Justice is Served

It had been one year to the day that Twilight Sparkle, protege of Princess Celestia, was wrongfully convicted for the murder of fourteen ponies and unjustly put to death. This was something that angered Colgate at the time it happened and it still infuriated her the more she thought about it. While she was not in town the day Twilight was convicted, she did know who was at least partially responsible for this miscarriage of justice, Sherlock Hooves, a pony that she did not particularly care for.

She knew that the "detective" was crooked beyond belief and had been paying attention to more recent court cases and it seemed like he always got a conviction, always. Another thing that irritated her was that Princess Luna was always the judge. She didn't know Luna all that well but did know that she was one of those types who always ruled against the defendant, always. She had thought that Princess Celestia would change things after Twilight's death but nothing changed. Because of this, Colgate decided that if the royals wouldn't change things, that she would change it herself.

When Colgate woke up that morning, she decided that she was going to do something. She decided that she was going to visit the grave of the unicorn who was not only wrongfully put to death but was also slandered in the worst ways possible. Because of all this, Twilight Sparkle was buried in the bottom most bowels of the Castle of the Two Sisters. While Twilight was not the closest friend of Colgate, she still sought to visit her grave prior to making her plans.

After eating breakfast, Colgate headed north towards the Everfree Forest. While she was headed in that direction, she had a couple of ponies question her why she was heading in that direction. Given the opinions that everypony in town had towards Twilight, she simply grunted and went about her way. Many ponies knew how she was on days that she wasn't working and figured that, like always, she didn't feel like being bothered.

As she headed through the forest, she could hear the growls of the timberwolves so she flared her horn up brightly, silencing them. They would often go after the earth ponies and the pegasi but they knew that a unicorn with a horn that shined that brightly was not one that was to be trifled with. After an hour, she finally reached the old castle. She took a look at the old bridge and while she couldn't teleport longer distances, she was able to teleport across it so that is what she did.

Once she got across, she headed into the old castle and began to search for the stairway that would lead her down into the bottom most parts of the castle. After thirty minutes of searching, she found a stairwell that went down. She was not sure exactly if it was safe to go down there so she flared up her horn and began to look for stairs that if stepped on, might activate some sort of trap. As she headed down, she saw multiple stairs that looked suspicious and was able to avoid them.

After what felt like an eternity to her, she reached the bottom level and began to look around. In there she saw numerous things that nopony would ever expect out of the Two Sisters, torture devices. She gasped, "What the hay, torture devices? Why in Equestria would they have such things?"

This did unnerve her but she continued to look around until she saw what looked like a headstone in the far right corner of the room. She approached it and sure enough, it was the headstone of Twilight Sparkle. She knelt down and could feel a special energy coming from it, the energy of Princess Celestia. She looked at the stone and sighed, "Well at least one pony cared about you, at least somepony other than just me knew that you were wrongfully convicted."

Once she finished her sentence she saw a lavender ball of energy rising from the ground in front of the stone, a lavender ball with Twilight's cutie mark on it. After a minute the ball popped and standing in front of her was an apparition of Twilight. She saw who was there and asked, "Colgate, is that you?"

Colgate replied, "It is me and although we weren't the best of friends, I have come to pay my respects."

Twilight asked, "But why? I wasn't the best of friends to you and the other girls and I'm sure you all believe I was guilty."

Colgate replied, "Twilight, I never once believed you were guilty off those murders. Why in Equestria would the most rational minded pony in all of Equestria kill her friends, her assistant and multiple foals? It made no sense to me and I have decided the time has come to set things right."

Twilight asked, "But how? I'm dead and everypony else is dead. In the end, as I was falling to my death, Celestia believed I was innocent but how are you going to clear my name? How are you going to pull this off?"

Colgate gave her a smile, "I have ideas and with the right amount of studying of certain things, I can pull this off. I will say this though, that Sherlock Hooves has got to go. He has an appointment with me next week and....."

The apparition of Twilight began to fade away, "No, don't kill........"

The apparition of Twilight was then gone, leaving Colgate to wonder what she should do. She knew that Twilight was going to tell her not to kill him. She then figured that even in death, Twilight would be a rational thinking pony and would give the best advice. At that moment she became conflicted on what to do. She knew that Twilight was most likely going to tell her not to kill him but her hatred towards him was too great, she was going to kill him. He wasn't the only one she was bound and determined to punish though, she was going to see to it that Cheerilee would face the music for her crimes and knew exactly how she would do it. She knew that she would have to find a book on ancient and forbidden magic, she decided that she was going to bring the true murderer back from the dead, even if it would cause her legal problems.

