//------------------------------// // Drumbeat // Story: Terror Puppet // by Windrunner //------------------------------// ' Hearts pounding in their chests as the fight drags on leaves the ponies battling for their very world right on the brink of the abyss. The addition of crystal paladin reinforcements came at a most opportune moment, but will it be enough to stave off their ultimate destruction? Each royal guard and everyone else in battle knows this is when it counts. When every living thing may succumb to the encroaching darkness should they fall here. Each new surprise riddled with horror makes for disheartening moments. Despite battling furiously many lay dead amid this enforced catastrophe. Applejack looked around. "Pinks, this is awful. Never in all my days did I ever dream of something so bad." She said sorrowfully and huffed. "Things are bad right now, but we have to keep fighting right? They're counting on us." Pinkie waved a hoof at the squads fighting all about, engaged with these wooden and walking menaces. "Puppets are supposed to be toys, things of fun and merriment, not weapons. This is disgusting. How could they do this to anypony?" Applejack was near the edge of tears and had a large scratch down her left side that still ached. Pinkie somehow remained unwounded despite being in the middle of an absolute barrage of swinging deadly steel earlier that day. The strung up corpses slashing and killing were the worst of all to see and take on. Those were ponies or other living things once. "Are you alright? You look hurt." Pinkie Pie said dully, not sounding at all like her usual self. "It's just a scratch." Applejack got lucky earlier. A misplaced hoofstep actually saved her from being hit by an obviously poisoned blade. "Only hurt mah pride." Applejack winced thinking about what almost happened. "You should be more careful. Everyone is getting worn down and not in the good way." Pinkie really sounded off. "Ah'm not sure what's worse. Seeing these things or fightin'em. It really makes ma'h blood boil." Applejack hated this. It could be heard in her voice. She knew she was just a farmer who'd slowly wound up taking on many smaller and even very large evils in the world alongside her friends, but this was something different. Painful in all sorts of ways. "This is all wrong, Pinkie. We've gotta stop'em. We've just gotta." Applejack let slip a few tears. "Boiling blood sounds terribly painful, you should take a break!" Pinkie quipped. Applejack snorted and laughed heavily. "Pinks..you...nevermind. Haha. Never change, ya hear?" Applejack prepared to take on no less than her seventh opponent in the last hour. This particular puppet got separated by other squads and was alone. It would be no match. It did not take very long to cut those strings and down it went, smashed to pieces. "Why ya think some'o'these are so weak? Not a lot of them sure..but it just seems weird ya know?" Applejack mentioned. It did seem a bit of an oddity with them surrounded by so many much stronger constructs of wood and even some with metal plating in places. "Who knows? This is all crazytastical." Pinkie Pie did not even look like herself lately. Highly focused, using all that inherent earth pony strength to great advantage where possible. "Ya know that's not a word, right?" Applejack said, breathing heavily after smashing yet another of these creaking terrors. Wherever they'd gone to assist so far the guards met them with appreciation of their presence and fought all the harder. "Can you think of a better word to describe..this?" Pinkie asked of her. She thought a long moment, rubbing a hoof under her chin. "Ah..no, no ah can not Pinks. I think these fellas can take care of it here for now. Let's move on." Applejack suggested. Pinkie nodded. "Sure hope the others are doin' alright. Heard it got pretty bad for a bit there." Even Applejack was starting to feel tired. "I ain't been run this ragged in years." She passingly mentioned. Suddenly she started crying in earnest. "A.J.!?" Pinkie helped steady her from stumbling. "Sorry, Pinkie. I just started thinking about all those poor ponies in Canterlot and what's been done to them and if that had happened to my own kin.." It took a few moments to compose herself. It was just too much. All the death surrounding them and the ongoing battle with no end in sight. So much pain and sorrow. A lot of ponies fell here. "Applejack. You must take a break. We can't help anypony if we're falling apart ourselves, right?" Pinkie sounded super serious now. "I guess yer right, Pinks. Been at it too long. Just hate to leave these good ponies alone. No one should die like this, not all by themselves. Not alone." Applejack inhaled deeply. One of the passing guards overheard this and paused. "Miss, I sure do appreciate that. We are royal guards, and will do our duty to the last. That is what I vowed, and that is what I will do. I promise you that every one of us feels the same. I'll tell the others what you said. I know they'll appreciate it too. Go get rested up." The guard saluted them and hurried on. "Pinkie, we aren't soldiers. Why do they all trust us so much to do the right thing by them? What if we mess up? We could get them all killed, but they fight so hard in our names." Applejack could hardly believe where she was right now or all the terrible things happening. It was like a surreal dream brought forth into stark reality somehow. "Twilight has always tried to do the right thing, and messed up too. So have Celestia, and Luna. We can only try, Applejack. You know that. Come on, let's go get you some downtime. I could use some myself." Pinkie helped her friend along. There could be any amount of fighting left to do. Even the strongest needed rest from time to time. "Glad to know ya, Pinks." Applejack walked slowly. Both really were exhausted. --- In defense of hearth and home, are not all as soldiers