Legends of Equestria: HeroSoul

Equestria, six days after the war

Besides the blown out windows, burn marks from Demon blood and Decay fire and the bits of rubble that had fallen from cracks in the walls and ceiling, Canterlot castle was very much the same since we had left. I don't know what I had expected, but the rest of the city seemed to have changed with all the construction going on, why hadn't the castle changed? I had walked the rest of the way with the brown coated mare who was my wife and apparently hadn't lost my smile. Aeb had also walked next to me, asking questions on what he had missed. I had lost my smile at a few.

"So Haze, what happened after that mage guy killed me. I'm sure you beat him." Aeb had asked, he seemed genuinely concerned as to what had happened, but not in a bad way, more like, upset in case he had missed a party or something along those lines.

"Once Kalmor was defeated, there as a lot of running around and passing out due to you dying, me wounded and Dari giving birth. Oh, yeah. She named her filly Aeb Treeborn." I replied, Aeb smiled at that and looked at the filly, still without her mother, where was she? Then it hit me.

"Tree, where's your mum?" I asked, the filly looked to me with a confused look.

"At the house I believe, she told me to go see the Queen." The filly replied, gods she could talk easily, especially for her age. I turned back to Aeb and continued.

"After all that, there was peace, just like you wanted. A three year peace in Equestria. I had a kid, little-" I paused, the memory still fresh in my mind. "-A little filly called Tage. Rainbow had two." I pointed a hoof at the reincarnated body of Rainbow Dash/Speed who was also catching up with Spectra.

"Well, where are they?" He asked, an innocent enough question, yet still held pain.

"Well the two belonging to Rainbow and Spectra lived with them, as did mine live with me and Dee. But recently their two have been looked after by ponies in Canterlot." I paused, not wanting to go any further just yet as to confuse the pony/Changeling.

"And yours?" S/he asked. I paused and Heart Breaker turned around. Derpy began to speed up her pace. "Oh." Was all he said.

"As I was saying, we had three years peace, I made a point to see you and the others who had fallen everyday. But eventually the pain just became too much. Slowly but surely, Equestria was suddenly producing huge, wild storms that the Pegasi couldn't control. Their magic draining, every pony thought nothing of it. But apparently Equestria's magic was dying but that's for latter." I began telling Aeb everything that had happened since his fall, up to my death wherein Heart continued, the the Mo'ka war and us getting trapped in the Void.

After the story was done we were more than ready for this meeting, having talked all the way into the castle. Aeb had been quiet, besides the occasional question. Now he just looked forward nodding every few seconds as if he was agreeing with thoughts in his head.

We entered the meeting room, a place many of us had already been in. Now every pony had been gathered.

Steven the giant Serpent was hanging from the window, old cracks still in place from the countless times he had done this, our Terran of the group, Crystal. Wore some Equestrian armour forged specially for him, his Decay Gun on his back, with a forest camouflage covering it, he also had a sword belt on with what looked like a hand-and-half hilt, so he had a bastard sword to his side, the cover was in a likewise camo. He had a large buff beard on, without the tools to shave it had just grown into a homeless look. His hair was messy as well but well kept.

The reincarnation of the insane professor Professor Cockwhistle was a very bazaar looking creature, it seemed like a spawn of some crazy necromancer, with different shape and colored body parts all stitched together. It kind of matched him, in a scary insane kind of way.

Shadow, our mysterious Everfree Forest dweller seemed to be the only pony with an almost matching body, the coat was now a dark purple and his mane was much shorter and jet black, he was also now a Pegasus, with shorter wings than me but much finer feathers. He now had sky blue eyes and two burn marks where the cutie mark should be. None of the resurrected had cutie marks anyway, besides Professor who had one of a screw stitched to his forehead. Ponies lose their cutie marks in death, the whole idea is to show ponies what you are good at. You can't well be a baker with a spear through your throat now can you?

Rainbow just looked like a pony, her hair had about twelve colors in, maybe more, but her coat was just pure yellow. Looking at her I imagined a little white S as the cutie mark and laughed a little.

Dari was the same as ever, longer mane maybe. A bright blue coat with a darker blue mane and tail, it was perfectly straight, much like Pinkie Pie's 'Pinkimenia' form.

Celestia had certainly changed, her mane was less, magical, and was much shorter than it used to be, scruffy too. It was either from her cutting it recently or the stress and was finally losing it, but I couldn't comment, mine was horrible too.

As always Luna and Cadence were missing, with Cadence the diplomat and costently out of the country talking with trade partners and potential allies, and Luna was in control of the annexing of the Sky Dweller kingdom.

