Many years ago, Banff had been a lovely little place.
A tourist town within Banff National Park, it was a cute little place well traveled by millions of people who came from all over the world to see the beauty of the Canadian Rockies.
Today the mountains were still pristine, the water clear, and the forests deep and lush.
The town however, lay ruined. The small, cute little houses that would look not out of place in an idyllic postcard from Switzerland, were now falling apart, the lights no longer ran, and the cards and trams lay abandoned on the sides of the road.
The tourists had stopped coming, the citizens had fled, and nature was taking the town back.
The cause of this population dispersal, creating the conditions that made it happen and lead to all connected disasters, stood in the streets, eyes blank and vacant. They were colored wrong for anything natural, their hooves not meant to walk in the lands of man.
They hated it too of course, ‘icky humans’ and all.
“Huu-man! Huu-man….come out come out come out!” the lead vacant eyed creature shouted, sounding far too friendly for what it intended to do or what it truly was “We just want to fix you!”
“Fix! Fix! Fix!” a second shouted.
“Everyone whose ever been repaired from their faulty, huu-man existence has looo-ved it! No one’s ever wanted to go back to being just a human. Why don’t you just try it?”
“Try! Try! Try!”
“It’s freeeee!”
“So is death glue-stick!”
A rainbow colored blur suddenly burst out from the ruins of Banff, slamming into a maroon creature faster than the creatures could react. The maroon one was sent flying into a former bank, and did not get back up. It twitched once, a nasty looking bruise already forming at the point of impact before it went still.
The creatures looked around warily, ears straight up and twitching at every minute sound, trying to spot their attacker.
The smile never left their twisted places.
“Ohh…you are one of those aren't you. We can’t help one of your kind, no no no no. You are very, very broken.”
The blur returned, taking out another, horned and silver, creature.
“Maybe I am, but given the fact that you freaks are destroying the world, I think me being 'broken' is warranted!”
“We aren’t destroying it, you were destroying it! Huu-mans destroy, we save, with friendship!”
“Friendship….sure,” the blur returned, smashing away two more of them with the gentleness of a crashing truck “Because ‘friendship’ of course is all about brainwashing.”
“It’s not brainwashing, we just take away the bad parts of your kind and replace it with wonderful, Equestrian goodness!” the sole remaining creature, the leader, talked as if he was discussing a candy commercial.
The blur formed once more about 10 yards down the creature, revealing itself as a teenage girl. Her hair was died in a multitude of colors: reds, blues, greens, and yellows seemingly at random.
A white T-shirt with a large, red leaf in the center covered her muscular yet flat upper body along with a blue blazer jacket whose shoulders were adorned with a dark colored sea creature stylized as a C. Blue jeans, rather worn, covered her lower body, with brown boots covering her feet.
Below the leaf lay a series of added letters with a single phrase on it: Canada Forever; Resist Celestia!
"Yeah, like I said, brainwashing. Do you even hear yourself talk, gluestick?"
The smile on the horse looked less natural the longer this confrontation went. It felt more like something out of a comic book, the smile of a man beyond comprehension, one whom was called mad by all.
But unlike the Joker, these things were never funny.
The horse that had come from above, a Pony as it liked to call itself, spread forth a pair of wings and flew right at her, smiling even as a hoof extended with the intent to break her ribs, face, and as much as needed to kill her.
The girl merely formed into a rainbow colored blur once more, speeding like a lightning bolt.
As the two approached the blur went up, over the winged pony, before flying right down and impacting between the wings with the subtly of a avalanche.
The crunch of bones signaled the end of the fight, as the girl came back into focus several feet away from the now dead pony.
She promptly rubbed her boots against the cracking asphalt with a detached look of disgust.
"Well, now that is out of the way....." she sped off to the front of a decaying car, flipping the lid up to look under the hood, before slamming it back down and darting off to the next car "Now, where's a halfway decent radiator around here?"
....
She ran, radiators hanging under each arm.
She dashed through the forests, the rocks, the streams, and along the Trans-Canada Highway and Canadian Pacific Railway that decayed beneath her feet.
She ran past the semi-submerged moose, the feeding bear, and the brave shepherds who risked their lives to bring vital livestock out to pasture along the decaying paths of man.
She jumped over the hidden gardens, small and hidden from eyes of Pegasi and the other dangers, yet numerous enough to feed everyone.
She ran through darkness, her glow the only source of light, as she entered an abandoned tunnel in the mountains, the lights having long gone out.
