[PAGE 8012 - CHAPTER 13]
For once in my life, I felt entirely devoted to a single objective. My mind had real focus. There were no distractions. It was a state of Nirvana by itself. Everything I had experienced had culminated to this moment.
And I did it. In the middle of the night after the celebration of victory against the gryphons, I did it. I finally made the strike that would terminate the life of Queen Galaxia. I twisted the blade that forced the blood frothing from her neck. It was Celestia-damned glorious.
I continued to strike the tyrant with my axe. Each and every strike was for a zebra, or a gryphon, or some creature that she had brought suffering upon just to bolster her own idea of a society. Her screaming was drowned by the fluids that filled her throat... Oh jeez, I'm getting sick just describing it... But I didn't get sick then. I was devoted at the time. The deeper psychological impact of the image was not on my mind at the time.
Justice needed to be served, and I was the only one who could do it. I was the only one doing it. I was doing it.
I... apologize for describing it to you, dear reader... Not all of us are born warriors, or used to being warriors...
I viewed my handiwork. After enough strikes, I had severed it completely, and had taken a few extra strikes to tear into her now-stained pillows.
My bloodlust vanished before the guards burst in. I gave up without a fight. My quarrel was not with them, and I had assassinated their queen. Their horrendous, ugly tyrant of a queen swallowed her crimson... um, pride...
I care not who gets their hooves on this book. Maybe some Manehattanites on vacation would come across the book... I care not... My mission in life is over. I now live in this cell deep beneath the Canterlot mountain. The entire place is cold, and full of ponies Celestia herself never knew about.
They tried to kill me down there... but I had become numb to pain over the years. They were given no satisfaction.
The ponies in here all wore tuxedos and shades... they didn't work for Celestia... they worked for the late Queen. Like robots, they manage the last will of Galaxia... whatever said last will may be. They would want to find this book...
Don't ever let them get this book.
Please, dear reader: don't ever let them get this book. Equestria deserves to know. I'm alone. I am in a world of solitary horrors and despair, but I feel no pain. I am alive... and I am not afraid.
May we meet someday, dear reader.
Frozen Waters.
---
Silver asked Frozen about the last page, and asked him what made him change, exactly.
Frozen replied. "The guards told me she wanted nothing more than to bring us to a state of real peace. The apotheosis of pony civilization, to the point where... characters like them were no longer needed."
"Didn't seem to stop them when we did."
"That's because we didn't. We're not even sure what this 'apotheosis' really is, or how we'd know if it came. But Galaxia... She cared not about herself, but for her subjects. Admittedly, she became mad in her desires for that prosperity- but In hindsight, it made sense... and I murdered her... I wrote about it. I bragged about it. I even managed to get it out to a good friend at the time... And now you have it, and it's with the rest of them now."
"So you don't care about the book."
"Nope," Frozen replied.
"Well, if I had the chance, I'd write a screenplay for an adaptation. It's pretty inspiring."
"That's very flattering, but the key word in what you just said is If."
Silver also wondered why exactly his parents left the book in the safe... or not destroy the book in general. Was it too precious a historical account? Was it for safekeeping for a future purpose?
Kurt stood up and stretched his neck. He then approached the metal door.
"Kurt?" Silver asked.
"You might want to plug your ears," Kurt said.
Silver did so rather reluctantly. His puzzled expression cringed as Kurt swung a hoof at the door.
"Luna's Socks Almighty!" Frozen blathered as he scrambled onto his flank. The exclamation caused the immortal's voice to crack, forcing him into a short coughing fit. The door made an immense bang as Kurt's hoof slammed into it.
"Yeah, What the hell was that?" Silver yelled as his ears rang. When Frozen did it, the door didn't bang nearly as loud as this time. "You trying to bust my ears?"
"Who gives a horse's flank about your ears?" Frozen asked as he pointed a hoof at the door, "Look!"
Silver blinked and spotted what Frozen was pointing out. Where Kurt's hoof landed, a dent remained.
"Good Celestia," Silver's jaw dropped.
