Legends of Equestria: HeroSoul

Xetesk, East of Manehatten. 16 days after the Destruction of Manehatten.

"So you're telling me that aliens have invaded Manehatten, the most powerful mage city besides Canterlot in Equestria, completely unprepared and wiped out the whole city but you?" The mage asked, Dawn had finally made her way east, into the city of Xetesk, she had instantly rushed to the mage tower and declared a state of emergency. But from how this stallion's tone that wasn't going to happen. She had been in the tower for over an hour now and was incredibly tired, hungry and low on magic, she had tried to teleport a lot of the way, but that had worn her out more than normal, being an offensive mage she knew very limited in the ways of the other magic classes. Dawn was tired of this pony's problems and was beginning to not care so much about warning other cities, Canterlot by all means. Since the Princesses were there. Including the Queen if rumours were true.

Dawn didn't really believe in rumours, not since those aliens came.

"Yes, by Celestia yes! Manehatten was attacked by aliens! They had weapons! Weapons like the Terrans had! They shot at ponies, killed them, drained their magic. I fled, I'm hungry. I'm tired. I need you to believe me, warn the city. Evacuate to Canterlot!" Dawn shouted back, the stallion smiled slightly. But said nothing, two other ponies ran into the room. The mage turned to them.

"Ah, Denser, Kal. Escort this mare out of my sight." The mage ordered, the two ponies stood still for a second.

"Lord Drew. There is, something. Here to see you, at the gates." One pony muttered, panting for breath, he was of a lavender coat with blue hair and a white orb as his cutie mark. Dawn looked away from the two figures toward the Lord Mage. He nodded.

"These your aliens you were warning me about?" The mage asked, trying to sound unworried but failing, he stormed out of the tower and Dawn follows, not looking for the other two ponies.

The mage tower was a couple seconds walk from the gates, which were now closed with a small battalion of guards, all holding spears toward the gates. Archers were on the walls and unicorns stood around idle, but spells prepared. Magic was thick here. Dawn stepped away from the Lord Mage, who walked toward the gates. On the other side. Stood three of the aliens. All unarmed. Smoke could be seen on the other side of the wall, one of the machines, Dawn presumed. She wanted to leave but was fixed in her spot to see how this panned out.

"Welcome to Xetesk visitor." The Lord Mage said to the alien. He had to look up due to the sheer size of the beast and seemed unfazed by the intimidating figure before him.

"We require donations." Was all the alien replied, its voice was hoarse and dry, it sounded forced, like these things didn't usually speak.

"Donations?" The mage asked, the alien gave a small nod.

"Magical donations. We. Require. Magic." It barked, sounding very annoyed.

"Ah magic, here in Xetesk we have plenty of magic to spare. I don't suppose you know how much you need do you?" The mage asked, he sounded scared now, his voice failing him as he neared the end of his sentence.

"We require all of it. Surrender your magic and prepare for harvesting." The Garonin muttered, raising its fist. The Lord Mage stepped back and raised a hoof up, the various archers prepared crossbows, and the guard contingent prepared spears. "We have fought an Xetesk before creature. This is just a village compared to that city. And we still harvested its core. Surrender your magic and die." The Garonin shouted after a pause, in its hand a few blue see through boxes began to appear out of, nothing. It wasn't magic, Dawn, and every other mage would be able to see the trails of it. No, the boxes just appeared and began to form a shape, appearing and disappearing randomly, until eventually. One of those alien weapons appeared, end light on red. Dawn screamed .

The fighting began.

Aboard a downed Terran Gunship, North, Present Day.

The inside of the ship wasnt very interesting. To begin with that is, the walls were metal and the flouring was metal. Nothing else out of place, well considering I had never seen a Terran ship it really wasn't up to me to say that everything was normal, but Crystal didn't seem at all fazed by the ship so I stayed quiet.

One thing that keep keep bugging me was the fact the ship seemed to have crashed at all, the back of the ship as we entered seemed in tact and everything inside was normal, well, no damage to be seen. So what had brought the ship down?

