Legends of Equestria: HeroSoul

Somewhere North, present day.

Our group was walking in silence, spread out and not saying anything. Naturally, those who went to get food and an inn wanted to know what happened, but after Heart and Aeb told them something I didn't catch, everyone was quite again. It didn't seem like the griffins were hunting us, but I kept looking back anyway. I doubted they would, none seemed overly upset when they figured I was going to kill their king, but honestly? He probably didn't deserve it, but he did threaten my friends. But still, a fucking sniper bullet through the face was a bit drastic? Had this war really corrupt me so much? Nah, I'd probably shoot the bastard anyway.

Turns out, there was a familiar blacksmith hut not to far from the town so we stopped by, looked around and a few of the others brought new gear. Mainly some sword arms and a few fire arms. The fact nearly everyone had swapped their Decay Guns to griffin built guns instead showed we cared more about style than damage. I mean, we still had the old weapons, but these new ones looked pretty good. Some even had armour piecing bullets to so we might do some damage against any threat. If not, back to Decay I guess.

Thinking about it, it probably wasn't because of style that we had stopped using Decay. Despite the modifications, these weapons had been used by our enemy. Those Terrans who killed my wife and daughter. I felt myself slow and caught Aeb look at me as we walked.

"I'm fine." I muttered, s/he nodded and continued, I felt a weight on my side and turned to see a still unfamiliar look of my undead wife.

"No you're not." She muttered, but said nothing more, just resting on my shoulder, we didn't go any faster than I was, but it felt. Warm, nice. Welcome. After a long pause, she finally looked up, eyes 'derped' like usual. "What's wrong Haze?" She asked. I blinked a couple times, but grunted finally. Ready for an answer.

"I've been walking here, thinking that we swapped our over powered, strong Decay guns for these more primitive ones because they look awesome." I grunted again. "But that's not it is is?" I asked. Derpy looked away for a second, eyeing the steam punk pistol she now owned, strapped to her side just above her wound. She looked back at me with sadness, and pain, in her eyes.

"Of course not, as helpful as those guns were for you all, from what you, Heart and Aeb have told me, they are still Terran weapons, there is still that feeling of holding a weapon of the enemy, than the weapon of your people." Dee asked. I laughed dryly.

"I'm human remember. Those two don't really work." I replied.

"But which one do you feel more comfortable with holding, that sniper of yours, or the gun that killed ponies?" Dee asked, she nearly said daughter there, I know it. "And besides, human and Terran are two different things. At least, that's what everypony is going to believe. For sanity's sake anyway." She added.

"I may be human, but I've been on Equestria longer than I have Earth now." I muttered after a pause. "And Crystal may be from Terra, but he is much of a human than any." I added. Looking to our Terran member of our group. He didn't notice, still holding a Decay Gun.

"I've been meaning to ask about him-" Dee started, I put a hoof to her mouth, then quickly moved it away when I noticed I was still wearing Aurora and Lunar. I looked away a little, not wanting to think about how that simple gesture could have killed a pony in another circumstance.

"He tried to save Tage." I said, Derpy stopped. I did to, turning to face her. "He was actually part of the squad who were going to shoot Tage, he killed the man who ordered her death, and ran. But apparently didn't do enough to actually save her. But Crystal was prepared to kill himself to save our girl." I muttered. Derpy spat on the ground, although nothing actually came out..

"It wasn't enough." She grunted. I just nodded.

"I know. But that's why he is with us, for trying." I replied after a pause, Dee didn't look any happier,  but she didn't say anything else on the subject, instead opted to start a new conversation.

"So, new gun?" Dee asked, she was looking at it with one eye, and the other was facing the way we walked. Fuck Equestria is so depressing when you are outside of a town or any civilization, there is nothing out here!

"Yeah. Five shot rifle. I actually have to reload this, luckily the bullets look pretty easy to produce so I can just keep the empty shells and create new shots whenever we stop by at a town." I replied, happy to accept this change in tone.

"Well how many, bullets, do you have?" She asked, I hadn't actually checked, the one in it now, and at least three others that I knew of. But that wasn't going to be enough was it? I say the bullets are easy to rebuild. But I'd need a unicorn who knew fire or explosive spells. It was a sniper though, whether I was a good shot or not. I wouldn't be going crazy with ammunition usage. Hopefully.