She eventually took a hard turn, going off into what most would assume to be the hard signs of tunnel, and down.
Down into the mountain core.
The further she went, the brighter it got, light emerging from a central, hidden source.
With one large bound, she burst into a fully lit, hollow cavern, filled with a scattered assortment of tents, shacks, R.V's, cars, trailers, and every sort of temporary housing one could imagine.
This was a hidden settlement of humans, hidden away from marauding conversion bombers. They called it Humanville, for irony was a Canadian virtue.
She ran through a semi-formed street of fruit vendors, though no bananas or avacados lay here. She briefly stopped running in front of a apple stand, in which a brown leather wearing former ranch-hand with a large cowboy hat held out an apple to her. The running girl reached into her pocket for a unopened pack of AA batteries, which the rancher accepted with a gracious smile and a 'thank you miss'. Taking a bite from the apple exchanged she took off again.
She took a right through a yard of scrap metal and various woods, meant to be used by anyone in the community to build more.
She jumped over the local old lady, who shook her cane angrily at her (Watch it Ms. Runner, some of use mortals have ta walk!).
Taking another turn she ran by a crying little boy, whose cat was sitting on top his motor home and would not come down. She immediately stopped, turned around, and jumped. Grabbing the cat around it's waist she jumped down to the now happy boy, who took his cat back with a large grin. She rubbed his head affectionately before darting off again.
"....In sadder news: today the 5th Kaiser of the German Empire, Frederick the 4th, has died. His people can take comfort that he did in fact die, as he lived, a man, and died heroically by smashing a burning battleship into a massive horde of winged Equestrians massing off the shores of Antwerp for an attacked on the comparatively intact English Isles. Among the dead he took with him is the infamous Princess Luna, whom one may remember for being responsible for the destruction of the recently renamed Constantinople just after the formation of the Turkish Soviet Socialist Republic at the end of the Turkish-Soviet War. Perhaps this act may open a line of alliance between the German Empire and the Communists against the threat that had manifested itself in the land that had once been home to the nation of Serbia, prior to their complete extermination....." she overhead a radio speaker's British accented voice, but continued her run.
She eventually did come to a stop however, at a little corner of the cavern littered with odds bits and ends: tires and engine blocks, coils and hammers, even the Stanley Cup itself.
Of course, given the gearheard currently operating here had saved the cup from the PER attack on Toronto destroyed most of Maple Leaf Gardens (Where the Trophy had been staying after the Leafs had just won it back after decades in the last NHL playoff match played, a brilliant series against the Vancouver Canucks that the Canucks totally should have won), he had a right to horde it.
"Got your radiators."
Rising up from the pile of scrap, a pair of welding goggles covering his hairless, dark skinned face, the man nodded. Turning his welder off and setting it down, the muscled mechanic grabbed one of the offered radiators and solely inspected it. After a long moment he grinned.
"Good job Iris, these are actually in half decent condition. You just can't find any half-decent radiators these days, and they aren't covered in bees this time" He congratulated, causing her to blush about the radiator bee incident.
"No need to thank me J. It was easy, even got to take some gluesticks out of the game while I was out."
J frowned at that remark, "You do realize even the most incompetent Equestrian keeps record of where they send their mindless drones?"
"Well, they'll probably just think it was the 'Squatches again. They are stupid J, or don't you remember Cochrane?"
Sighing, J shook his head. "You and I remember Cochrane differently, you remember a trick and I remember us barely escaping with our hides not being pastel colors. Iris, you really need to learn there is a time and place to start a fight and a time to keep your damn head down. Fights leave a trail, and eventually trails lead genocidal horses to your hideouts. You heard what happened in Coombs didn't you? Or how about the people hiding out outside Revelstoke?"
"Those were totally different things J. The gluesticks attacked Coombs, while Revelstoke was the 'Squatches doing."
"Destruction is destruction, it doesn't matter what is responsible for it. Hurricanes, floods, giant hairy apes with machine guns, or pastel ponies with magical power, it doesn't do us any good to make us bigger targets."
"So I should just let them wander about, and hope they don't run into someone?"
"No..."He shook his head. "Look, just listen, please keep your head out of your ass and you might learn something here." J sighed as Iris grumbled, but looked at him attentively regardless. "When you go out and pull shit like this, it's not just you you're endangering-its every last normal human left in this entire freakin' province. We need you alive and well to fight those hairy bastards back, large footed or hooved, not pulling some fool-hardy stunts that'll make close to zero difference in the long run and get you killed. I don't know how you got those powers, but I doubt we'll be getting any more miracles. Any of this getting to you?"
