• Published 29th Jun 2019
  • 851 Views, 29 Comments

Terror Puppet - Windrunner



One usually finds Celestia in the throne room. She seems a bit odd, today.

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Of Fear

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Look to the left or right in this spectacularly silent battle and you will definitely find one thing etched on all living combatants faces. Fear of pain, of injury, of death. Here they fight for their very lives along with every other. The other definite fact displayed in their emotions, determination to see this through no matter how it will end. To the very last breath and drop of life many have already fought and given everything in their effort to halt this unparalleled plague unleashed upon them. From limbs to life they fight and fall, some never to move again. Those haunting disconcerted visions of the formerly living somehow worse still as they scramble about to bring only murder with them.

"Captain, for every puppet we destroy three more seem to take its place. We have already lost twenty-three crystal paladins and thirty-four are critically injured. This is hopeless." Shining Armors own lieutenant was reporting.

"No." Was his only response. The lieutenant shook his head.

"Sir?" He did not understand what he meant by that at all.

"We will fight them down every inch of every road in Ponyville if we have to, lieutenant. I will not give this evil the satisfaction of an easy victory even if I must hold off their entire army by myself." He said oddly confidently.

The lieutenant looked to him in awe as he spoke those words.

"Sir, I wish I was so sure of myself." He said as Shining looked over to him. The lieutenant knew he was a very powerful unicorn and knew he would be no match for him by any stretch.

"Don't waste wishes lieutenant. You are under my command, which means you earned your way here. Never forget how far you've already come. If you must wish for something, wish for all this death to end." Shining returned to surveying the battlefield. Monsters were on the very verge of entering Ponyville. One slip now and they would be engaged in the streets.

"Yes, sir. I am worried about princess Celestia though, can she really survive taking on one of those things alone? I don't doubt she is strong, but those ones are real monsters. According to reports princess Luna almost died engaging the last one." He was clearly very concerned for her safety. Shining Armor nodded.

"A real war against a truly powerful enemy is something I never expected. I just wanted to live out the rest of my life in peace after everything. This is simply cruel. I do not understand why anypony would want to torment either of them like this." Shining could only guess how this all made the other royals feel, but it must be worse than anything he could imagine.

"Besides the obvious, how are the main forces faring?" Shining requested an overall update.

"Since we arrived casualties have been reduced, but they were nearing exhaustion long before we got here. Overall battle power is up but things are not looking good. The enemy adapted strategies for heavy armor very rapidly. If we hadn't spent time enchanting the suits I think we would have lost a full third of the force already." This statement drew a thin sigh from Shining.

"Then it was the right decision to delay. We serve no further good dead." He was right about that.

"On a brighter note, Rainbow Dash is back in the fight and her presence is definitely encouraging morale to remain up. Losing near half of Soarin's squad and him was a really bad blow. Word on their condition is no improvement so they will not be back in this. The others were reassigned to complimenting units." The lieutenant took a deep breath and continued to view the battlefield as well through specialized binoculars. He gasped deeply, prompting Shining Armor to look over in the same direction quickly.

"Lieutenant, where?"

"Oh no no, no no no no...." The lieutenant sounded horrified as he stumbled back a couple steps. Shining slapped him on the flank of his armor making a clanking sound.

"Lieutenant, get hold of yourself. Where?" He said more deeply.

"Sir, y..yes, squad fours position." The lieutenant was shocked back to reality.

"They never said..this is no good. Lieutenant, inform the messenger. Go, quickly." They saluted each other and the lieutenant galloped off. This was a truly unexpected development the entire front line needed to be made aware of.

He looked on in disbelief through his own set of enhanced binoculars. There in the distance, topping a rise came a most distressing and disconcerting sight to behold. Slowly, almost agonizingly sluggishly a huge puppeted draconic skeleton was clattering along. It was only just now coming into vision range. In mere moments it would be engaging squad four and likely swipe them aside like one might tear through tissue paper. Even if it brought no skills at all to the fight, this was a terrible opponent to suddenly be set upon them. The thought came to him that this was likely purposely timed. One of the three alicorns was already beset by some deadly thing and now this. It was likely not coincidental. He quivered a little bit.

Pony and allied forces had little left to combat this thing with, save sheer willpower to do so. Twilight was ordered to stay out of the battle until there was absolutely no choice but for her to enter it. Luna was soon made aware of the dragons approach and made her decision.

"I shall assist our forces." She turned to leave as Twilight halted her a moment.

"I won't try to stop you, but you're hurt. I know you're strong and skilled. I know that. Please be careful." Twilight could barely stand any of this situation. Luna swished her tail.

"Your concern is most appreciated." Luna said as she prepared to take off, looking to her personal guards.

"Come, my night guards. It is time for us to join battle once more and away." She launched herself into the air, heading straight for Shining Armor followed in quick procession by them.

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A pitiless beast takes center stage, solely to bring carnage and rage.