We walked down the ship in silence. One plan had been thought up by Nick to split up and scout the ship, but that thought was shot down by the worry of whatever was on the ship. Nothing so far, we eventually found a hanger with a door large enough to fit Steven through, just. And he entered. We decided to use the hanger as the fallback when stuff goes to shit. When, not if. Everyone knew by now shit was going to happen so we dealt with it accordingly. There isn't really much to say about the ship, it was fairly big, abandoned and nothing seemed to point out as to why the ship had been crashed. Until we reached the cockpit...

We walked down the dimly lit corridor with a couple sets of doors to our left and right, Crystal believed they were cabins but no one dared check. There was a large, white metal door ahead of us and everyone began to slow as we reached it.

"Its the cockpit, if we go in there I can check the black box for what downed the ship, see if power is still online and if it is, see if I can use this. Our trip would be halved if it is still flihht capable. Even if it isn't and the power is still up, even a bit. There are some Lightning's in the Hanger with Steven we can use. Much slower but still better than walking." Crystal muttered. I nodded and raised my sniper sight to my good eye. Aeb got his carbine out and Heart Breaker charged a Decay Gun. The three of us moved forward together in a line, flanked by everyone else. I reached the door first, with Aeb and Heart very close to me. There was a single red square in the door which I pressed and a small hiss came from the door. It creaked a little and opened, steam crept through the doorway as it opened. There was a strange noise that came from the room, that I couldn't really describe. A mixture of a cry and a wail. I wasn't quite sure what it was about that noise but it really didn't sound all that welcoming. We stayed by the door even as it became fully open. I couldn't really see into the room fully and wasn't sure whether I wanted to. A cold breeze was coming from the room and I readied my sniper, the others didn't seem that fazed by the room. Well, almost everyone in our group. I turned to Heart standing next to me and he looked as unsure as I was.  Crystal looked the same. Everyone else however looked fine. Unfazed. Derpy looked to me and obviously saw fear, or something and began to ask me something. When that noise came again. It echoed through the walls of the ship and straight through me. Straight through my soul, and I stepped back. Crystal raised his weapon into the room.

"Haze, what is it?" Derpy asked. I looked to her.

"Can you not hear that? Feel that?" I asked. Another cry was let out and I jumped. Derpy did from my jump but I don't think she knew what I was talking about.

"We need to leave." Heart Breaker muttered. I nodded, as he said that however, the ship began to groan and scream again. Again the others didn't react but the three of us began to look around. The dim lighting of the ship began to flicker and suddenly. There was darkness.

"Dee!" I shouted. I couldn't see anything and all I could hear were screams.

"Haze!" I heard Heart Breaker shout. I couldn't tell from where but he was nearby.

"Sound off!" I cried back.

"Here!" I heard Crystal shout. His voice fairly distinctive compared to anyone else's, but Heart and Spectra I suppose.

"Here!" Heart shouted as well. I waited for a few seconds but nobody else spoke. Just us. Well, just me.

"Is that it? What the fuck is this?" I shouted. My voice echoed suddenly and there was no reply. Fuck. I tried to conjure up some sort of magic but nothing happened, I tried my wings and again, nothing happened. I tried to walk forward and just fell. My balance was wrong. I fell and put my front hooves out and found fingers moved. Fingers? Wait.

I was human again, my fingers hit the ground and felt metal. One finger made an audible click and I cried out. I tried to stand again and slipped on something wet behind me. My knee slammed into the ground and I felt pain, there was nothing between skin and the metal below me. I decided against standing and began to crawl, I cried out for Derpy or Aeb or Heart again but heard nothing. Nothing for a good minute of crawling.

Then something happened. I felt a cold breeze go through me and a cry again, there was a scream from somewhere next to me which sounded like Derpy. I began to crawl faster toward the sound crying out. I still couldn't see anything and the scream kept repeating.

"Haze!" Derpy shouted. I tried to stand again but couldn't, my legs just had no muscle. I crawled faster with my finger hurting and my knee scratched. I reached where the scream seemed to be and a light suddenly flickered on. The image in front of me made me crawl back and close my eyes.