"I did think once," Iris stated bitterly "All that got me is a father and my friends dancing the mindless happy smile song dance. If I stop to think, I won't be able to protect anyone. I see something, I don't just say something. I punch it until it doesn't say anything at all, ever again."
With that harsh final comment, Iris sped off, leaving J shaking his head.
"....Someone her age, really doesn't deserve to have the responsibility forced upon her."
....
As the night began, Iris lay on top an old highway overpass, arms over her head and her eyes closed. As she tried to quiet her mind of all the little, bothersome things she instead found them all coming to the surface.
Not long after the Equestrians invaded, two things became known to everyone, and in particular to people just like her.
The first was that super powered humans were apparently a thing. While many were 'born' shortly after the barrier was first formed, they had existed before, mostly in the shadows. However, in a few countries they had been embraced as protectors, secret arms of the military and fighters of crime.
This was the case most notably with the New England Federation, the least damaged country in the world at the moment. The Equestrians and all related nuts they spawned could not act there easily.
They had tried once, apparently they lost an Alicorn (Cabbance, Cabbage, Chatoyance, something like that) at the hands of an immortal swordsman, a man with all the powers of a train (including punching with the force of one and spewing burning smoke from his mouth), and an Irish Vampire.
That was itself connected to the second thing, Humans were not alone of this planet. The creatures of myth were in fact real, and many were sentient.
They had reacted in many ways to the Equestrian invasion.
Some, like the Vampires, fought the Equestrians. Ignoring the fact that many vampire were displaced during the fall of Transylvania and the neighboring areas where they had large numbers, they apparently could not feed on Equestrian blood and thus driving them out was important for their survival.
Others did nothing. Apparently there were Merfolk in the seas, who saw no reason to intervene one way or the other. The Equestrians could not harm them, and they had no reason to fight for man.
While no race had aligned itself with the Equestrians, some fought humanity and Equestria at the same time. They wanted to drive humanity away for past grievances, and did not see eye to eye with the Equestrian invaders either.
One such race, was that of the Sasquatch. The hairy men of the woods were in fact very much real, a hidden people living in the Rocky Mountains and the other western peaks.
Tensions between them and man had been building for years, started by Confederacy of American States actions in probing their western borders after the War of 1812. The later incursion of Mormons into the mountains further escalated tensions, as did Canadian movement west.
The pastel horses were just the straw that broke the camel's back, and then they made themselves known....
Hundreds of giant eagles, each of them larger than human aircraft's best and mightiest, circled over the burning city they destroyed.
On each bird, sat massive creatures standing over 8 feet tall, covered in thick dark hair.
They were roaring, a savage battle cry that sent shivers down any human who heard them and were not preoccupied with dying.
.....by razing Calgary, then promptly attacking every other major population center along the mountains from the Dominion of California to the Russian America Autonomous Soviet Soviet Republic. Only the smaller places, like Banff, were able to have their citizens flee with their lives.
The Sasquatch could bide their time, fighting to occupy all mountains, and to fight fiercely with the stubborn and dogmatic of Deseret. For they, like other non-humans and empowered humans, had one, shared, unique power.
The Barrier, and the Potion, did not harm them. All a potion would do when applied to her, or a Sasquatch, is require a shower to get the gunk off.
It was something Iris did not......enjoy thinking about. The fact that if the barrier was never stopped, she would live, while all her friends would die.
She would be alone, surrounded by enemies: large footed or hooved.
Iris sighed. She didn't like thinking.
...
Only her honed instincts, from fighting and from her days on the sports teams back when life was simple and somewhat safe, allowed her to avoid being crushed by the falling person from the sky, who seemed to follow a sudden harsh gust of mountain wind.
Those same instincts also allowed her to pick up the fact that the falling thing was in fact a person, and from there transition from 'avoiding the falling person', to catching them.
Thus, glowing like a walking rainbow, Iris intercepted the person's fall, skidding along the old overpass as the momentum transferred from the fallen to her, and from her shoes into the earth.
Once the skidding stopped Iris turned the fallen person around to reveal a few facts.
First, the person was female, about her age, and had hair that was very light reddish in color.
Second, the girl felt less athletic than Iris was: her body being less muscular, though any fat buildup on it was reserved for her hips and breasts, which were noticeably more defined than on the Vancouver native.
