing she discovered is that the beasts would easily follow orders, regardless of who was on its back. She ordered, "The tower, smash into it face first, NOW!"

The beast complied and Celestia was thrilled when it crashed straight into it. The beast let out a loud groan as it broke its neck and fell to the ground. Much to Celestia's dismay though, the tower remained undamaged. What Celestia did though would not go unnoticed by Colgate. Colgate, who had been thinning out Celestia's Alicorn soldiers immediately took off towards her tower.

Her beast landed right in front of Celestia, towering over her. Celestia however was not one bit terrified. She could see Colgate on its back and yelled, "You are responsible for the death of my family but you will not survive my wrath nor will your beast."

Colgate laughed, "Come on Celestia, I know you'll break sooner or later. I know that same crybaby that was so terrified of Twilight for so long will come to the surface."

Celestia did not give Colgate the satisfaction of a response. Instead she began going after the beast. While it was much larger, Celestia began to go after its neck. The creature tried to catch her in its mouth but it just couldn't. Colgate simply looked on in amusement as she was sure that it would not be long until Celestia would finally become a meal.

No matter how hard she tried, Celestia could not kill the beast. She then realized something, she realized that if she could get underneath the beasts head and go after the softer underside of its neck, that she could likely kill it. She was able to get underneath its head and while Colgate was trying to pull it back, Celestia had begun taking swipes at its throat and it suddenly wouldn't obey her.

Celestia continued to slash the beasts throat until it finally let out a painful groan. Blood began to flood out of the wound and the beast fell on its side and died. Colgate was not thrilled with what Celestia had done. She got off of her now deceased beast and stood tall over Celestia. She was holding her sabre and readying to swing it, hoping to put Celestia out of her misery.

Colgate however was not going to simply kill Celestia, she wanted to have a bit of fun with her first. She took her sabre, swung it at her but intentionally missed. She then burned Celestia with some energy before saying, "You know something Celestia, for such a crybaby you have done pretty good against my riders and my beasts."

Celestia spat back at her, "Don't patronize me oh Goddess of Terror, you are responsible for the deaths of my whole family." She flared her horn up and hit Colgate with a powerful bolt of energy. The energy however did not knock Colgate down, it only knocked her back.

Colgate quickly approached Celestia with her horn flared up and struck Celestia with a bolt of pure black energy, knocking Celestia to the ground and causing her to cry out in pain. Colgate quickly jumped over and began to stomp her. She yelled, "Crybaby, crybaby, crybaby! Same old crybaby Celestia, wah-wah-wah!"

She stepped back and began to strike her with more and more energy. Celestia let out more and more painful cries as Colgate continued the attack. Colgate however was not going to show her any mercy. She continued to strike her until she had singed her whole coat black. Once the only part of Celestia that was still white was her horn, Colgate stopped the attack. She kicked her and laughed, "Cosmos was killed by a tatzlwurm, Galaxia and Luna were killed by my beasts but it is quite fitting that I'm the one to kill you!" She began to stomp what she thought was Celestia's remains and screamed, "A life for a life! You killed my creations, I killed you so I'd say we're even!"

While Colgate was dealing with Celestia, Ruby took off towards the last remaining rider and beast. Having seen all of her allies fall in battle made her not only angry but realized that if she didn't take out the remaining rider but also Colgate, that the world would wind up plunging into a state of eternal suffering and despair.

Like it was with her other allies, she took her pegasus head on against the beast. The two began butting heads and grunting in pain. Ruby looked over at the rider and could tell that it was not impressed that a mere overgrown pegasus was battling so hard against something it should have lost to rather quickly. Ruby saw its frustration mounting and figured that this could be her chance to kill the last one.

She took off and landed on the beasts back, right in front of the rider. The rider however was not quite as easy to provoke as the others. Rather than immediately attacking her it hissed, "Submit to the power of the black tower and perhaps Colgate will let you survive!"

"Never!" yelled Ruby. She then readied her sword and readied to strike, "Never will I submit to the black tower and I will do everything in my power to slay you and Colgate. I will do everything in my power to bring harmony back to this world!"