"Keep them closed," Kurt said before he continued the process. He reared back and swung the hoof again and again, changing between left and right and occasionally pausing for breath. No doubt the guards would be yelling, but Silver couldn't hear them. Kurt was crushing that door as if it were a few boards of dry wall.
Kurt stopped to take a longer breather. By then, cracks of light were pouring through the edges. The dents became far more prominent.
Silver started to wonder: who was a worse creature, Kurt, or Kurgan? Are they even the same thing now?
"What the buck is that?!" A guard shouted. His voice cracked in utter disbelief.
"Impossible!" that gruff pegasus guard barked, "There's no way a pony can be that strong."
Silver honestly just wanted to go home. He wanted to get away from this and be back to watching The Last Earth Pony. He wanted some form of escapism.
This feat of strength is true horror. Kurt spun around and fired both hind legs at the door like a shotgun. The crumpled metal plate buckled and blasted off its hinges.
"Rejoice!" Kurt bellowed in a form of anger unheard of by ponies, "I will break every single one of you!"
The scriptwriter wondered what kind of training the other ponies had to go through. He wondered if they had families at home, or if they even knew about what these guards were doing. Were they among the rest of society? Are they locked away for the good of secret-keeping?
Did they know that this monster of a pony was going to destroy their lives?
Silver's inspiration peaked. He had a brainwave, and he wished he had something to write on. As the carnage resumed from before, Silver started putting sentences together in his head. Actions, dialogue, prop lists, stunt descriptions, potential cast lists... He was too distracted from the bloodshed that went on outside.
Kurt was a different pony entirely when his blood boiled. Even from a distance, Silver could tell that. Working in an industry based on a visual medium, emotions stand out to him like the full moon in a star-studded sky. Imagine the kind of character he could write with such a personality, he told himself. Imagine the requirements for the actors who all audition for the role of such a... creature. It seemed perfect to give the Daring Do serials a run for their bits. Sydney would love such a character to use as a fantasy against those gryphons he hates for no discernible reason.
Then Silver remembered: ego-inflation or not, he was listening to real murder... of real ponies, ponies that dedicated themselves and sacrificed any hopes of being publicly part of the society they protect- even if their methods are as obsolete as Frozen Waters says his magnum opus was.
They probably took an oath to keep pony society from remotely tilting towards anarchy, or weakness, or any other direction that would ultimately result in destruction.
Was this really a good idea?
"Stop!" shouted an immensely powerful voice. It was distinctly feminine, but the force and resonance blew even Kurt's rage out of the water. Silver knew the voice; She had attended premiere screenings of films the scriptwriter worked on.
Princess Celestia had joined the party.
Silver snapped out of his state of environmental ignorance, and glanced outside. Frozen Waters remained standing by the door inside the cell. Kurt stood among pained ponies. Among them was an utterly fear-stricken pegasus captain.
Kurt's expression was back to that usual focused glance with those jaded eyes.
"I got Twilight's letter," Celestia said as she stepped gracefully over and around the battered bodies of guards. All that remained conscious... or alive... stared up at the monarch's daughter in terror.
"Letter?" The captain asked, "That wasn't a bluff."
"Yup," Kurt replied, "Your tyranny is over."
The pegasus captain sunk to the floor. His metal boots slid along the concrete floor until he sorrowfully sat on his flank.
"Damn," the captain only had that to say. He then turned to the Princess and said, "Your Highness... it was your mother's last will."
"My dear sister told me about what mother did," Celestia replied, "What mother made me do."
"It was for the well-being of pony society."
"The only real threat was Kurgan Indrik," Celestia spat, "Not the gryphons, or the zebras, or the seaponies, or anyone! And in case you haven't noticed, Kurgan has been gone for over a couple of months now.
She nodded towards Kurt, "The Rhinos wouldn't dare attack us again after what Sir Foalington did."
"Sir?" Kurt asked.
Silver burst out laughing, recalling this kind of scene before. "Who's also in there?" The princess asked, much to the scriptwriter's amusement.
He finally left the cell alongside Frozen.
"Silver Screen, I remembe-" Celestia's eyes widened at the sorry sight of the other immortal. She was no-doubt horrified at the look of those sunken, enormous eyes that were never fed light for what seemed like an eternity. Even after all these years, the immortal still looked distinctly young. "Frozen?" She asked breathlessly.
