Legends of Equestria: HeroSoul

‘Long before Equestria, before anything, there was only darkness. Darkness that controlled everything, and was foretold to control the Multiverse again. It has been said many times that the Mo’ka weren’t the only creatures of the Void, let alone the worst. This, unfortunately is true. The Mo’ka were just children compared to what will one day overtake everything, bringing an end to all things good and peaceful. The Garonin are what we should have been focusing on, yes the Mo’ka were a threat and I am not judging you all in attempts to stop them, but we should have been finding a way to escape this threat that will destroy us all. Fight them? No, you cannot fight the Garonin and we will not survive the coming times. I say to you all ponies of Equestria, put your arms down and go be at peace, I will fight them along with anypony that wishes to join me, but if you do know this: You. Will. Not. Survive.’ – Queen Lauren Faust. Six days after the siege of the Void.

The Void, Unknown time since the war.

The Void was dark. As it always was. The three ponies and the knife were sitting silent staring into nothingness. Bright Haze, the reason they were trapped here sat on his rump staring at where the exit used to be. The blue Pegasus Siren had his wings out and spread, down with no strength left in them. His hair was longer than before and the red and blue colours of his mane were more mixed and blurred together. His tail was the same but much of it was trapped underneath the stallion for the little comfort that was left in a flat world of black.

Spectra Speed, the darker blue Pegasus was standing, pacing up and down quickly muttering to himself.

An Alicorn of white was what filled the last gap of the three ponies. He was also sitting, wings frozen in place as they had been since his arrival in Equestria. Heart Breaker was his name and had a hoof of his chin as he fought sleep. None of the ponies knew how long it has been in the Void but they all were becoming tired and hungry. Something they didn’t think would happen.

It had been thought that they would just wait for all eternity without aging or having to go through other activities that a pony normally goes through, but that was not to be so.

“So this is how it ends.” Heart muttered.

“Sorry?” Haze asked, not hearing his friend properly.

“This is it. This is how we die, starving and bored.” Heart replied quietly.

“I guess it is. I am so sorry. I fucked up.” Haze muttered sourly. The magical talking knife named Nick looked up at the three ponies. Haze and Heart having a stare-off and Spectra wondered in a circle.

“We could have left you Haze, but we didn’t, because you are our friend. We fight together and we die together. Get over it.” The knife muttered. Haze smiled a little but it still didn’t help the mood.

“If only we had the technology to build a portal.” Heart said quietly. It went over Haze’s head for a moment until he actually thought about it.

“Wait, what do you mean by that?” Haze asked quickly, a flood of ideas entering his mind.

“What I said, if only we could build a portal.” Heart replied, confused. Haze smiled for once in a while.

“Don’t you see? We could! On Terra we don’t have magic, we don’t hear either.”

“The fuck are you talking about?” Spectra asked.

“You’re right! If you can cast something like a lightning bolt or something we could open a portal, obviously at exactly the right voltage or it wouldn’t work. But the only thing is. We have no materials, no metal.” Heart Breaker replied shouting a little, clearly excited.

“Yes we do.” Haze muttered, looking at the armour they had been wearing, casually sitting on the floor in a pile.

“You really wanna destroy our armour? We have been through a lot with them, and the weapons in yours Haze could come in handy one day.” Heart replied, looking at the horse armour before them.

“And if we don’t do this now, there may not be a ‘one day’. I have been through a lot with the weapons yes, but we need to do this. Heart since you built the portal before. Do you think you could do it again?” Haze said, looking to the Alicorn.

“It will be hard with hooves and I would need a continuous supply of power to go into the metal itself, but it could be done.”

“Good, let’s get started, tell me the voltage level.” Haze was smiling, as was Heart. Spectra looked toward the two as they began to gather the armour out and fire cast out from Haze’s white horn to melt it onto the black floor, eventually giving a gold and iron coat of liquid spread across the ground.

Haze had a huge grin on his face as Heart ordered the Pegasus Siren how to form the metal. Slowly, but surely it began to form a semi-circle in their once dark world. They would be going home soon. However, back on Equestria, everypony was still in the aftermath of the war that had left so many dead.

Equestria, five days after the war.

Never in the history of Equestria had so many died, in so little time. Pyres of wood stretched out in front of the ruined walls of Canterlot city. There was no land on Equestria, nor materials for shovels that could bury all of these ponies. So they would all be burned, a survivor of the war, and dear friend to Haze and the others stuck in the Void, Dari Stillwater. Was one pony among hundreds walking up and down the isle of wooden structures with ponies, or bits of ponies underneath oil covered blankets. It was the plan that they would be burned that night, in Luna’s light they were to be freed. Freed from their bodies so they may peacefully go to the Paradise above.