Ruby saw the rider flare up its horn and just as it fired a bolt of energy, she was able to get out of the way. She then began a sword fight with it, scoring multiple hits as she was much more agile. Eventually Ruby swung her sword with as much force as she could and shattered the riders blade. Without its sword, Ruby knew this was her chance. She took straight after it and rammed her blade straight into its face and killed it.

Ruby then went after the beast. With each slash of her diamond blade, the beast let out an agonizing cry until she was finally able to lop its head off and it crashed to the earth. When Ruby landed next to the beast, she saw that one of the large pegasi was still in the sky but was battling against Colgate's top generals.

She sped off towards the battle and was delighted to see that the pegasus was acting more like one of Colgate's beasts, biting at the two smaller opponents attempting to eat them. She sped towards the battle and fired a bolt of energy at Lightning Storm. He tried firing ooze at her but missed. The arrival of Ruby had distracted the large pegasus and Dark Night saw this as the opportunity to finish the last big foe off.

Ruby and Lighting Storm got into a sword fight and the large pegasus went from being focused to being distracted. Dark Night immediately took to it and slashed its throat, causing it to fall from the sky immediately. The Alicorn soldier that had mounted it however, was more than ready to do battle. The soldier however, lacks something that Dark Night had, a sword. Dark Night, while he was not in the mood for an easy kill, knew it had to be done so he quickly flew down to where the soldier had fallen and plowed his sword straight into his heart.

In the sky Lightning Storm had his sword drawn, ready to slay Ruby but then remembered Colgate saying that Ruby was hers, that she would be the one to kill her so rather than attacking her with his blade, he began to fire ooze at her to take her down so that Colgate could then take her out. Ruby however was extremely agile and no matter how many times he fired on her, he couldn't hit her.

Ruby felt like this was almost too easy but didn't want to keep this going forever so she blasted him with a bolt of energy, knocking him to the ground. When she landed by him, she noticed that outside of the one Alicorn soldier, that everypony else on her side lay dead and this brought about a fury in her. She drew her sword and yelled, "You and your vermin allies have done nothing but kill, kill, kill! Well that stops now, no longer!"

She swung her sword and cut Lightning Storm's head off. Ruby was relieved when she saw this but when she saw that Dark Night had plunged his sword into her last Alicorn soldier's heart, she had enough. She fired a bolt of energy behind him, throwing him forward.

She then jumped over him and readied herself to plunge her sword into his back until she was thrown forward by bolt of energy. Ruby cried out in pain and would not be surprised when she saw who was approaching her. What she saw approaching her was something that she wanted to take down but feared at the same time, Colgate. While Ruby did fear her, she knew that she couldn't just cower back.

Ruby got on her hooves and noticed that Colgate had her sabre ready for battle. Colgate gave her an ice cold glare and asked, "Any last words traitor? Any last words before you succumb to the Goddess of Terror?"

Ruby grasped her sword in her aura and began, "Colgate......"

Colgate interrupted, "That is either Supreme Commander Colgate or Almighty Goddess of Terror to you."

Ruby was not about to address Colgate as the Goddess of Terror. "Supreme Commander Colgate, " Ruby began "I would love to know what happened to you. At one time you were a freedom fighter, you fought for all that was good. You fought against the dark goddess but now you have become far, far worse than she ever was."

Colgate blasted her with some energy, leaving a burn mark on her face. "What happened? What happened?" She picked Ruby up and slammed her to the ground before continuing, "Had you and those other leaders trusted me to store those relics, none of this would have happened! This world would still be a harmonious place and every sorry excuse of a leader would still be alive."

Ruby fired back at Colgate, striking her directly and knocking her to the ground, "We knew of your intentions and we were right. You raised Tambelon from the depths, you journeyed to Midnight Castle, you used forbidden magic so we had every reason to distrust you and now, your reign of terror shall end." She drew her sword and finished, "And now we must rid the world of you, now you must die."