The mane six were sitting together, despite Spectra being on the other side of the room, she had chosen to sit with her friends. The scene looked odd, with Twilight having her new found wings and with the skittles pony now in the group. The princesses were sitting next to each other followed by the group of once peaceful friends.fluttershy sat the furthest leftwards, followed by Dari, Tree, Shadow, Emerald Ray (Another resurrected pony in a Pegasus pony with one wing cut off), then Crystal, Spectra, Nick, Derpy, myself, Aeb, Heart, the Professor and finally Faust.

Faust was the only one standing now and waiting until everyone else was comfortable, it took her nearly a minute after everyone else had sat down to finally sit herself. Everyone was silent except the deep breathing of Steven, who held himself up unblinking toward the Queen. She cleared her throat and began.

"A long time ago, before Equestria, before Terra, before the Multiverse, there was just the Void. A place dark creatures breed and destroyed each other. Things like the Mo'ka, Dark Elves, Orcs, Necrons. All these races have always been, destructive and powerful yes, but not the worst, the worst race were the Garonins. They were created during the later years of the Voids rein and made an idea to destroy anything evil. For a time they could actually be considered good. Then the first worlds began to appear. The High Elves, for the humans among you they would a fantasy race, stuff of myth. For the ponies the Sirens were descendants of a Elf-pony hybrid. The Garonin instantly declared war, taking their old idea of wiping out all evil and turning into destroying everything. They are merciless and ruthless with a huge discrimination toward Elves. Since they are the only ones who have ever actually beaten them. And because of that. They are all dead. The Gar invaded the Elven home, twice. The first they failed, but the second time they won, and slaughtered every single one. They do not stop and they never lose." The Queen said. There was a long pause before Dari spoke up.

"But why are they important, portal tech is non-existent and everything in the Void is dead." She then looked toward me as if to make sure everything was dead. Well we hadn't seen anything.

'The way to see Gar movement is a few things. First, magic will fail." A wave of chill washed over everyone. Equestria's magic had already failed, and we had reset it, I always thought it was to do with the Mo'ka, but obviously not.

"Another way to figure out if they are incoming is the most worrying thing, the reason you are all here now. Is if the dead begin to rise in different bodies. Now, I need you all to remember what exactly happened to bring you all here. Exactly what you felt and how you came to be back on Equestria. Derpy, if you could start please." The Queen added, more silence. I had forgotten how kindly she spoke, I wasn't sure if that was good or bad. The only real time I had heard her speak was during the war.

"Well it feels, surreal. Like everything is perfect, but not at the same time, something was missing." She looked at me when she said that, despite me apparently dying twice. I didn't remember what being dead felt like, it was just, darkness. Maybe it was because I was Terran.

"Then suddenly, I say that because there is no way of knowing time, I was there for either a few minutes or a few centuries, I couldn't tell. But I avoid the story, suddenly nothing felt right, I felt wrong. Being cut by hundreds of blades all at once, constantly. I felt souls of other ponies vanish, just. Go. Thousands, millions just disappeared." She looked on the edge of tears, one eye closed.

"Then.-" She sobbed, everypony was looking at her and the other undead looked down, as if they had similar memories. "-Sorry, then, I felt so much pain. I hurt, so much. Faust I felt countless ponies fall into the Void and be lost forever. I saw what was happening and I saw everything. The Multiverse was just, there. Countless worlds and dead, all being lost at once." Derpy added, pausing now and again.

"I see. If that is the case, this may be worse than I already feared." The Queen muttered.

"What does that mean?" Nick asked. The queen just looked down, and gestured toward Derpy to continue her story. She opened her mouth and I lost it.

"Lauren!" I boomed, stopping anyone was thinking about talking. "What. Did. You. Mean." I asked. Slowly, quieter. "How in all the hells of the Multiverse can this be worse than you already feared, these Garonins will come here and they are going to slaughter everything they see. We have no hope of survival and no means of escape. How can this get worse?" She was silent for a second, a single tear forming, the first time I, well, anyone had seen the creator of all of Equestria even come close to tears. And I had done that? Shit.

"You are wrong on one account Haze." She muttered, almost a whisper. "We don't have any hope of defeating them, no." She paused again, all this dramatic effect was killing me. "But there is a way to escape them, which is another reason I have gathered you all here. You have a mission, the longest you have ever overcome." Faust said, every fucking word that came out of her mouth brought more questions than answers.

"I will answer your two questions you now have for me now, then we must continue with everypony's stories. First, it could get worse, because if your wife saw everything than not only does she have unlimited knowledge of the Multiverse stored somewhere in her brain, which could potentially kill her one day, but also the Gar are not only attacking this Equestria, they are attacking all Equestria's, and possibly every Terra and any world that resembles here. Just to get at us." Faust said. Shit just got worse.