Third, the girl was dressed in a backless white T-shirt and a wide, fairly long green skirt, her legs free of anything on them bar a pair of green sandals, a pair of pink butterfly clips on either side of her hair
Fourth, the girl was not human.
Her ears were pointed, instead of a human round (though as Iris ran her fingers along them they felt just like a regular pair of ears, bar their odd shape) and as Iris patted around the unconscious girl she felt several parts of her that were....off.
There seemed to be some sort of structure in her hands that shouldn't be there, between her finger bones like a trio of....something. As she felt them, Wolverine came to Iris's mind, of all possible things.
On her back, which she hadn't gotten a clear look at during the fall due to the darkness and the heat of the moment, Iris felt two, leathery like growths in the exposed back. Iris slowly pulled on these growths, to reveal a pair of large, bat-like wings jetting out of her back and spreading fairly wide out from her.
Shaking the girl a bit, Iris was caught off guard that there were clearly nothing artificial about how the girl jiggled. How enviable....
Finally, lifting her into the air a bit so to look under her skirt, revealed a tail. A hairless tail that ended with what looked like a spade off a trading card or something.
She also had a pair of rather innocent looking white panties, which for some reason surprised Iris. Somehow she was expecting....anything else.
"What the-a demon.......?" Iris muttered to herself "That is just great. First pastel horses, then Sasquatch, now hell itself is attacking. What did humanity do to deserve all of this?"
"......Ummm....I'm not a daemon, actually....um.....I'm not even sure hell is real....but if you really think it is I won't begrudge you, or anything...."
The not-human girl was apparently wake, and might have felt her....well, feeling around.
Why did thinking of that suddenly make Iris blush.
"Well...." she stated loudly, trying to hide the rising blush born from essentially copping a lot of feels and looking up someone's skirt, "If you aren't a demon (daemon), then what are you?"
"....Um.....a Succubus actually."
"Um, last I checked, that's still a demon."
"No...... A Daemon generally has a Greek or Italian name....not that I am saying that those names are necessarily demonic or scary.....it is just where they are mostly found. My name is Carey Quiver, actually, and I'm actually from Nanaimo......not that I am saying that Nanaimo is anything like Italy......or has a lot of Succubi or Inccubi.....or a lot of anything really....."
"Carey?" Iris frowned as the girl stopped stuttering along "That seems like, an odd name for a Succubus. Wouldn't....Temptress be more....um, appropriate?"
"Temptress is my mother's name."
"Oh......um were you awake when I was...."
"......yes......"
Both were now blushing heavily.
"....So....." Iris tried to get as far away from 'that' as much as she could "....What brings a Succubus all the way out here anyway?"
"Oh.....I was actually flying through, the winds here are really nasty.....I am actually flying out to Regina."
"The Prairie? What do you want there? That place is crawling with bandits, religious nuts, cults filled with the really nutty religious nuts, gluesticks, not to mention the PER and HLF, and finally religious nuts that just happen to be gluesticks. If it is anything like in Alberta, it's a freakin' nuthouse. What's next, you want to go into the C.A.S prairies"
The C.A.S prairie states: as bad as the Canadian ones, but with more guns, even more religious nuts, and dust bowls. Like anything really on this continent, once you left the British Empire, or the Dominions, or New England, it generally wasn't pleasant even without the ponies.
Carey shivered in fear at the description, but steeled herself before continuing. "I know, and it is scary. As you can probably guess....I'm not really popular with the churches, especially Protestants. Catholics.....are surprisingly nice though. No......I mean I am planning to fly well over them, and reach the Leprechaun Mob bosses in Regina......"
"The what!?"
"Eep...."
"Did you just say, and I quote, 'Leprechaun Mob'. As in, 'Leprechaun Mafia'.
At the Succubus's confirming nod, Iris just shook her head.
".......I'm not even going to ask, I don't want to know......"
"Oh, they don't do....that thing you are probably thinking....given who I am. The Leprechauns.....they mostly smuggle and counterfeit. The 'Chivalrous' Tanuki Organization on the other hand......oh but that isn't important. No, what I am going out there for is that there is a HLF convoy heading east, and my mother heard from my mom who heard from her brother, whose the last fisherman of Tofino, that the HLF are going to attack them. The Leprechauns protect hundreds of innocent humans from the Equestrians, innocent farmers, that I can't just let them get caught off guard."