"The five in the magazine already loaded in the gun, plus another three that I know of. So, about twenty shots. I figure one shot to the head would easily take most targets down. They are pretty heavy bullets. But will be a lot lighter when I rebuild them. Since the components will be different." I explained, Derpy nodded and looked to Aeb, who was still pissing about with his sight.

"So how come Aeb's gun is so..-" She trailed off trying to find the right words.

"Different?" I asked, she nodded.

"Yeah yeah! How come his looks like that, but yours is a different style?" She replied. Pointing a hoof at Aeb as s/he walked past. The ex-Changeling gripped his gun harder than before.

"Because, simply. His is a different type. Mine would be what you'd call a sniper, or a long range gun. It has a few shots because it's built for taking a single target out from far away. Not an open battle like the Decay Guns were made for. Mine is also pony built. Made for ponies, probably the highest level of technology you guys would get for a while here. Without the Decay Guns of course. Aeb's, his isn't pony made. I doubt it was made on Equestria. It looks too, Terran to be a pony design. Hell, the blacksmith even said he found it somewhere. Like it had fallen from the sky or something. But his is always what you would refer to as a carbine gun. Whereas the Decay is a medium ranged one shot gun. His carbine has a much shorter range and I wouldn't be surprised if it shot three or five shots in a burst fire." I explained Derpy nodded and paused. Slowing down her walk a little.

"So what, yours is long range, can shoot far away with no issue, but has trouble in close areas? And Aeb's is basically the opposite. Then the Decay in between?" She asked. I nodded.

"Exactly. Aeb, just fire your gun will ya. Away from any of us though." I replied, smiling that my wife understood guns. I wasn't American, but she was certainly from the Land of the Free now motherfuckers!!! Anyway, Aeb aimed down the sight. Which was pointless because he was just shooting air. After a phase he actually started moving a hoof about on the sight mechanism and getting it aligned. "Fucking today girl." I grunted after a pause. Aeb just glared at me and fired. As expected it let of three shots, what I didn't understand was that the three shots were blue lights. That certainly wasn't pony tech, hell; it didn't exactly look Terran either. What the fuck was this gun! It changed colour from the griffin town to here. Why?

"The fuck?" Aeb muttered. Everyone was fucking swearing now. What had I done? I stepped closer to Aeb and he fired again, this time the shots were fucking purple. "Oh wonderful. I have a fucking Rainbow powered gun." Aeb added.

"You are the embodiment of what every transexual wishes to be." I said. Bit harse but oh well. Aeb just looked at me and raised a dead eyebrow.

"An ex-changeling, something who has been the enemy to Equestria for so long now and renown so evil people run screaming when they see us in our true form. Not only been killed but now back, in the body of some dead pony. Walking around with a male voice and pissed out of his mind that he is in a girls body and would happily kill myself. Again. If it wasn't for the fact there is nowhere to go when you die now." Aeb half shouted back. "That's what transexuals aim to be is it?" He added. I just stuck my tongue out and he shot toward the ground at my feet. With a bright yellow light. He then began to swear. A lot.

"You know guys. I think it's my birthday today." I muttered, thinking on the day. It must've been around the time. Either today, yesterday or something around that, wasn't really sure. The group all looked at me.

"Happy birthday." Dari muttered, followed by another from Nick.

"How old are you?" I heard Rainbow asked. Shit, I wasn't prepared for that. How old was I? Forty something maybe. Hell, I might of been in my thirties for all I knew. I really didn't fucking know.

"Shit, er. Thirty-six I believe. I may have stopped keeping count." I truthfully said. A couple nods went through the group and a few bits of conversation came up. By not much else, Aeb stopped checking his gun.

The Ruins of Manehatten, ten days later.

Dawn had run all the rest of that day and much of the night. But Manehatten was laying in a rather large pit surrounded by mountains and rather steep hills. So the hours of running just left the mare tired and on top of a hill. With mountains to pass first. The sun was easily at its highest point by now and the city was burning. The great inferno below had started during the night and had yet to stop. She had watched a lot of the evening as the city she had grown up in a loved. Had been destroyed by those vile Garonin creatures. She began to think about the day before. They towered over those two scientists and would do so more against even the largest of earth ponies. The plating they wore all over their bodies looked thick and strong. Hard for any spell or weapon to cut through. They didn't seem to show much skin and the bits they had were corrupt, twisted and red.

