Terror Puppet

by Windrunner

Invasion

'

A shadowy figure stood silently at the end of her bed, frozen bloodshot eyes hovering in the dark.

"Aah!" Twilight fell out of her bed with a heavy thud.

"Oof!" She'd landed hard enough the sound brought a guard running.

"Princess Twilight, are you alright? I heard a noise." The guard saw her on the floor.

"Uh, bad dream I guess." That was embarrassing.

"Guess we are all on edge. It's almost dawn anyway." The guard informed her. The battle would start soon.

Perhaps even before morning light shone they may be in the thick of it. She headed back to the throne room, finding her friends and the other princesses there already.

"Ah, Twilight. Good. We have set up an observation platform in the center of town. It would be best for us to command from there. The castle and town have been evacuated." Twilight nodded at Luna and they all filed out. As they approached a guard command tent they were greeted by the elite guards commander.

"Is everything ready?" Celestia asked.

"Come in, I will show you where we are positioned." There was a table with a map of the town and outlying area in the center of the tent. He began pointing at various locations.

"We have fortified the entire town in case of any flanking actions, but more so in the direction of Canterlot where the enemy is approaching from. The bulk of our forces is stationed along that front. There are reinforcements in two areas northeast and southeast of the town. They should be safely out of the battle there unless we need them. These red marks are magical defensive barriers, and the black ones are deadfall fire traps." This was really happening. A war was ahead.

"I can't believe we have to do this." Twilight sighed heavily, very nervous about this. Her friends all offered support.

"Are you all sure you want to be here?" She looked at each of them in turn.

"Ponyville is our home. No way some loopy pony is driving us away." Dash said. She actually looked excited. Confidence was probably good right now.

"Yeah, and I don't like their sense of humor. They're gonna pay for this." That was totally unlike Pinkie at all.

"Absolutely, we would never let you face this alone. Not again. We're here for ya." Applejack looked ready to throw down.

"Umm..I'm just gonna stay up here if that's alright with you." Fluttershy was up on the platform already. Twilight found this unusually amusing. The princesses joined her above. It was a great vantage point.

"That's fine. Rainbow Dash, ready to go to war?" Twilight pointed above. Dash saluted in return.

"All set. Nothings gonna get past us." She spread her wings and launched into the air. Twilight took a deep breath.

"Princess Celestia, you've seen war before. Can you tell me anything useful?" She was very nervous about all this. Shaky. She found Celestia putting a hoof over her shoulder. Huh?

"It's alright to be scared this time. Just do your best. We can't ask anything more of you than that." That soft warm smile really did help. One of the scouts hurried into the tent below. Bright spotlights were emplaced all about the town, the area was well-lit. Flares were also distributed for use. Red for distress, blue for retreating, green for all clear. The apprehensive mood among the troops was very obvious.

"So, how many of the guards pulled out?" Twilight found herself quite talkative, probably from the nervousness.

"None." Luna replied. What?

"They all stayed? Every single one of them?" She was a bit shocked.

"They are brave and loyal. We are fortunate to have them." Celestia looked proud of the fact they all remained.

"That's amazing." Twilight expected at least a few would have left given the allowance to do so. Dawn was still about an hour off. It would feel like a very short time indeed. The minutes did feel to be slipping away rapidly. Far faster than usual. Of course this was not true, and merely how it felt. The town looked so different locked down like this, as though something from some unwanted dream forced into being and reality. The army of puppet corpses would be nearing much too soon.

What of those other four? Those were even more worrisome. Twilight only knew they each looked unique. The two she faced back in Canterlot had unique abilities, were these four going to be the same way? If they were as powerful or more then this could be an absolutely devastating battle they were about to engage in. Defending the town was not a priority with this. The only goal was to destroy the entire army marching their way. How many were actually coming? These thoughts swirled in her head as they waited. Once the fight was really going things would become hectic very swiftly indeed. The air itself almost seemed to quiver in anticipation of some awful occurrence. Twilight panted a bit in worry. Any moment now.

The quiet which had fallen on Ponyville was a truly strange juxtaposition. It was usually such a lively place to be. This silence was unnatural in its own way, lending a further eerie feeling to it all. She imagined waking one morning to find no other living thing in the town. That sent a chill along her spine.

"None of you get involved in any fighting unless you really have to, alright?" Twilight motioned to her friends.

"No need to worry about me, Twilight. They better wait though." Pinkie Pies response was a bit unusual.

"Are you sure?" That was a little concerning to Twilight.

"Oh yes, I'll be fine. Oh and I think I should tell you there's a zombie standing over there." Pinkie Pie said quickly. Wait, what? Pinkie pointed a hoof up towards one of the hills just outside town. How could she know that? Twilight used a pair of binoculars to look and saw a shadowed figure standing atop, black beady eyes glinting in the distance.

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All the lovely flowered fields and sun-drenched grass, may yet to wither and fall at last.