Iris absorbed the information. The Human Liberation Front was a group of thugs, before everything went to hell you'd probably call them something like the K.K.K, or guerrillas, or just plain bad news. They hated Equestrians, and they were not fond of non-humans either.
The Sasquatch and other races who decided to pursue their own version of a human free earth had gotten a lot of recruits to the HLF.
They were pillagers, thieves, and were said to demand 'tribute' from any women in areas they were 'protecting' or passing through.
"Where are they now?" Iris questioned Carey, who frowned as she thought about it.
"If I remember correctly, based on their speed they should be past what is left of Revelstoke now.....they should be getting near the border....."
Iris clenched her fist, knowing what must be done.
"Change of plans, you aren't going to Regina."
"What?"
"I'm going to stop the HLF before they get anywhere near here. You are going to help me."
"Me?"
"Yes, you. Now follow me.....after I do this one thing."
....
J.
Teaming up with a Succubus to smash some HLF. Shouldn't die.
Iris
Eyeing the notepaper that had been left on his desk by the speedy teenager, J just shook his head.
"Not even 5 years ago I'd have thought that was some weird euphemism....."
....
As night fell, the high elevations of the provincial borders found themselves playing home to a modern take of a classic take.
Circling the wagons, but with cars instead of oxen and cart, and surrounded by mountain peaks and pines instead of the endless prairie.
These cars were large, camouflage colored, and all marked with a variety of nasty graffiti, among other...stuff.
Boxes of guns, explosives, knives, and other nasty implements of death.
Trophies of severed tails from ponies bolted to the car's front and back bumpers.
Two bumper stickers for the National American Workers Party.
A polished pony skull, human skull, and a humanoid skull with noticeably large fangs.
And several copies of Atlas Shrugged.
The men of the HLF were all gathered around the fires they had set, merrily drinking more Budweiser than blood thirsty psycho-killer militiamen should ever consume at once.
"Ai....Ai tell ye, think we can shake some of 'em Leppies and get us all a pot o' gold?" one slurred out.
"Gold? What use is gold these days?"
"Ets all the betta for stabbin' po...po.....the things, you know....the evil things."
"Huh, not that bad of an idea Greg. Best idea ya had since we stole those A&W recipes."
"Dam, daa, damn.....damn Luna blowin' most of em up, and da a'es commin' down on those frik'ed buzzards and brea'ing the lest of them!"
"Damn her, yes, damn them all. May they all burn in hell with that Kraut!"
"Now, that really is a mean thing to say...."
The drunk HLF men looked left and right, trying to find the source of the voice.
"Okay, where's the chick?"
"So, we didn't hallucinate that?"
"I definitely didn't, I like my woman older: I don't do teens."
A sudden burst of wind, like a pair of large wings flapping, eventually drew their gaze to the edge of their merryment, upon a stone jutting from the roadside .
"Now...." her wings unfurled, Carey starred at the men with intensity, her eyes seemingly gleaming with a unnatural glow "Why don't you just turn around, go back home, and think about your life."
"Go home....and rethink....."
"Yeah, I might have forgotten to get Beatrice to water my plant."
"Wh're do I 'ive 'gain?"
The men began to move towards their cars, with Carey about to speak again to tell them to first wait to not drive under the influence in decaying mountain roads, but a loud noise rang out, snapping the men out of their trance.
The origin of the sound, a raised fist, and only the fist.
"Hey! What do you guys think your doing! We have a super-spectacular road-trip to go kill Lepreachauns, we can't go home yet. I haven't even seen if they explode with Lucky Charms when I punch 'em!" a female voice roughly her own age shouted.
Walking towards the now halted men, and Carey, came a girl skipping towards them. A red haired girl, dressed in the same camouflage fatigues as the men, but in pink.
This quite flawed camouflage was augmented by a bright yellow pair of boots, a robin blue general's hat that appeared to be from Russian American, a bracelet on her left wrist covered in a array of reflective stones (Quartz maybe?) and a pair of balloon shaped earings.
Most shockingly was what was hanging from the right side of her belt.......a severed and preserved Saquatch foot.
"Um....." the men blinked, snapping out of their trances "I.....we......actually don't know, Boss Lady."
