//------------------------------// // Oct. 2013 - Last Speech Before The Terminus v1 // Story: RoMS' Extravaganza // by RoMS //------------------------------// As I write these words, I fear for the lives of my citizens. I asked Princess Celestia for help but my voice has fallen into a deaf ear. I begged Princess Luna for a hoof to carry my febrile will. But my plea has been rejected by her blindness. The regal sisters gather their armies as they know something is brewing between themselves. Princess Luna is consumed with jealousy and Celestia is so focused on her land that everything else vanished into Oblivion. With these turmoils going on in the south, who would care about a poor unicorn king battling for the mere survival of his people? Who cares about the frozen North? Equestria, a pearl among the abysses, is still safe. But Celestia and Luna have forgotten that Windigos breed in conflicts… that these unholy creatures come from the North, greedy and starving. My ponies and I are the first on the frontline. Hence, we will be the first to fall to their assault. This time, The Windigos are not coming alone. They have brought minions that will ravage our domain. All of them feed on Luna’s growing dark powers as they feed on my citizens’ despair and pain. But I will not let them do freely. As King, the cutie mark I was given embodies a mighty battle cry. I can blend into the spirit of my friends and comrades. And all together, through this ‘esprit de corps’ we can act as one body, one soul and one mind to overthrow our enemies, and win. I always refused to go further in such fusing of spirits, fearing I would go crazy or conceited. But feeling everypony and me battling as one is a feeling I want to keep dear to my heart. Thus, it is together that we will go to the fight, whatever the cost, whatever the outcome… And right now I fear facing the ponies I love more than the empty shells that are the Windigos’ eyes. I am hesitant to talk about it; about what I’ve found in the cavern deep below the Crystal Castle. I sometimes surprise myself to keep staring at my discovery. It is a small dull grey crystal. It would be nothing important if it is was not wobbling with magic energy. I hear it, it is whispering to me. I have to make a choice. I may use it for the sake of my kind but I know that I will get what I want but I will also loose what I have... What I have left. My chamberlain is coming to don my iron armour, damn I hate its frost bite on my fur. He is coming and I am doing a quick choice, a ‘stupid choice’ I keep repeating to myself. I swallow the tiny gem when I hear a hoof on the door knob. I feel something strange bursting in my chest. My head reels, dizzy. Once the chamberlain is gone, I look at my hooves. They are turning black… slowly. My once white fur is burning away. Did I make the right decision? Well, no time to fret. My ponies await me as the Windigos rumbled behind our doors. They creep around my kingdom, ready to leap on their first prey, a pony among my fellow citizens. I will not leave them alone. I am their king and for I shall be the wall between them and these demons. We will fight as one again. And we will win. Otherwise I will… I don’t want to talk about it. When the gate of the castle burst open on my way, as I walked outside I feel the bite of thousands of eyes staring at me, waiting. Among the ponies, I see the griffons I rallied to my cry, I see the mighty dragon that offered his help for an incentive, and I see the mares, the fillies, the colts, and the stallions together, waiting for our last stand. And I feel this strange power growing within my ribs. I feel sick and some ponies trembled seeing my fur tainting. I find a promontory and gazed back at the crowd with my sorry eyes. The madness has lasted for too long. It is time to end it. I take a deep breath and put in order the words and sentences bouncing in my head. My voice is deep, reaching the deepest corners of my kingdom. I need to be assertive… inquisitive. “We stand on the precipice of the end. Ready to hurtle down the steep and smash our bones and skulls. We walk legs-deep in the blood of our comrades, washing down our once shining furs and manes. We breathe, uneasy, while the long panting whispers of our gone families rise from the mass graves below us. The reeking smell of our gangrened hooves blurs our eyes and pains our souls. The air fills our lungs with the perfume of war, sour and numbing as a tasteless and intoxicating wine. And I face, stuck in the dusty ground, the enemy growling in the distance. Afraid, foreshadowing a machine that will swallow us all. And I stare straight at the dead of the night and see through the dark veils the eyes of the rats that claim they can burn us to ashes. And I despise the oblivion that beckons over our shoulders like a gargantuan maw, thrilled to rip us to pieces. And I scream to fate that abandoned us when we needed it the most. I have seen our foals’ throats sliced open. I have watched the flows of tears dripping down our streets. I have cried for the ineffable screams of the mares, children, and elders wiped off the scrolls of history. I have dug the trenches where I will bury my kind, my friends, and my subjects. I have cursed the sky for bringing us the eternal night. I have rejected the gods who forsook us, poor beings living in the land where the soil never thaws. I have trodden in the oneiric lands of limbo and caught a brief glimpse of Tartarus. And I have lost faith. I have tasted your pain and terror. I have felt your hatred and anger. I have understood your rage and despair. I have foreseen your starvation and your fall. I have raged against destiny, now destroyed. I have cursed the sky and the earth. I have howled to the murderous sky, raining fire at dawn. I have seen myself looking through the tainted glasses of my realm. Only to see my disfigured reflection. I have seen myself murdering my own essence, erasing my own spirit, sweeping off my own mind for the sake of my kingdom’s well-being. I have damned my soul. I have thrown away what made me a pony. And as I feel my sanity drift away, I can say that I have envisioned no byway. Houses burnt to their underpinnings. Ponies eviscerated alive. Fellow soldiers eaten away by the creatures lying before our eyes. A once scarred but lively ground scorched to coal dust by the flames of our enemies’ eyes. Our skulls piled up into spires to reach the black clouds over us. As a king who makes a beast of himself, I get rid of my angst and sorrow, only to flood my senses with anger and rage. I bestow my allegiance upon you as sovereign, as for my enemies I will have no more pity. But as we stand, ready to move through the threshold of Tartarus we, the innocents, will fight and kill and cry and scream and murder and bite and destroy those who dared defy us. Do you hear? We will stand still. And steady on our hooves we will rise once again! Ride to the war, my vassals! Ride to death, my subjects! Ride to glory! And this day, running toward the Crystal Empire’s ending will be marked in history with a monolith of blood and death. Souls will be crushed to the point they cannot be mended. The rusty edges will slice the flesh and shed soiled blood. Sharp arrows will fly and whistle through the air. Blades and spears will blow to bits. Bones will be shattered. And this battle will be written into ungodly scrolls to make sure that everypony will know… that we fight here, today.” To win this battle, the Windigos themselves must fear me. My magic bursts out around me and my mind blends with my subjects. All roar mightily as they release the anger they have repressed for too long. It is heady. I like this impression of control and absolute power. Like one core we will ride to battle. United and whole we will fight and stand for my rightful kingdom. My minions will fight with me… for me. It’s… It’s strange. Why do I feel so sleepy, so alone… enshrouded by darkness? Maybe, I was wrong.