Derpy was sitting there, a spear going from her mouth to the back of her body at a strange angle, the spear seemed to be connected to the floor, fused into the ground, one of Dee's back legs were fused into the ground as well, her skin stretched and mutated. Her mouth was open to hold the spear, looking like a scream, her eyes were wide and open. I opened my eyes after a pause hoping the image was gone. But she sat there, her eyes following me with tears falling down her face, tears of red. Her scream cried again and her eyes began to fucking bleed. Bleed and melt. I cried out again and crawled back. Shutting my eyes and crying. The light clicked and I presumed I was in darkness. I refused to open my eyes again and screams began to cry again. This continued for what could have been hours before there was silence.

"Haze." I heard a voice call, it was someone I knew well, but hadn't heard her voice in so long. Since before I can to Equestria. I still didn't open my eyes and crawled into a little ball, Derpy still in my mind.

"Haze. Listen to me." She said again, then repeated that, saying my real name. I opened my eyes to see a ghostly figure before me. It was her, from her hair down to her feet. Every detail was perfect. I knew her exactly. The ghost even had her missing toe. Her eye had that cute wrinkle thing that she had always had. Her hair seemed longer but was the same colour, beside the fact her hair was see through slightly.

"You know my face." She asked. I just nodded and she floated toward me, she had a white gown on and nothing else, hence I knew about her feet.

"You must listen to me. You will wake and you will be under attack. Get off this ship. Do not let them touch you. Behead them or they will keep coming. And please. They are not real."  She said. I nodded not really understanding but she began to disappear.

"I love you." I muttered.

"You always have. I love you too." She muttered back, saying my name again before disappearing. I hadn't seen her in so long, and I doubt I would ever again. I closed my eyes again and called for Derpy, then Her. Noise suddenly began to begin again, the sounds of a battle. Gun shots were flying and cried were starting. I opened my eyes to see myself on the floor of the ship, Heart and Crystal were waking up as well. Aeb was standing near me firing his rainbow carbine. Swearing a lot.

"They just keep coming!" He shouted, firing three bursts as he did.

"They won't die!" Rainbow shouted back. "The Decay isn't working. They keep healing!" I jumped up suddenly, tears wet and my leg hurting. I began to look around to see some weird humanoid mutants coming toward the group. They were all twisted in unique ways, some had more arms and some had their jaws cut and stretched. One looked like a centuar with another huapman body fused to its back and the back legs walking in time with the front. They looked horrifying and many were bleeding white puss from random cuts and wounds. They all looked scared. Derpy looked to me and we met eyes. I looked away quickly and began to fire.

"We need to get out of here! Don't let them touch you!" I shouted and ran, conviently the mutants seemed to be coming out of the cock pit so we weren't exactly cornered. I swear I saw a glint of a knife blade run into the cock pit but Nick wouldn't be that stupid to run towards these horrors? Would he? I didn't really care.no ran and everyone else followed. Heart was shouting my name but I just wanted to get out of the ship. Derpy also shouted for me but I didn't pause in my run until I saw light. Then turned to see the others following me. They all passed and I paused a second before seeing the mutants running towards me. I aimed down the sniper sight and looked at the head of one mutant. I fired my gun and instantly regretted it. With the echo of this ship and the violence of the noise that comes from my gun I was deafened by the noise and cried out. Reached for my right ear with a hoof and feeling blood. I ignored it and ran. I didn't even see if my target was dead. Didn't care I was a bullet down and probably an ear down. I got outside and could just hear ringing. Everyone with a gun was lined up and I jumped out of the way as a volley of Aimts ran out. I heard none.

"Aim for the head!" I shouted, not hearing it at all. I couldn't hear anything at all but could see that everyone began to aim for the mutant's heads. I dropped my sniper and stood to watch, not daring to fire the weapon again in this state.

Every few seconds a mutant would fall and puss would fly out. Their screams were terrifying and I could see everyone looked scared and evrytime a mutant got closer from the pile of bodies that were slowly growing our group took a step back and the volley slowed slightly. Just the look of the things were scaring me. I finally decided to help and tried to prepare some magic, my horn began to appear and glow its ghostly white. Fire began to form in a ball around my head and I could feel the heat of the flame. The ball quickly grew and I shot the ball toward one of the mutants, the centaur one to be precise. He caught fire and screamed, but kept coming. Well fuck, I'd just created more of a threat. I quickly switched spells and created what I imaged as a sort of grenade. It was a spell I had never used but I had to try something.