"Oh, you know to call me that. Call me Zinnia Baker, the Boss Lady of BOOM! Remember, extra BOOM emphasis. Oh, I bet you must be wondering why all these big and scary men obey my every command. You see, it's sort of a funny story. See, there was this BIG," Zinnia said, stretching her arms wide, " Sasquatch walking around being a jerk. So I punched him. Imagine my surprise when he exploded! But jokes on him, I got an awesome foot!" she rambled. Apparently big and scary armed men follow you if you do blow something up just by punching it, it's neat! Speaking of the big and scary armed men, you guys must have all been drunk, and hypnotized or something."
".....Maybe....." Carey admitted "....the last part helped it work better...."
"Now, I don't know what you're doing here you sexy thing, and what you think you were doing to my minions? I mean, really, a succubus telling men to go away from them, I thought all you Cubises were Bisexual. Or Pansexual. PanBiexual? BiPansexual? What' the diff, you know what I mean. Men, Woman, you like them all. I mean sure, these men are mostly are ugly, and smell, and at least two of them were wanted criminals before President Huckebee got turned into a freak of nature and they wandered into Canada through 'Squatch infested mountains by the skins of teeth, but still you are just sooooo weird!"
".......That's not really what I care about now.....I don't want you people.....hurting people...."
"Oh, people? Wait wait, why did you think that? We aren't going to hurt people, we are going to hurt Leprechauns, and maybe some Glue sticks while we're at it!"
"Leprechauns are people" Carey said with a noticeably more firm tone.
"Look 'Bussy, I know that people have always been changing what is, and what isn't, a person. How long ago was it that just having a different skin tone, or even a different god, enough to be made inhuman? Now me, I personally think what a person is, is something that I can kiss, love, fondle, hump, and pop up a kid after nine months, I think that's pretty fair. So, unless you know of any half-Leprechauns back.....wherever it was you came from...."
"Nanaimo."
"....Nanaimo, seriously? I would never have guessed that......but okay, unless you went to monster school with half-leprechauns, they aren't human and I'm going to smash them with a mallet!"
Her face now firmer in resolve, Carey unfurled both of her wings in a threatening motion. Then from her hands burst out a pair of long claws, sharp looking enough to give the HLF men pause and to back up nervously.
"What you can and cannot have a child with, is flawed logic for who deserves what rights. I mean, my birth father was apparently a human, as is my step-mom and step-siblings. By that logic, would you call me and others like me people?"
"...Huh, interestin' question. I mean I guess you haven't tried to kill anybody, and you aren't covered in fur, short, or undead........" Zinnia really did look ponderous at her own question.
"To me, life itself is something that should not be taken for pointless reasons, in needlessly violent ways. But a 'person', anyone who can think, can feel, can comprehend, and learn.....it doesn't matter to me if they are Succubus, Human, Leprechaun, Kitsune, Werewolf, or even Alien, no one deserves to die."
"Hmm...I can't really test this with a baby thing, can I? Don't have the right equipment although it might be fun-certainly better than with these bozos at least...then again, not really ready for diaper changing either...wait. Did you say alien?"
"Um, yes."
"Alien.....alien......ALIEN!" Zinnia's tone got louder and harsher as she repeated the word again and again, the last line sounding like her words exploded in rage, quite literally "Are you saying....are you saying those disgusting monsters shouldn't be exterminated to the last BARN ANIMAL!"
"....I've heard that there are many among them who are fighting for us, out in the East. If there is even a chance that you can convince someone to be good....."
"Not someone, NOT SOMEONE! They are not, SOMEONE! They are MURDERERS! The freakin' Leprechauns are vaguely SOMEONE! Great, wonderful.....a Quaker Succubus! They do exist, and they are just as annoying as a regular Quaker!
"Actually, my family's agnostic."
"...Well well, I suppose my father would have to go and evangelize you then...oh wait, he can't.......THEY ARE DEAD! ALL DEAD! AND I DO MEAN, LEGITIMATELY DEAD, not the worse thing instead of death, BUT DEAD! Do you know WHY they are dead, even though they got splashed by a freakin' Pegasus."
The girl, Zinna, had grown angrier and angrier as she had gotten more and more steam. Clearly Carey's attempts at pacification had not worked.....at all.
The old, flight or fight response was tingling, for flight.
"Because, Succubus.....I sneezed....and everything BLEW UP BUT ME!!"
Zinna made a motion to punch her, and out of her fist flew a giant explosive wave of energy, tearing up everything as it sped right at her.
Carey prepared to fly away, not sure if she could escape the explosion, but a blur of bright color grabbed her and yanked her out of the way before the explosion struck, crumbling her rock apart.
....