Colgate then decided to look around the bottom part of the castle to see if there were any books that would either provide her with what she believed she needed to know or if anything would point her to where the books she would need would be. She saw a doorway that led into another room. She went through it and was not thrilled with what she found. In the room she found a single table with a book on it. She groaned in frustration, "Ugh, was this all a waste?"

She levitated the book to herself and discovered that it was a book on the ancient days of Equestria, the days when the princesses had ancient warlords as enemies who sought to take the nation for themselves. As she was reading, she discovered that the princesses would capture them and bring them to the castle and torture them to death. She gasped, "So that's why they have torture devices down here. I never once imagined that they would do such things!"

She continued to read and discovered where the warlords had their own bunkers, ones in which they would use resurrection magic on fallen Equestrian soldiers only to torture them to death again, over and over. She then knew that they had to have books on the magic down there. Colgate cheered, "That's it! This is how I can bring that rat Cheerilee back!" She paused before adding, "And I can also take Hooves down with me, kill him and resurrect him over and over. I will say this, paybacks are going to be hell and both of them shall suffer my wrath!"

She then searched for the locations of the bunkers and discovered that the nearest one to Ponyville was in the badlands between Dodge Junction and Appaloosa. As she was doing research she noticed that each one had a different spell that had to be recited. She did learn that each one had a hole that a unicorn's horn had to be inserted into while casting the spell. She finally found the spell for the bunker that lied between Appaloosa and Dodge Junction,

The bunker is locked, from thy enemies it is blocked,
Crimes of the enemy must be paid for, to do this thou must unlock the door,
In we take the enemy, of which there are many
Inside we kill the bright ones, and the days of light shall be done.

After reading this she clapped her hooves and cheered, "Yes, this is the spell and I know that nopony else likely knows this so once I get them in there, I can do whatever I want to them! She then knew when she could pull this off, right after Sherlock Hooves' appointment on Friday afternoon. She had enough sedative to pull this off but first thing was first, she had to dig up Cheerilee's remains with nopony noticing.

Colgate then headed back towards Ponyville with her plans running through her head. She knew that it would likely still be daylight when she returned but she did have plans on visiting the local cemetery. She was friends with some of those who were murdered, Applejack in particular because she had never once went to her with any dental problems. She even began to wonder if perhaps the apparition of the farm pony would appear to her too and perhaps aid her with some information.

Once Colgate returned to Ponyville she headed over to the cemetery. She knew that she likely wouldn't have too many problems if anypony asked her why she was visiting since she did have relatives buried there. Once she arrived she headed first to where her grandparents were buried. She looked down with a solemn look on her face as she had only knew them when she was young and they were good to her. She sighed, "Grandma, Grandpa, I really miss you two." She paused for a brief moment before asking, "Am I doing the right thing? Is my quest to bring Cheerilee to justice a good idea or could this be the undoing of me?"

She stood there for five minutes and didn't hear a thing. She thought to herself, "Maybe Twilight could come back because of the way in which she died. Maybe she has yet to cross over."

She then headed over to where Cheerilee's grave was on the other side of the cemetery. When she found it she sighed in relief, "Oh good, at least they didn't bury that rat anywhere near my family."

Once she discovered where she was buried, she rushed home to get the necessary equipment to not only dig the remains up but also to place them in. Once she got home she headed into her basement and began digging through things. She said, "Ok, I'm going to need a shovel, a body bag, and a good strong face mask, that body is going to stink after all."

By that time it was supper time so she decided to eat a larger than normal supper. While doing this would not be that much of a problem with her being a unicorn, she still figured that it would be best if she had a full stomach. After eating she noticed that it was dark outside and that there was nopony out and about. There were a few houses that still had lights on but those were a good enough distance away that she wouldn't have to worry about being detected.

She then headed towards the cemetery with a smile on her face. She had visions of not only resurrecting Cheerilee only to kill her again and resurrect her again but also of her facing justice in front of who would hopefully be an impartial judge along with a prosecutor who was not crooked and incompetent.