"Secondly, there is an old stallion, a very old and wise stallion by the name of Serpin. He lives on what is only known as The Edge of All Things. It is the furthest part north before reaching the arctic, three thousand miles away he lives. Alone and secluded he will be very hard to find and harder still to convince him to help us, but if you do, he has the power to transport everypony to safety. If not, we are doomed." Faust added, I almost forgot how much she was the life of the party as well. I nodded instantly. Looking to my friends.

"Well I'm fucking going, ya'll coming?" I asked, simply.

"I will come, can't leave you for two seconds without you dying and coming back to life weeks later." Heart Breaker said, and nodded, he stood up and climbed behind his seat Smiling, one by one, the other ponies and creatures stood.

"Was there ever a doubt?" Nick asked and climbed onto the table.

"I'm a male Changeling in a Earth pony mare's body, I'll save some of the Garonins to you lot, maybe." Aeb added, also standing.

"I am not normally one for war, but it hurts too much being away from you Haze, not just mentally, it hurts." Dee muttered, also standing.

"I should take care of my daughter." Dari muttered, looking at Tree who only nodded.

"Mother, will be fine, I'm sure the queen or Princesses will look after me, go." The filly said, after a pause Dari nodded and stood up too.

"I'm coming, gotta take Red out for a spin against Siren here." Spectra muttered, smiling.

"Siren?" I asked.

"Well you never named you magic-kill-everything side so I'm calling it Siren."

"Fine." I replied and smiled. Everypony besides the royals agreed to come, all but the mane six (well Rainbow agreed, but not the others).

"I would come, but my duties fall upon me defending Equestria from here. I'm sorry Haze, I hope you all find Serpin without me." Twilight muttered, still sitting, her friends gathered round her, determined to stay, all but Rainbow who floated over to the gathered leaving party. Ouch, I had never particularly spoken to Twi or her group that much after the Discord incident, but being without any mage support other than myself felt, wrong. I felt we were considerably more exposed than we had been before.I presumed Rarity would stay with Twi which really did mean we were on our own. It used to be Shadow, Dari, Aeb, Rarity and Twi. When we were altogether anyway, then recently I had been added to the mix. There was no unicorn in the reincarnation group either, just Earth ponies and Pegasi, then whatever the fuck Cockwhistle was meant to be. Had Discord not been so demonic he would have been a good ally, and would have loved the Professor, in human form and his new pony mix-match. Maybe that's what someone was trying to do, make Discord a pony, bring him back. If that was the case I would have to keep an eye on Cockwhistle.

"I understand, we will miss your skills." Was all I could say, yes we would miss her, but her skills had a mage, especially now they had been intensified now she was an Alicorn, would have been a very valuable part of our group. I just hoped we met a friend on the way who could cast shields. Twilight nodded at that remark and looked to her horn sadly as if she had read my mind. I looked to the Queen when I noticed nothing was happening.

"We're ready, I take it you have supplies and gear for us?" I asked, sounding more of an arse than I meant. The queen nodded.

"The trip will be long-, Luna, if you could bring them in now." Faust said, interrupting herself and gesturing toward the door. The younger Alicorn nodded and it suddenly dawned on me she was here.

"Shouldn't she been with the Dwellers?" I asked as casually as possible. Faust looked to her daughter as she walked to the door. The Princess was smiling and only then did I notice the arm blade she was wearing.

"Shit." Was all Faust said before her horn began to glow, the Luna sprung forward with her arm sword and lunged toward the Queen. It was Celestia that shot, the Luna was hit in the chest and she flew back, fuzzing out of existence, only to be replaced by a small white pony with torn up wings and a burn mark cutie mark.

"What the fuck?" Somepony shouted, it sounded like Fluttershy but my mind was probably playing tricks on me. Whoever it was took the words right out of my mouth.

"For the New Dwellen Empire!" The pony shouted, standing again, the arm sword still there.

"What have you done to Luna!" Celestia shouted. The pony laughed.

"Nothing. yet, but she will die in good time." The Dweller replied, smiling broken teeth. "You see, our kingdom can never fall, yes a lot of us are dead, but more can been bred and more can fight. You forget, we escaped from the factory, we know all about Pegasi technology, including the Abundance Project. It hurts, but it is worth everything that will come soon." The ponies voice was twisted and pained, I actually felt sorry for whatever experiment this pony had gone through. Faust looked to Celestia instantly at the Projects name and gave her a dark look. "We up-rised, your little Princess is the only survivor, we have Equestrian weapons, armour and banners. No pony will see us cooominggg." The pony grunted, lunging forward, a bit of puss exploded from the burn mark, the creature didn't even pause.

I blew his head up.