Zinnia and her flunkie's head moved around, with Zinnia's head moving far more erratically and sharply, trying to spot what had happened to Carey.
"Yeah.....don't try and be nice to crazies. It just doesn't work."
A speedy rainbow blur shot at the troops, spinning all of them around and making them too dizzy to stand.
The blur then shot at Zinnia, who clapped and formed a barrier made of explosions.
The blur shot back whence it had came to avoid the attack, before the blur dissolved away to reveal Iris.
"I mean if you really want to spare them, fine. I won't throw them off a cliff if that really bothers you, but if you decide that you wouldn't mind seeing them die do tell me so I can push them off."
Several HLF members promptly stated to crowd around any intact guardrail they could find.
"Wow, you're quick." Zinnia observed.
"Yeah, I am pretty fast." Iris smirked.
"Let me guess....the Succubus is with you?" Zinnia's voice was now somewhat irritated sounding.
"Yep. It's sort of a short story."
"...Is it appropriate for small children."
"Yes....."
"So, if it isn't a story right out a porn flick, why are you fighting us? We are the good guys!"
"Um, no. Your HLF. You are not the good guys. You kill, rob, break, blow up, and are filled with the crazies. I don't want you anywhere near my people."
"Oh, your first nation?"
"No."
"Oh, so not 'my people' in that style of 'my people'. And really, is this the age to be normal? I mean really, we are being killed by invading plushie horses. Cartoons are literally trying to destroy us all! Normally it totally extinct, like Dodo birds, or the Koreans."
"I don't have time to think about that. All I know is, you are dangerous..."
A rainbow blur shot at Zinnia, who intercepted it with an explosive jumping jack. Further attempts to punch her were stopped by a hop, a skip, a twirl, and a belch.
Panting now, Zinnia glared at the winded Iris.
"So, you going to do this all night? You must burn through a lot of energy that way, and I doubt you have a former Tim Horton's donut maker on your side to fuel you!"
"Heh, I was the sports queen of my High School, and I run. I run kilometers every day, all day, up and down mountains in my boredom! I know how to run the distance.....but you...I doubt you can blow yourself up that much more."
"I can blow things up all day!"
"Oh really?"
Iris sped at her once again, this time somewhat slower with her fist ready to punch her in the fact. Zinnia growled, before thrusting her head forward.
The glow flashing on in a nanosecond, Iris darted away just as Zinnia unleashed an explosive headbutt, shattering the earth around her.
Panting heavily, ZInnia looked disheveled and really angry....even as Carey landed right behind her.
Zinnia rapidly turned her to face her, looking like she was trying to explode. However, nothing happened.
"Now, I think you've blown up enough today...." Carey told her, her eyes glowing once more "You are tired, now go to bed!"
Zinnia promptly conked out like a rock, landing right in Carey's breasts, to the Succcubi's blush.
The armed men looked at the Succubus in horror, but several looked ready to charge her for beating their leader.
Iris promptly sped between the two, and cracked her knuckles.
It was the universal language of butt kicking, and the HLF knew how to respond.
By running, all the way back to British Columbia.
....
"There had came a day unlike any other I had seen before, and I wish I never saw again."
A figure in a dark jacket, black as night, his back turned to view a wide screen displaying a wide variety of simultaneous news reels and statistics, among them the recently concluded Battle of Thunder Bay, mused out loud.
With that battle, the alliance of the P.E.L (Peoples for Earth's Liberation) and the New England Federation had control of all territory east of the farthest extent of the Great Lakes west, to the Ohio and Potomac Rivers in the south, and east to the tips of Newfoundland.
"I saw the fall of a brilliant people to such behaviors they never should have been capable of. I always wondered why, why did it happen. Was this the last curse of Discord, driving his victims mad even as he was destroyed? Yet if it was....still so many who weren't affected now commit these crimes, crimes without any name back in Equestria."
"Commander, please, monologue isn't healthy. We need to focus, the world is still in ruins. When this is all over, we can find out why they went mad." A voice, familiar yet painful, spoke from the corner.
Without turning, the figure knew who had spoke. She was a girl, thin and knobby in the knees, but approaching maturity. Behind her glasses framed in dark bangs, shone a unmatched brilliance, despite her somewhat unassuming appearance of a union jack T-shirt, lab-coat, and white sweatpants.
"I know, Roxanne Sparks, I know. I just can't help but dwell on it.......but each day is a chance to get closer to figuring it all out."
