Once in a far off land, called transeldor there were three pony's adventuring together, there names were Adriak Phantomhammer, Jagged Feathers, and Lowell, they were A Dwarf unicorn, A Halfling Pegasus, and a wood pony Pegasus.
These three were widely revered as the greatest warriors of there time, and had just been sent for to help the king of Transeldor. while they walked towards the kingdom they noticed a large amount of pony's leaving the kingdom, with there saddle bags loaded up to the brim with items. many of these were family's of three or more pony's. the three companions were relay confused by this, so they went and asked a particularly large stallion " You, sir.. why is everyone in such a hurry to leave this kingdom?".
the large stallion replied in a rather low voice, void of all emotion, and with out any expression "there have been weird things happening in there... people have been dissapearing in the night.. and some turn up dead in there beds!, no sign of injury!, just little splinters here and there... and...there are the puppets... the puppets.." he said, his voice growing ever louder, until he was nearly screaming at the third repetition of the word Puppets "THE PUPPETS!....." the stallion suddenly grew silent and went on walking away, suddenly forgetting they were talking.
When they tried to continue there conversation the man just walked away, nothing could stop him from leaving. the same thing happened with everyone else they talked with. once they reached the puppets, they suddenly started walking away. the three started to notice then, that the pony's seemed to lose connection with there surroundings to, some would walk into walls and keep going, as if there was still a path in front of them. They soon realized just how fruitless there attempts at getting information was, the only other thing they got out of anyone was a whispered "look out for them, they come at nig....." before they went silent and walked away
Soon after entering the kingdom they found the streets barren and void of life, so they quickly headed to the castle to see the king, and find out what was happening.
The king quickly informed the three that there were some seriously strange goings on in the kingdom. He told them what the people of the kingdom had already told them prior to the meeting as well as adding a tiny bit of knowledge on the puppets
"By the way, all this started happening about a month ago when a puppet vendor moved into one of the local shops. I have gotten many complaints of loud noises coming from his house, and screaming.. it may have something to do with the strange happenings. if you can solve this ill pay you with 1000 gold coins each!" Adriak, Jagged feather, and Lowell all accepted the promise of payment immediately, and set out into the town to see what all the fuss was.
At first glance the town was normal, all be it deserted, save for a few select family's that didn't have the coin to get a new house in another less dangerous kingdom.
There first stop was the puppeteers shop. it was a small modest shop, right on a corner of two main streets in the "Peasants" district. it was a real prime spot for a shop, even though it drew mostly kids in. there was nothing strange about the shop, it was a square shop, with two small windows on either side, square ones, that would not help if they were opened. it had walls lined with very unique, highly detailed marionettes of stallions and mares, as well as a few filly's and colts here and there. jagged feather stopped to look at one of them and said in shock "Wow, that is one good artist... these are so realistic. i can literally see age lines on this mares face... and the eyes have such minute detail... theirs not a single detail missing on any of these... even the individual hairs..." The other two both agreed, noticing the sheer amount of detail put into each one of the marionettes. there were hundreds of them in the shop. Adriak said out louder than he meant to "wow.. .these must have taken days to make... there all so realistic... they have real expressions on there faces.. I am amazed at how close to real these all are!"
Just then from behind a counter came a very small pony, even smaller than the dwarf Adriak... a plump short green coated stallion of about 20 came out and said "Why thank you, i hand made all of them my self, its a trade that ... lets say... runs in the family..." the little stallion had a certain accent to his voice, it sounded like he came from up north. his mane was red- orange and very curly his tail was pure gold.. almost shimmering.
Adriak and Jagged Feathers both jumped back at the sound of his voice.Jagged nearly dropped the marionette he was holding. lowel quickly started to talk with the small stallion, he opened with "I relay like your shop! and your puppets relay show your dedication and passion for making them!". Adriak quickly shut Lowell up so that they could get to business. "We came here today to investigate a concern the people around here are having about your shop. late at night every few days there is a loud screaming that comes from your shop. do you have any idea what is causing this?".
the stallion first introduced himself as Hellan, then said kindly to them "No i have no idea, i hear these screams too! i have no idea what is causing them...it cant be from my shop because its so small, i know everything that happens in here!
A few minutes later as they were leaving (at this point Lowell had about 3 marionettes with him) and they did not know what could be causing the noises that the king had told them about. they went back to the king and asked him where they could stay while they investigate the strange happenings in the city. a nervous king responded with "There's no space in the castle for you three to stay, pick any abandoned house to stay in... stay there as long as you need to to figure out whats happening."
Author's Note
Id like to thank both Lightningstorm740, and Valentine-crin for letting me use there oc's in this tale, it took a long time to wright and i hope you all enjoy it! i will be updating it with a few chapters in the next week! also, sorry for the lack of action in the first chapter, its mostly set up for what comes later...