The thing with magic, at least from what I understood. Was that certain unicorns, or Sirens like Dari or myself, so magic users. Certain magic users had a set skill toward schools of spell casting. Yes they could in theory learn other skill trees but they will always be more powerful in certain spells. Where Rarity was great with domestic spells, like that for her fashion crafting. So because of this she knew few, if any offensive spells, because that tree was so far away from domestic. However certain defensive spells the learnt from Twilight and was fairly good with them, however still struggled. Twilight was always a mixed school. Never crap of perfect at any which is very rare and both unlucky and lucky in some ways. Yes before Dari or me she was the only mage we had so it was perfect she could conjure up shields and fire spells at will. But she could never hold the shield for long, or fire devesating spells.

I never really knew Dari's focus, she killed herself before using any other magic around me and then was reborn and never used a spell besides the occasional heal of weak shield. So maybe healing? I on the other hand, was a clear offensive mage, I could easily cast a fire ball or plasma spell or whatever. But if I tried to heal someone they would most likely end up in four different pieces all either on fire or frozen, or both.

So this was basically going towards me saying that for myself, its much easier to learn and create offensive spells and I don't put myself at risk. I was still surprised when my yellow ball of explosion didn't go off in my face and I threw the ball toward the enemy and it exploded and killed a few. I began to re cast the spell using the same image and kept firing until the mutants began to fall in great numbers. I still couldn't hear anything and the ringing was getting much worse. My leg hurt and blood was dripping down my face, we had no healers with us so I bean to pray to Faust that I wouldn't collapse after this.

There were few mutants left coming out of the ship and they struggled to get through the bodies, none had gotten close but the sand was covered in white puss and blood. The ringing in my ear continued and I began to walk to my friends, killing the last two mutants with a grenade. Derpy said something and I turned away from her and asked her to reapeat it. I just caught it.

"What were those things?" She must have been shouting but I barely heard a whisper. It took me a few seconds to register what she had said.

"Twisted beings, they looked like humans, or Terran. Most likely the remains of Terran but I don't know nor want to know what made them that way. We should leave and not come back. We go around this place on the way home." I replied. Derpy flinched and I must have been shouting incredibly loud. After a moment Aeb came by and came close to my good ear.

"What the fuck do we do about your hearing Haze? What did you even do?" S/he asked.

"I don't know Aeb, I guess we will have to leave it and hope it gets better. I fired my gun inside the ship to hold them off but the echo was too much. I may be deaf in one ear, if I am permenantly then the ringing will pass and I'll be able to hear in my left ear at least." I muttered. Aeb smiled slightly.

"Blind in one eye and deaf in one ear. You'll lose a leg next." Derpy looked pissed by that and hit Aeb who said something I didn't catch. As the magic horn began to dissolve, so did my eye sight and I found Aeb was on my bad eye. So I could hear on my left, but see on my right. That's incredibly helpful.

"We should keep moving. Get as far away from here as possible before nightfall. Not just because of the mutants." I said. Derpy looked confused for a moment.

"What do you mean? What happened when you, Heart and Crystal passed out?" She asked. I paused and looked to Heart Breaker who shook his head.

"I don't want to talk about it. But I will never go in that ship again." I muttered. There was a gentle call suddenly and I turned toward the ship, preparing Lunar Bane and aiming my hoof toward the door I saw Nick run out of the ship with a black box in his two cartoonish hands. This would explain why the ship went down, and what caused all this mutation.

"Guy. I found this." Nick said, so he did go back into the cock pit. Someone must've replied as Nick began to continue but I couldn't hear it. "It looks strange but when I press this triangle here sound, voices come out of it. We should listen to it." Nick suggested. There was a long pause before I heard Aeb say:

"I agree. We should camp far from here and listen tomorrow. I'll take point, Dee look after Haze. Steven has some bandages you can use." The Changeling began to walk forward and Dee looked at me with sadness. We began to walk away from the horrible ship, eyes watching us from within. Our trails weren't over yet.