Colgate was quick to get to her hooves and swung her sabre at her foe. Ruby quickly countered and like they did when White Magick was slain, the two got into a fight with their blades. Ruby fought with confidence as she believed that since some life force had been poured into her sword when it was reforged, she believed it could not be shattered. Colgate knew her sabre was stronger and rather than merely striking at the edge at first, she immediately began swinging towards the base of it, hoping to score a hit on her foe if possible.

The two Alicorns continued their fight, bound and determined to slay the other. With each strike, Ruby began to become frustrated believing that her sword should have shattered Colgate's sabre. Colgate however, was patiently waiting for the moment that she could shatter Ruby's blade and after an hour of fighting, with one powerful swing of her sabre, Ruby's sword shattered.

The energy from the diamond blade breaking threw Ruby backwards to the ground. Ruby lay there in shock, having trouble believing what had just happened. She would have little time to focus on her sword breaking when Colgate burned her with some energy, throwing her backwards.

Colgate approached her former ally with her horn glowing black. She gave her a smile and laughed, "So what was that about you going to rid this world of me?"

Ruby, while she knew that things were likely not going to turn out well for her was still defiant, "Look Colgate, you haven't won yet!"

Ruby flared her horn up and fired a bolt of energy at Colgate. Despite it striking her, it did not do much more than knock her backwards. Colgate flared her horn up again and struck Ruby with another bolt of energy. She couldn't help but laugh, "Oh my, I haven't won yet!" Her laugh got louder as she continued, "And I'm guessing next you'll make some sort of claim that you'll rise up and kill me!"

Colgate did not give Ruby a chance to respond, she instead started burning her with more and more energy. She wanted to do to her exactly what she did to Celestia, she wanted to burn her coat black. She continued burning her and burning her and with each bolt of energy, Ruby's cries became louder and louder. Once Colgate had burned every part of her black except for her horn, she decided the moment she had been fantasizing about ever since she saw Ruby fuse that diamond heart into herself had arrived, the time to remove it and kill her.

After having her coat singed completely black, Ruby was laying there below Colgate whimpering in pain. This was something that brought a great amount of joy to Colgate. Seeing the pony who was once such a close ally, one that betrayed her through distrust, laying there in such a state not only brought a lot of happiness to her, but satisfaction.

Colgate grabbed Ruby in her aura, held her up to her and said, "And now Ruby, the time has come for me to cement myself as Supreme Commander Colgate, Goddess of Terror as Ruler of Eqqus 1." She focused a majority of her hold on the diamond heart in Ruby's chest and asked, "Any last words traitor?"

Ruby went into thought and then something from the last time an evil force threatened the world came to her memory, the curse of Twilight Sparkle. Ruby gasped, "The curse of Twilight Sparkle! Before you ate Twilight's heart she cursed this world to pestilence, death and destruction and you have brought about death and destruction. You may think you won this but the real winner is the one who put the curse on everypony, the true winner here is the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle!

That was all the more Colgate needed to hear to begin the process of killing her foe. She again grasped the heart in her aura and began trying to remove it. With each yank on the heart, it was hundreds of more times painful than the hardest bite on a horn could ever be for Ruby. As Colgate continued to try and remove it, the pain was becoming more and more unbearable for her.

Finally after ten minutes of Ruby's screaming in agonizing pain, Colgate ripped the heart out of her. The moment the heart was removed from her, Ruby let out one more agonizing scream before her body went limp. Colgate put a hoof on her neck to feel for a pulse but much to her delight, there was one. She looked down at the remains and said, "And that Ruby, is what you get for distrusting me. Had you remained a good ally and trusted me like a good pony would have, none of this would have happened."

After smiling at the corpse of Ruby for several minutes, Colgate took the heart with her up to her balcony. When she got onto her balcony, she stood tall, cast a spell to project her voice and announced, "Hear me Eqqus 1, for I am Supreme Commander Colgate, the Goddess of Terror, the ruler of Eqqus 1." She then projected her voice further and yelled, "ALL SHALL LOVE ME AND DESPAIR!"