Justice is Served

Thirty minutes had passed and Colgate and Celestia both returned to the throne room. Colgate was the first to say anything, "Well this is better. I don't think anypony would want to see you with blood stains and besides, I'd be worried all that blood would permanently stain your white coat."

Celestia laughed, "I wouldn't think so but with you, they'd probably think you butchered hundreds!" She paused before adding, "Well I'm going to go charter a private train, you know how I feel about traveling by a regular train and with you joining me, I don't think a chariot would be the best option."

Colgate replied, "Probably not."

Celestia then headed off to charter the private train leaving Colgate alone in the throne room, or so she thought. Once Celestia was gone she heard a voice, "Colgate, can we talk."

She immediately knew who the voice was, it was that of Princess Luna. She turned around and asked, "What is it Princess Luna?"

Luna began, "Colgate, I know you know much about everything I have done but I do want to know one thing. I want to know what happened to Sherlock Hooves?"

Colgate had her own question, "Princess Luna, I will tell you but I want to know something. Why was it that you were taking on all these cases when Balanced Scales was perfectly capable of handling them and why did you bring in Sherlock Hooves to be the prosecutor? Why didn't you bring in Legal Eagle, the actual district attorney, to present the prosecution's case?" Luna remained silent as she continued, "Why, because you knew that Legal Eagle would not falsify evidence and actually be honest? Because you knew that Balanced Scales would see through your weak accusations and throw them all out?"

Luna replied, "Colgate, there are some cases where I....."

Colgate immediately cut her off, "That is a bunch of hogwash. He has handled cases like that before and Legal Eagle has prosecuted plenty of cases like that." She then approached Luna and continued, "And why did you accuse Twilight of murdering so many. You know something, I would think that after Twilight and her friends freed you from being Nightmare Moon, that you would be thankful to her rather than stabbing her in the back the way you did."

Luna countered, "But everypony saw her kill Cheerilee! Everypony thought she....."

Colgate cut her off, "Let's say somepony saw you do something like that and they wanted Celestia to put you to death over it? Would you still think some kangaroo court trial and a death sentence would be warranted?"

Luna froze when Colgate brought this up. At that moment she realized that everything she had done was wrong. She knew that her being the judge was wrong, she knew that bringing in Hooves was wrong and most of all, she knew that her accusations towards Twilight in court were wrong. She held her head low and replied, "Colgate, I never even thought about that. I felt so much pressure from everypony..."

Colgate again cut her off, "Well maybe you should have because chances are you have lost a sister. I believe you two need to have a good long talk AFTER Celestia and I take care of some....."

Celestia then returned to the throne room and saw the two talking. She approached Luna and asked, "What are you doing? Are you threatening Colgate in one way or another?"

Luna sighed, "No sister, Colgate was helping me see the errors of my ways and I think we need to talk later."

Celestia replied, "Perhaps but for now, Colgate and I have things to do." She then turned to Colgate and suggested, "Shall we get going? I really want to get this done."

Colgate replied, "Yes, let's get going."

As Colgate and Celestia were heading to the royal train, Luna stood there alone in the throne room with all of Colgate's words running through her mind. She began to think back to the night when Twilight died and had images of everything replaying through her mind and she began to have tears running down her face. She sighed deeply, "If only I could take it back, if only I could make things right."

An hour later the royal train arrived in Ponyville and Celestia and Colgate disembarked. Colgate began to walk to the north and suggested, "Shall we, shall we begin the process of righting every single wrong of the past thirteen or so months?"

Celestia happily replied, "Let's do this Colgate. I am so happy that soon everything can be made right."

The two then headed into the forest and like always, timberwolves were watching them and like she did the last time, Colgate flared her horn up and almost immediately the growling stopped. Celestia was shocked by this. She gasped, "Colgate, how did you do that? How did you get them to back off?"

Colgate replied, "The timberwolves see my shining horn and know that if they try to attack me, that I will blow them to bits."

It was an hour later when the castle of the two sisters became visible, causing Celestia to start feeling happier and happier. Once they got to the chasm Colgate suggested, "I'd advise staying off the bridge, it is very unstable."

Colgate then teleported across it and while having the same ability, Celestia flew across it. They then headed into the old castle and Colgate led them towards the proper stairwell. Following Colgate into it began to bring back sad memories of the night when she transported Twilight's body to the only place where she felt her remains would be safe. Once they began to descend the stairs Colgate warned, "Be careful where you step....."

Celestia interrupted, "I know Colgate. I'm the one who devised the traps here."

The two then carefully went down the stairs and then entered the bottom most bowels of the place. The two immediately headed towards the far right corner where Twilight was buried. As the two approached her burial site, Celestia was feeling two emotions, sadness and excitement. She had the memories of that night when she buried Twilight running through her mind but at the same time knew that soon this injustice would be made right, that soon Twilight would be alive again.

Colgate gave Celestia a smile, "You ready for this?"

Celestia nodded with a smile prompting Colgate to flare up her horn and recite,

"The fallen one's time has yet to be,
the fallen one still has many days to run free,
for potential the fallen one has a lot,
without life it would all be for not,
for life shall be renewed,
the fallen one's past decisions need not be reviewed."

She then fired a bolt of energy at the place where Twilight was buried and soon a lavender ball emerged from the ground. The ball was shining brightly and remained there for five minutes until it popped and out of it emerged Twilight Sparkle. Colgate was ecstatic that she was able to bring back a pony who was truly deserving of it.

When the ball first popped Twilight was a bit disoriented, "Ugh, where am I." The first pony she saw was Colgate and she asked, "Colgate, is this real? Am I really alive or am I just an apparition?"

Colgate replied, "It is real and somepony wants to reunite with you."