The girl nodded, before removing an old fashioned clipboard from her lab coat without using any form of physical movement, and looking it over. "With Generals Gilda and Ohio Rezum finishing things up on the lakes, Generals Iron Will and Bran Dun want to advance our plans for pressing into Virginia. The C.A.S is a failed state, and we can't risk them being their usual, idiotic selves while we save the world. Also, Admirals Cranky and Steven Magnet wish to discuss a recent proposal of an amphibious landing at Norfolk to support this operation."
"Goodman Brown Young has some recent mystical theory he wishes to show you over in Salem that he thinks could lead to slowing down the barrier's growth by at least 20% with some strong indications further innovation could halt it entirely, Johnathan Thompson Terran has recently devised some potential trans-universe transportation tech at his zoo he'd like to test out in case of the worst case scenario, and Agent Rare reported the discovery of another powered human, a farm girl named Jaqueline Abigail 'A.J' Smith, and wishes to discuss her planned route of return to base from their current location around Lake Okanagan, her intended route was lost following a fight with some Sasquatch troops and their recently domesticated Ogopogos."
"Finally, Theron Dodekantheon wishes to inform you that House Dodekantheon-Olympus, are interested in forming a direct alliance with you, though he does caution the potential diplomatic issues this would cause us with the Vampiric-Angelic alliance in Europe."
Nodding, the cloaked figure turned to face her, prepared to meet these actions head on. A figure of purple scales, he lacked hair but instead had green spikes on his head. A eyepatch covered his right eye, and a jewel displaying a pink, star like burst of power hung from his left ear like an earring.
He had obtained it during his flight, and his grand treason from the corrupted land of Equestria.
A theft whose punishment, sat just as high as his crimes of creating the P.E.R in the first place.
"Very well. Tell them to meet me in Salem Enclave in an hour. I want to see the Wizards innovation myself before anything else."
Author's Note
1: So, Alternate History Time. The major changes to history, when you ignore the superpowered and nonhuman stuff, is the fact that the War of 1812 ended up being a victory for the British and Future Canadians, leading to the United States splitting off into the New England Federation and the Confederacy of American States (whom promptly feuded over borders and failed to take the Pacific Coast, Alaska, Hawaii or the Pacific, though the C.A.S did eventually start taking territories that could be good slavery territories like Cuba) and the British not taking part in World War 1, which led to Germany defeating France and Russia. Some side effects of this include the Soviet Union having Alaska at it's formation (Though the British and Canadians did not like that and invaded the territory during the WW2 of this world), the Serbian People suffering a genocide by the hands of Austria-Hungary during the war (however the Holocaust did not occur, Imperial Germany and Austria-Hungary were actually very nice places for Jewish people, though this does not mean there were not similar, if less extreme issues for non Jewish or political-sexual minorities of Europe, other Slavic peoples did suffer some harsh treatments and the Armenians still suffered their genocide during WW1), a Japanese-Spanish War to seize the Philippines and Guam, and an eventual WW2 analogue between the British Empire and it's Dominions (as well as the New England Federation), the Empire of Germany and it's subservient states, the U.S.S.R, the Empire of Japan, and the Confederacy of American States.
2: Equestria landed in the borders of WW1 Serbia, and at this point the barrier has covered much of the Balkans and is now starting to threatening the Turkish S.S.R, Greece, and has recently run over Hungary and is making the Germans and Ukrainian Soviets rather nervous. The 'Great and Mighty Bulgarian Empire' that had been formed after the Great War is now virtually gone, submerged by Equestria and forever erased.
3: Iris Runner is a version of E.Q.G Rainbow Dash, F.Y.I. Pony Rainbow Dash here is what you'd expect CB Rainbow to be like. Likewise, Carey Quiver is this world's E.Q.G Fluttershy and ZInnia Baker is this world's Pinkie Pie. Same deal with Roxanne Sparks, 'Agent Rare', and Jacqueline Abigail Smith whom I think you can figure out who they are
4: While Communism is around in this universe like it our timeline, in this timeline Fascism did not take off like it did in our timeline because Italy and Germany did not end up with their same resentments. While it did appear in France after the war, the ideology did not take over. France isn't as lovely a place as it is in our time, probably being closer in feel to Franco Spain (which was less fascist and more of an autocracy, especially after WW2 ended), but it isn't quite Mussolini or Hitler levels of 'nope'.
5: There is a reason that nothing with a cutie mark is part of P.E.R