The list of names of those who had died had come out less than a day after the fighting stopped. Celestia, Luna and their mother had been quick to find out everything they could about those who died. Dari had seen the list herself and read through every single name and attempted to remember them. Lest we forgot. She though sourly. Her daughter, Treeborn was trotting next to her, looking up at the wooden piles, not quite tall enough to see what was above them. The small Pegasus hadn’t said a word all morning, but not many ponies had said anything since the portal closed.

“Come on Tree, let’s go find the queen. See if she has any news.” Dari muttered, not really to her daughter, more to reassure herself, that Faust was still here, and hadn’t abandoned them in their darkest time. The now Earth pony and her daughter trotted back toward the walls of Canterlot where the queen and princesses normally were. Twilight Sparkle had gone down there in a rush after an urgent message from Celestia came to her, she hadn’t been seen since. Her five friends had been standing outside the royal tent for almost an hour now.

Dari could see the three banners from where she stood, Luna’s, Celestia’s, and of course Faust’s in the middle. Luna’s was her original one of a crescent moon facing upwards with a small blue star and two blue wings to either side. Celestia’s had been changed recently, nopony was sure exactly when, but the design had been constantly been changing for a while now. At the moment it was a yellow circle with two enclosed wings wrapped around it in orange. Faust’s was a mixture of the original flags. On a green and brown background were two outstretched blue wings, with a diamond in the centre and a unicorn horn coming out of it. Dari continued on, looking to the guards. Some of the Solar and Lunar guards had had an armour change to a more white metal set to start up a Faustian guard. There were five standing outside of the red and gold tent of the three royals, they saluted as Dari got near and one stepped forward, he seemed itching for a reason to use his spear, even after all this death. Dari looked down for a second in shame. The four other ponies looked up from where they sat.

“I am sorry Lady Dari; we have had specific orders by the Queen herself not to let anything inside that tent unless an enemy is to attack.” The guard said, putting a hoof out.

“I understand, just, Twilight Sparkle has been in there a rather long time and Í am beginning to worry. I would also like to find out if any knowledge has been found about restarting portal magic. But I can fully understand that those three have their hooves full right now. Thank you though sergeant. You are doing a fine job.” Dari replied. She took a step back and nodded; the pony smiled a little and also took a step back. “Do tell them I popped by though.” She said, trying to sound as close to Haze as possible, his accent was strange but memorable. The pony nodded again and they separated glares with a “Of course milady.”

Dari then walked over to the five ponies, Applejack and Rarity were looking at the closed flaps of the tent, not blinking. Pinkie was nervously eating some cotton candy that she seemingly materialized out of nowhere, as usual. Fluttershy, who would normally be hiding from all the bloodshed seemed to be thinking hard about something and was certainly in an inner conflict. Had Dari still been a Siren she could have seen into the Pegasus’ mind to see what’s wrong, but now Dari would have to find other means to help her friend. Dari looked to the yellow mare who seemed oblivious to her stare.

“Hey Fluttershy, a word please?” Dari asked, the other mare jumped a little and looked up, sadness in her eyes, she eventually nodded. “Stay with the girls Tree.” Dari ordered before leading Fluttershy away from the others.

Once they were out of earshot Dari looked at the other mare with sorrow and pity. “What’s wrong Flutters?” Dari asked; Fluttershy looked down a little before muttering something.

“I killed something Dari.” Fluttershy muttered again, Dari paused for a second and did a double take.

“S-sorry?” Dari asked.

“During the last battle, I killed one of those mean Mo’kas. They ran at Rainbow and I shot it with my crossbow. It just vanished. No screams, it didn’t do anything, just, vanish.”

“That’s how they die Flutters, you did indeed kill the creature, but you also saved your friend Fluttershy.” Dari could see the Pegasus was pained by her killing; Dari was surprised that it had been this long since she had killed an enemy, yes she had engaged in a few battles and knocked many out with blunt weaponry. But after all this bloodshed and destruction. Innocent, young Fluttershy was still not a killer.

“Tell me what it was like for you Dari.” Fluttershy muttered suddenly. Dari was confused, luckily Fluttershy saw this and rephrased the question. “Your first kill, what was it like?”

“Oh Fluttershy, this isn’t something to really talk about,-” Dari replied. The yellow mare looked up to the other with sadness in her eyes.  “Fine. My first kill was when I was but six years old, the Sky Dwellers had begun their invasion against my people and my home was under great bombardment by their machinery and their ground forces were now landing. Our troops and their own were fighting fiercely all over the city. I watched as my closest friend was shot mercilessly by one of the Dwellers. I saw red. Fluttershy I lost it, and I was scared of myself because of it, I still am. I ran, charged at a fully armoured, and armed Dweller, picked up a fallen weapon and cut that asshole to pieces.” Dari replied, a few pauses here and there, but after she was finished a few tears were forming.