Those bulking, huge figures had scared Dawn. A lot. They were harvesting magic and shooting ponies with their strange alien weapons. Where had they come from though, one moment they weren't there. Then the city was burning and Dawn was running. Now, looking back on the dead city. She realized she needed to go back in. In her rush to escape she hadn't brought any food or water, and the nearest city or even town was a four day walk in either direction. Not counting the mountains and ice she had to get through to get to the walk. The train probably wasn't running today.

Yes, those creatures scared her and would kill her if they found her. But it was either die by their weapons, or starve out in the cold and snow. Dawn refused to be beaten so easily. So here she was, standing over a once great city. Much larger than Canterlot since it had the size to expand, with various smaller towns in Manehatten's borders, there would have been tens, if not hundreds of thousands of ponies down there. So how many Garonins were there? Enough to level a city clearly.

Eventually, Dawn began to walk down the hill, ducking behind rocks or trees everytime she heard a noise. The sky was beginning to grow dark so she would at least have the advantage of the darkness of the night on her side. Which was one advantage of having a dark coat. Harder to see at night time. It wasn't usually an advantage per say, ponies would walk into Dawn if she went home late or went to a restaurant at night time. But now, for stealth and survival, she was counting her colours as an advantage.

Gunfire started and stopped as she descended down into the burning city and even from so far away, Dawn could see the red of the guns. Then the blue of the magic collection. She had to look away every time she saw blue, and flinched when she heard a shot and saw red. This wasn't the best idea, but the only one she had.

Without any extra ponies slowing the mare down. Dawn got into Manehatten pretty quickly, spotting a few of the aliens wondering around and some were shotting into empty buildings, and from what Dawn saw, it was only for the purpose for destruction. Some of the aliens were also wondering around with their guns on the blue setting and were stealing the magic from the atmosphere. She wondered through rubble and dodged into whatever remained of buildings to avoid the aliens. They seemed to be in groups of five. All searching the area for survivors and stealing the magic from the atmosphere. One group Dawn found herself near was surprising.

"This world should already be processed, how were these creatures able to use magic against us?" One alien had said. Dawn was still wondering how they spoke Equestrian, but after hearing about how the Terran had, she wasn't as surprised to find more races spoke the language.

"They must have reset it. Somehow. That just means more fuel for our efforts." Another replied. The first nodded and they carried on in silence. Dawn hid behind the windowsill she was watching from when they had finished. Already been processed? She thought. Are they behind Equestria losing it's magic? Everypony thought it was the demons. I suppose not now. She added and continued to search the ruins. She found few supplies but eventually she found enough to bypass the mountains. Now she needed enough to get to safety. If anywhere was safe anymore.

Suddenly, there was an earth shaking boom. Then a large, loud him sound. Dawn almost screamed at the random noise but stopped herself, instead looking out the window again. There she came face to face with, a monster. It had to be, it certainly wasn't natural.

The beatst had the colours if gray and red much like the other aliens and had blue lights in thin glass tubes all over the body. Black smoke bellowed from pipes coming from the beast and the whole thing vibrated and hummed calmly. Bits of flesh seemed to be melded with machine and the few bits of tissue remaining was pale and dead. Rust scarred the beast, at least. Dawn hoped it was rust. And a fire seemed to be going in the lower section of the beast.

Dawn also noticed the size, the thing was huge! At least the size of a two storey building if not more. And the 'Garonin' aliens dotted around the thing with their strange weapons.

After a minute of two, the thing began to move. Dawn covered her ears as a screech sound emitted from the machine beast as it tore across the land slowly. Buildings being destroyed by the sheer force of the creature. Dawn then screamed, not caring if she was caught, but the pain was just unbearable. She ran then, and didn't look back. Knowing she should have, she ran crying out. Her ears bleeding.

As the Garonin war beast ripped any fibre or protein or magic from the land, killing the once furtile beautiful land and leaving dust and ash as remains. Manehatten didn't stand a chance.

As Dawn ran, it began to rain over the city, but not water. The rain was made up of the blood of the ponies who were being torn apart, the ash from the beast and the wild magic too corrupt to be used by the Garonins.