Once she got to the cemetery, she immediately headed to the area where Cheerilee was buried. She glared at the headstone and coldly stated, "Well rat, soon your time will come. Soon you will face justice but" she then began to giggle, "I'll get to have some fun with you first!"

She then began to dig up the casket that she was buried in and noticed that it was made out of gold. She glared at the casket and growled, "Ugh, this is probably the work of Princess Luna. I know she hated Twilight and probably gave this rat a fancy one out of spite."

She then opened the casket and the stench was so bad that she began vomiting on the ground. "Ugh, I knew she would stink but I never though it would be this bad!" She then took a closer look at the corpse and could tell that it had been nearly blown apart by Twilight's magic. She then laughed, "Wow Cheer, Twilight did a number on you but that will be nothing compared to my wrath. You will suffer worse than any victim of yours ever did."

She then began to take the remains and put them into the body bag she had brought with her. One thing she had to be sure and do was get as much of the corpse she could, every last bit that had yet to decay. Once she had recovered all of the remains, she closed the casket, placed it back in the ground and covered it. She did have one problem though, it would be obvious that something had been dug up so she used her magic to level the ground and restore the grass. She laughed, "Now just to get this home, stick it in my freezer and get ready for Hooves' appointment!"

Several days had passed and it was Friday. This was the day that Colgate had been looking for as it was when Sherlock Hooves would be coming down from Canterlot for his appointment. This was one thing that she always did enjoy, Canterlot residents coming to see her. It wasn't just because they could more easily afford their co-pays but in the event of hooves, make transporting her victims to the bunker in the badlands much easier.

That afternoon Hooves headed into Colgate's office with his normal snobbish look on his face. This was always one thing that Colgate despised about him but never let it show. It wasn't long until he arrived that Colgate headed out to get him. She said, "Come on back Sir, let's get you checked out."

That was one thing that utterly repulsed Colgate, having to refer to him as Sir because the princesses had done something to make him on a higher level than others. He headed back and got into the chair and Colgate continued, "You know the drill."

Hooves opened his mouth and Colgate cast her X-ray spell and while one part of her was not thrilled by what she saw, the other part of her was giddy because when she saw multiple cavities, she knew that she could sedate him for transport. She shook her head and sighed, "What in the world have you been eating, you have four cavities and it looks like you're developing periodontal disease."

The earth pony replied, "Well when you have to constantly put up with law breakers, you'd eat a lot of cake too."

Colgate shook her head and sighed, "That is a miserable excuse but I do want to get these cavities taken care of right away." She began to head towards a door and continued, "Don't go anywhere. Given your status, I'll handle these things right away."

Colgate headed down a stairway into her basement where she kept the strongest sedatives she had, sedatives that would knock ponies out for hours. When she returned he saw that she had a syringe with a large needle full of some sort of liquid in it. He wasn't sure what it was but he knew that it couldn't be anything good. He quickly tried to get out of the chair but Colgate quickly grabbed him in her aura. She walked to him, smacked him and yelled, "Oh no you don't! You're not going anywhere." She rammed the syringe in his neck and continued, "If you honestly think you're going to get away with the wrongful conviction and unjust death sentence for Twilight Sparkle, THINK AGAIN RAT!"

He yelled, "It was not....."

She then injected the sedative and almost immediately, he was out like a light. She then glared at the slumbering pony and giggled, "Now soon, you will learn exactly what happens to those who spit in the face of the justice system."

She then headed down into her basement and not only grabbed Cheerilee's remains but two boxes large enough to transport them to Appaloosa. She snickered, "Good thing they don't check luggage on the midnight train or I'd have to transport you myself."

Colgate then got Cheerilee's remains put in one box and put the slumbering Hooves in the other. She had her concerns that he may wake during the trip so she put a lock spell and a sound proof spell on the box she put Hooves in. She then grabbed a few more instruments to make the torture of her victims more brutal and sadistic. After she grabbed those items she giggled, "Oh this is going to be so fun, so so fun!"

Once it was 11:30 Colgate grabbed her boxes and headed towards the train station. She did her best to keep a neutral look on her face because she knew that if she had any kind of smile, she might draw suspicion from the conductor. Even though they never checked baggage of any kind on the red eye trips, she figured it never hurt to be too careful.