“I’m sorry.” Fluttershy said after a moment.

“It’s not your fault. I have seen a lot of things in my time Flutters, trust me when I say that day wasn’t my worst. Now, back to you. How do you feel?”

“Feel?”

“Yes, now you know you have killed, how do you feel?” Fluttershy looked to the ex-siren with confusion, but eventually answered.

“Terrible, horrible. Sad, angry at myself. I went against everything I have ever learnt in my life, trying to keep life is my job, instead I took it. I feel like a monster. Am I a monster Dari?” Fluttershy looked to the mare with hopeful eyes. Dari considered the question for a moment but looked down. Truth.

“Yes.” Dari replied slowly. Fluttershy looked as if she was about to cry. “But we all have our flaws Fluttershy dear; we are all our own monsters. Remember the old saying ‘we stop looking under the bed for monsters when we realise they are actually inside us’? Well that’s true. For some, one day those monsters will take over, bloodshed and war will be the only thing a pony can live for. Like, sadly, myself. Although I now have Tree, I will always be a warrior at heart. As will Haze, Heart, and now Spectra. They don’t have anything to fight for now except their friends. Heart was banished from his entire world for being different. Haze and Spectra both watched everything they had ever loved get ripped from them by this evil we have defeated. By you killing that creature, you brought us one closer to victory. You have that monster inside you now, you will live the rest of your life knowing you took a life, but will also have the knowledge by doing so, that you saved millions.” Dari added. Fluttershy looked up, less sad by that.

“It’s okay Fluttershy, let it out. I will be here till the end.” Dari muttered, before bracing for the hug that eventually came, she let the yellow Pegasus cry on her shoulder whilst looking toward the royal tent, now illuminating a powerful white light. Dari smiled as she knew what this meant. Time to bring hope to Equestria again my queen. Dari thought and pushed her nuzzle deep into the soft, pink hair of Fluttershy.

Lauren’s MindEye, five days after the war.

Luna, Celestia and Faust stood around Twilight, the pony had accepted the chance the three had given her and was now preparing for what was about to come.

“You realise though, you will live much longer than your friends after this?” Celestia asked.

“Yes. I don’t know how I could live without them, but I am sure I’ll have you all to help me through it. Plus I will still have Heart, and the children of my friends to be with.”

“Yes, well, despite being an Alicorn, Sir Heart Breaker will live the same amount of time as everypony else, however that will depend on how old Terrans can be with medieval era medicine. One thing we have though is magic.” Celestia replied quickly. Twilight nodded.

“Come now sister. Lethe be done with this, she hast friends to be with.” Luna said. Twilight looked confused, after the Nightmare Night incident Luna had spoken like that, but seemed to have quickly adjusted to modern Equestrian so why here does she speak so, funny.

“Yes. Now Twilight, before we being, could you take some vows for us?” Faust spoke up, looking down at the unicorn.

“Of course my queen.”

“Then repeat after us three.” Faust replied, smiling. “I haven’t done this since Cadence became an Alicorn.” She added giggling a little.

“Do you Twilight Sparkle, knight of Equestria and protege of Celestia, promise to uphold peace and freedom to Equestria?” Faust asked, with a dead serious face.

“I do.”

“And do you promise to act only in the good of the country, instead of the good of yourself. So long as you live?” Luna asked. Another “I do.”

“Promise to defend all that is right in this world and push back the darkness no matter the personal cost?” Celestia.

“Repeat these words Twilight Sparkle: I, Lady Twilight Sparkle, of Canterlot, Equestria. Will from this day forward watch over Equestria as an Alicorn. Now my watch begins, it shall not end until my death. I shall fight for the glory of Equestria and for all those I have loved, or ever will love. I shall live and die defending the world. I am the light in the dark, the watcher on the walls. I am the magic that saves many, but the mage that can end all. I am the shield that guards the realms of ponies, and all those beyond it. I pledge my life in the defense of the country, and to bring honour and love to the pony nation. For this day, and all days to come.” Faust said, pausing every now and again so Twilight can say her lines. After it was done, the three ponies looked down at her and made their horns glow. Yellow, white and blue the magic sparked out and absorbed Twilight, for a moment she panicked, but quickly relaxed as the magic overtook her. She was lifted into the air slightly and felt a tingle of pain rush through her body as unnatural changes took over.

She shut her eyes as a large jet of pain overtook her and she felt tears growing, but it was over nearly as quickly as it began and the magic cut off. Twilight dropped to the ground as the world they were in began to fade to black. The trip home took its toll and Twilight passed out, now a fully pledged princess of Equestria. Things were looking up.