Twilight looked off to her right and saw that Celestia was there with tears running down her eyes. She began to cry, "Princess Celestia!"

She then ran to Celestia who got down and embraced her. "Twilight, I'm so happy you're back! I never thought I'd see you again."

The two held one another in an embrace and cried tears of joy. While Colgate had never been the type to cry for any reason, she too had tears streaming down her face. She then wanted to bring everypony else back and suggested, "Twilight, Celestia, shall we. Shall we get all the wrongs set right?"

Twilight turned towards Colgate and asked, "What do you mean get all the wrongs set right?"

Colgate replied, "Twilight, I used a resurrection spell to bring you back and now I shall use the same to bring everypony that rat Cheerilee killed back."

Twilight knew what this meant, it meant returning to Ponyville. The very thoughts of it terrified her, "I can't go back to Ponyville, everypony thinks I'm a murderer."

Celestia gave her a warm smile, "Twilight, nopony thinks that anymore. Colgate did this to Cheerilee, hauled her up to Canterlot where she confessed and Luna gave you a full pardon. Equestria knows you didn't kill them, you don't have to worry anymore."

This did ease Twilight's fears some but she still had her concerns. Colgate motioned for them to follow her and once they reached the stairway Colgate warned, "Twilight, be careful. Some of these steps can activate traps."

The three then went up the steps back up to the main level of the castle before heading for the exit. As they were returning towards Ponyville Twilight couldn't help but be filled with doubt. Yes Colgate had brought her back but how many could she bring back? She wondered if maybe this was just a one time thing or if Colgate truly could return things to how they once were.

It was still dark when they came upon Ponyville and this concerned Princess Celestia. She also noticed that the moon was not in the sky which meant one thing, that she was late raising the sun. While she was happy to have Twilight back, she quickly flared up her horn and raised the sun. She gave the two unicorns with her a smile, "I can't believe I nearly forgot to raise the sun."

Twilight gave her a smile while Colgate stated, "It's alright princess. This is a special day for you." She paused before continuing, "Now let's go to the cemetery. The time has come to undo everything that rat Cheerilee did."

Once they got to the cemetery, Colgate led them to the back row of head stones, the row where everypony who had been killed was buried. Colgate headed to the far left where Spike had been buried as she figured that he should be the first one Twilight would be reunited with. She flared up her horn and cast the spell and quickly, a ball emerged from the ground and five minutes later, the ball popped and out came Spike. The moment he landed on the ground he saw Twilight. He yelled, "Twilight, is that you?"

He immediately ran towards Twilight, who immediately started crying tears of joy. She immediately started crying tears of joy and when he embraced her she cried, "It is me Spike, I'm so happy to see you!"

Colgate once again became more emotional but then got back to work on bringing everypony else back. Fifteen minutes later Colgate had cast spells on all the grave sites and everypony who had been killed was once again alive. While they were all reuniting one pony approached Colgate, hugged her and exclaimed, "Thank you Colgate, thank you. Ah'm so happy, we're all so happy that ya set things right."

It was Applejack. Colgate returned the embrace and replied, "Well I knew that Twilight never committed those murders and I wanted for things to return to normal. I know I used forbidden magic to do it but hopefully all our lives can return to normal. Hopefully everything can be like it was before everything went so wrong."

Another pony who came over to congratulate was Rainbow Dash. Rainbow flew straight into her, knocked her to the ground and exclaimed, "You did it, way to go Colgate!"

Soon Twilight along with the rest of her friends went over to Colgate, each one congratulating her in their own way. After each one congratulated them Colgate replied, "Thank you ladies, this was a matter of me wanting to set things right."

Twilight then embraced her and began to cry, "Thank you so much for believing in me Colgate. Even when everypony else thought of me as a murderer, you did what it took to clear my name and bring me back." She pulled back and then asked, "Why?"

Colgate looked her in the eyes and replied, "Twilight, it is because I know you. Yes you and I may not be as close as you are with your other friends but still, I know you. The Twilight Sparkle I have always known would never do such a thing. You are kind, caring, smart and you are probably the most rational thinking pony in Equestria. A pony such as you would never even commit petty theft, much less commit mass murder."

Twilight then suggested, "Do you think maybe we should fix that, do you think that we could become closer like we were when we were fillies in Celestia's school?"

Colgate gave Twilight a bear hug and exclaimed, "Of course we can Twilight! After everything we've all been through, I think friendship is more important than ever!" She then called out to everypony and shouted, "Everypony, I think we should go reunite with our families. The time for healing has arrived."

Everypony agreed with her and headed off to reunite with their families. Colgate was unsure as to whether or not she should go with any particular set of ponies or simply wait around and leave the reunions to be family only. She finally decided that it would be best if the reunions would be best left to be among those who were closest to one another.

As everypony parted ways to go and be reunited with their families Celestia approached Colgate, "Colgate, you should be proud of yourself. You righted the wrongs of the past year, you were able to avenge the deaths of so many, you reunited so many families, you brought the true killer to justice, you cleared Twilight's name and" Celestia then had a tear drop down her face, "and you brought her back to me. Finally I can feel at peace again." Celestia paused before adding, "What do you say we go to Sugarcube Corner and have some cake! I'm so hungry right now!"

Colgate gave her a smile, "I will as long as I can brush right afterwards! You know how I am when it comes to my teeth!"

Celestia laughed, "Same old Colgate! You right all the wrongs of over a year but still, your number one priority is brushing your teeth!"

Colgate broke down laughing, "You know it!"

As the two headed off to get a snack, Princess Celestia felt a sense of relief and elation. While she was happy that Colgate had brought her beloved protege back to her she also felt a sense of relief. She knew that the Elements would likely have to be used again in the future and with Colgate having brought the Element bearers back, she could have very well saved Equestria.