Memories of Great Conquest
At incredible speeds, I watched as the world I had once ruled rotate underneath my cold, solid hooves. The sound of my, progressively slowing, ethereal heart making the only sound in this prison.
I see the land I was born, the Island of Hae, rotate into my view. From this high up, I could not see what was occurring below, so I can only hope that my home island is doing better than I am. I watch the ocean move at a gentle, yet powerful, pace onto the island. Throughout the years, I have seen my home covered in ice and peppered with falling rocks from a strange mountain, but years after those catastrophes occurred, the large, green, hills always returned to brighten my worthless life. The island today was the same, if not a deeper, hue of luscious green.
Staring at home, my eyes unblinking, I once more hallucinate of my younger years, millennia before I was entombed in this eternal ice, and my heart warms a little.
I was a young colt at my twelve birthday when my father, a poor merchant immigrant from the ancient nation of Eques, showed me a book from one of his old friends, a general. At first I was skeptical, but after some time my father convinced me to, at least, give it a try, and so I did. That night, after we cleaned up the party and tended to the rock farm, my father and I read the first chapter together, for I had trouble reading on my own. Together, we read through the first few chapters of the book together. My father went into his room to sleep, but I was unable to put it down, even though I could hardly understand it. Before I knew it, the sun peeked through out little window in front of me and brightened up my book. My father came in and was mighty surprised to see me still reading, and after some nice and cheerful banter, let me continue reading and even told me that I was 'reading well'. When I asked him how I was 'reading well', he stuck the thin rock we use as a bookmark into the page and flipped back several chapters.
"This is where I left last night," father said with a smile to me, "and look how far you've gone without my help!"
I smiled when I realized it, and let out a yawn. With a cloth, father covered the window that let in the sun, and whisked me to bed with his magic. My father then took the book and read on from where I left off. He read, with his soft voice, the tales of his old friend and how he accomplished his feats until, a few hours later, I finally slept.
It was a few years of hard work and the occasional petty theft until my father gave me the greatest gift of all, education. My father enrolled me in the ancient empire's school of war, where they taught wealthy children to plan, strategist, and participate in, battles as either a leader or a soldier, determining on a special test administered on your graduating year. All leaders and soldiers are given the same test, the same teachings, and the same time, but the test is created to tell whether you are a warrior who give, or receives, orders well. After you graduate, you are required, by law, to serve in the role you fit in the ancient empire's ranks.
I nearly flunked every test that was given to me over the years because of the intense and hard to understand words thrown within the test, and I was only saved by the fact I could withstand the soldier's training, but somewhere in the time of my final year, I got better. Perhaps it was the fact that there were no longer any words to learn, but whatever the case may be, I then became one of the few stallions in the class likely the get the status of leader. Sadly, there was only one spot for leader, so I felt somewhat depressed during the last few months, when a couple of students were better than me. I moped like a sissy around the campus, and my studies and scores began to slip away, but then the fateful day came. A small package from a flying carrier from my homeland arrived. It was from father.
I happily, and curiously, open the package in my personal room and cried. It was the book from my childhood, and it seemed that I had never finished it. I opened to the page my bookmark was in and read, but this time, the words made sense. I did not just read the book like in my childhood, no... I understood it. Answers that once plagued me in schools came rushing forth with every single page. Tactics, logistics, planning, and formations were explained, in detail, with every page. I read through the night and, since it was a day of study in class tomorrow, read throughout the day before sleeping that night. I read and slept throughout the week, pushing myself away from socializing with others, and, the night before the test, I closed the book, finished. The day of the test was one that surprised many students, the teachers, and even my own self.
I was the chosen leader.
I was a new general.
Years of great wars and stupendous glory came and went until I was a strong fifty. I realized at that age that my army, other generals, and even some towns, looked up to me while everyone, including myself, despised the current monarch, an Alicorn named King Cosmos, because of his inhumane treatment during unjust wars against smaller nations and the fact that, every year, it seemed to get colder for no reason while the king increasingly denied the change in temperature. I, and ten of the fifty generals, made a decision on the fourteenth of February that changed the world. We decided to rebel.
The Great Arctic war lasted only a year before we were victorious. The two daughters of King Cosmos ran away into the frozen tundra to find others to rule over, while the King himself ran through a mirror that he rigged to shatter before we could follow him. But that did not matter.
As I was the most popular general, I was raised to the position of emperor. My name since then was changed to the "Universal Lord" because of the power I had over several other nations and puppet states.
After some years, the empire began to warm again while I grew a little colder from the news of my father's peaceful passing. I would not return to being glad until the year before everything fell to pieces.
The two sisters reappeared and, this time, with a new nation based off of their old one's name. A nation called 'Equestria'. To combat my empire. It was supposed to be an easy battle, but then something odd happened. The sisters had magic never before seen by my people and, by their own power, were able to vanquish my armies. But... they did not kill them with weapons or arrows, no, my people were killed by disease causing magic that came from the stones around their necks. Before long, I had found myself with this disease.
My body began to crystallize and harden. I felt the cold sweep over me as I turned into stone. I am no fool, and so I requested a meeting with the sisters for peace if only to save those not infected. The sisters, and the stones, were surrounded with a strange black mist as they entered the room. My men carried me to my old throne, as I could no longer walk. We exchanged some words I forget, but at the end was something I could not forget, for it was my greatest trick.
Around the room was the greatest magicians in the land and, with a signal, they created a ward strong enough to completely destroy the black hue around one sister, and main the other hue. But, to my chagrin, they had a trick up their sleeves, too.
At the last moment they blasted a wave of magic so strong, it infected every horse within my kingdom with the disease. They ran away easily, but in a day they sent a letter for peace, which I accepted with hatred in my eyes.
My people were infected with a weaker dose than I, happily, and it only seemed to make them become some strange, crystal-like, small, horse. My disease, though, was amplified with that wave.
The disease made my everyone slowly forget about the atrocities the sisters committed until it was only I who knew.
I seemed to die a week later, my body entirely crystalized, but nohorse knew I was really alive.
In a stellar funeral ceremony, the cured alicorn sisters came to my country to use their cosmic powers to raise me into be along with the stars. I watched as I flew up into space, all of my attempted pleas to be killed worthless.
My empire then, after millennia, split into smaller countries, which I could tell by the horse-made borders. The mainland became a desert, which was probably why is split, and the islands grew more luscious and bigger by the decade-ly eruption.
And all the while, I have flown above the skies, alone in a place where no one can hear me scream to die.
Thankfully, neither can they hear me cheer when an asteroid plummeted straight into Equestria's capital.
Millennia pass again. The world is the same as it was before, except with a less accurate day/night cycle. My home is still green, my empire is still separated, and I am still, and always will be, encased in this crystal.
Author's Note
PS: The sisters died.
How did you guys enjoy that oneshot?