"Hey Tia," Frozen wheezed, "Long time no see."
"What have you done to him?" Celestia barked at the pegasus.
"Everything except kill him," the pegasus candidly replied, "But I'm sure you can do it, Kurt."
Kurt ignored the comment. "This conspiracy is over, I would imagine."
Celestia didn't nod, "Who knows. Maybe this pegasus would like to speak with myself and Shining Armour."
Kurt nodded, "Will there be anything else? I wish to continue my retirement."
The princess chuckled. It was an action Silver found rather disturbing, "No, Kurt. You don't like working for me anyway."
Kurt bowed his head with surprising respect.
"Silver Screen," Celestia said.
"Yes, your Highness?" The scriptwriter.
"I'll make sure you get home in one piece. I think you have a script to write."
Silver's eyes beamed, "You got it."
"Consider it a standing order."
The pegasus rose to protest, "But if Pony society learns the truth! Think about what could happen!"
Celestia rose a brow, "I have thought about it. It's one thing to intelligently discuss a sketchy subject. It's another thing to ignore it and not learn from it."
Kurt picked some cuffs off of one of the beaten guards and chained up the pegasus' wings and hooves. After that, he galloped off to the exit without another word.
Celestia and Frozen continued talking about lost times, while Silver had an opportunity to talk to the pegasus.
"My grandfather and parents loved Galaxia," the pegasus said.
"I don't doubt that," Silver replied, "I never met them."
"But now they'll... we'll... All of us will be seen as... criminals." The Captain's face had teared up, which looked to be a sight never seen in many years. "I don't want that."
The scriptwriter wasn't used to seeing tears... real tears, not the crocodile tears all actors learn to shed like the professionals they are. Silver glanced at the currently distracted immortal and Princess. He then leaned closer to the captain and said, "You know the play Birth of Equestria?"
"Yeah," He replied, stifling between quiet sobs.
"She wrote that, didn't she?"
The Captain nodded. "The Wendigos did it, really. She visited the faraway land the wendigos first struck. Our old homeland. The blizzards had reached the point where they would never die."
Silver figured out the rest from there. "No room for compromise, eh?"
"No. She didn't want anything like Wendigos to happen again."
"So she creates tension and hate among other creatures over the years- something the wendigos feed on?" Silver asked, "That definitely sounds like a recipe for success."
The captain simply stared at Silver, "The Rhinos attacked us without reason. That only made her more dedicated to this goal."
"Without reason?" Silver asked, not believing that for a minute.
"If there was one, we never really learned it," the captain corrected himself.
"Why not ask a Rhino who was there?"
The Captain shrugged, "The only one who'd know the reason was killed by Kurt Foalington."
Silver sighed. The trail for something good had officially run dry with the death of that monster. The rest of the story is lost.
However, after a few seconds of thinking, Silver found a new trail to pick up on.
"Frozen," he called.
The immortal turned from Celestia and looked at the scriptwriter. "What is it?"
"Why did the Rhinos attack in the first place?"
Frozen stood. Inside the gears turned, but on the outside, his expression remained un-changing. Eventually, it turned to a regretful look, and Silver's heart sank.
"I don't remember," he said, almost mirroring what Silver imagined Discord must have said, "I used to know... I think... Is it not in my book?"
Silver shook his head. "You neglected to ask when you could. Can't we could ask the Rhinos today."
Celestia answered for him. "After what Kurt did?"
Another sigh came from the scriptwriter. The captain remained cuffed up, sitting on his flank and all ready to be brought to justice. With Frozen's help, Silver carried the captain with them out of the crystal caves. Celestia accompanied them.
"What would become of me, exactly?" The captain asked.
"We won't stoop to your levels," Celestia replied, "That's all you need to know right now." The sound of disappointment was prevalent in the monarch's voice.
After they cleared the rather new-looking exit, some royal guards took the captain away from the immortal and scriptwriter. Luna stood there.
Silver looked at Frozen, who appeared to be entranced. He also noticed Frozen's legs gave way as he tried to walk forward.
"Long time no see, your Highness," Frozen wheezed.