An Equestrian tale!

"I will admit that I'm very proud of you, my pupil. You have met my expectations and then some. It brings me great pleasure to declare you a princess slayer!" Said Starboom while having his talk with Artcraft in his cell.

"So then, Master, how much longer do we have to wait for them to pay? I'm getting impatient!" Said Artcraft as he was busy tinkering with something wooden.

"All in good time, my pupil, once we've gathered our bearings, we can depart for Canterlot!" Said Starboom as he then looked at Artcraft who now had a decent-sized wooden machine on his back, and it was on, powered by his magic and black arts. "So what have you been working on, my pupil? something to give us an advantage, I hope." Asked Starboom.

"Yes, it definitely will give me an advantage, for you see, I've been trained by you master, or should I now say Starboom." Said Artcraft as he gestured to his wooden machine on his back and pulled its string.

What came out was what Starboom could only describe as a mechanical nightmare, four wooden arms. one with a sawblade, one with a bone saw, one with a scalpel, and the last being a drill. "W-What manner of the machine is this, Artcraft? this was not part of my plan to get revenge on that accursed Princess!" Said Starboom.

"Your dream will now become my dream, Starboom, he... hehe... hehehe!" Said Artcraft as he grinned madly, cackled, and looked on in anticipation.

“Is it too late to apologize?” Asked Starboom.

“Yes!” Said Artcraft as he lunged towards Starboom and gutted him with all four mechanical arms.

"YYYYAAAHHHH!?" Screamed Starboom, blood spraying everywhere, his body flailing aimlessly, then he seized up and showed no more apparent signs of movement.

"...You're still alive, I see! You are worthy of your title of commander, indeed, but unfortunately for you, you have outlived your usefulness to me; your part has been played, now, it's my turn. Sleep, Starboom, and relax; that princess will pay for her injustice to me!" Artcraft said as Starboom reached out and grabbed his arm with a pained expression and bleeding profusely from his chest, limbs, and stomach.

"Y-You're a dirty b-backstabber, that's n-not how I would want my s-soldiers to act! It was supposed to be me on her throne, me who takes revenge, me who would use Celestia's corpse as a footstool, I was meant for Equestria... n-not you... Y-You were meant to be my weapon... n-nothing more than—" Starboom sputtered out more blood one last time before falling silent, his eyes went milky-white as they rolled into the back of his head and he finally succumbed to his mortal wounds.

"What a pity that you couldn't see my soon-to-be success, Starboom. but make no mistake, it will be me that has revenge and only me, is that understood?" Said Artcraft as his cell door was suddenly busted down.

"C-Commander Starboom!? Y-You... what have you done to him?" Said Buzz to Artcraft.

"I simply relieved him of his duty, I will now be your commander, is that understood?" Asked Artcraft expecting an answer.

"Buck you! Y-You murderer!" Spat Buzz.

“Oh, come now, can you honestly say that you're any better than I am? Don't be such a hypocrite, because I cannot stand those kinds of ponies!" Said Artcraft as he met Buzz's glare his own, his wooden arms rising on the cue of his magic.

"I will end you, Artcraft!" Yelled Buzz as he charged Artcraft! He screamed out in pain as he was gutted by Artcraft's mechanical arms. 'W-What the hell... he didn't even have to move his body an inch! Wait... those wooden arms, they're glowing with his green magic, so that's h-how he's able to fight!' Buzz thought as he was pinned up against the wall the buzzsaw arm was currently stuck in his stomach. "W-Why? Y-You have become a m-monster. You will n-never command me!" Said Buzz as he spat up blood and was steadily losing more.

"On the contrary, Buzz, once you've died, I'll make you into a puppet too, like Starboom over here, the rest of this troop will also soon follow!" Said Artcraft. "So now you understand that your efforts will still be in vain, because, in the end, I'll be the one to control you. After all, to destroy an army, I would need an army." Said Artcraft. Then to the soldier's horror, his horn flared to life as he turned his machine back on, a horrible sound of gushing blood, crumbling bones, and shrill screams filled the air.

"Yes! Everything's all going according to plan... excellent! Now to hunt down the remaining eleven of them." Artcraft said with an unnaturally wide grin as he left his celled room and began his hunt. "This is going to be rather fun indeed! Come on out! If I have to look for you, I'll make everything hurt more for all of you!" Artcraft declared.

Suddenly Artcraft was surrounded by the other eleven soldiers as soon as he made himself known. "Riff, it's such a pleasure to see you again! I see you've come to serve me just like all the rest of these little lambs! How... generous of you!" Artcraft said bearing his manic grin.

"AARRGHH!!! I'll kill you for this, Buzz was my best friend!" Riff yelled out as he lunged out at Artcraft only to have his torso impaled by his drill arm holding him up. "AAAHHH!!!" Riff screamed out in pain as the other nine soldiers looked on in a mix of anger and terror.

"Holy... that was fast! Damn you..." The ninth soldier said as Artcraft threw Riff's impaled body at him like a projectile, causing them both to fumble over the ground, some of Riff's blood was leaking over the soldier's chest. "EEuuggh!!!" The soldier yelled out in disgust as he pushed Riff's dying body off of him.

Slashes and clinks could be heard as the other soldiers tried but failed to even land a single blow on Artcraft's body. "Is this the best that Starboom's troop can do? I'm disappointed, plenty of time for me to work around your bumpy edges though, so not a big loss for me!"

Artcraft said as he thrusted his wooden scalpel and bone saw out to stab at the seventh and eighth soldiers that tried to charge him. Artcraft then used his wooden buzzsaw arm to rip into soldier number seven, blood gushing out everywhere. The seventh soldier was kicking and screaming in agony before he went silent and died. though the eighth soldier did survive off of borrowed time.

"T-That... h-horrible.. m-monster! W-What have w-we done? W-We've created a m-monster!" Riff weakly said as he was coughing up blood and his vision fading. As the ninth soldier was looking at him, he was about to lose it mentally, watching all of his men being slaughtered like this, right in front of him.

"Like lambs to the slaughterhouse, this is all too easy for me guys, you might wanna try a little harder to kill me before I get bored and finish you all off!" Artcraft said with a slightly annoyed look on his face.

"I'm not going to last much longer soldier, you need to stop him before he escapes, he's not a pony anymore, he's a demon!" Riff said as he sputtered his last gout of blood and then passed.

"N-No! Please wake up! Wake up, Lieutenant Riff! O-Oh, god, I-I can't do this alone!" The ninth soldier cried out as Artcraft's silhouette with beady eyes slowly rose from behind the ninth soldier and stabbed him with his drill arm, hoisting up his screaming body and then whispering into his ear.

"That's quite alright, buddy, you no longer have to worry about being alone anymore! Rejoice, I'll take good care of you in my first-level collection!" Artcraft said as he roughly pulled his drill arm out of the ninth soldier, staining the ground with his blood, and then letting his now dead body fall limp to the ground.

The eighth soldier and sixth soldier charged Artcraft only to be stabbed together like a kebab, with just his drill arm and then he used his buzzsaw arm to rip into their screaming bodies to kill them, then released their bodies and looked at the remaining five soldiers. "Only five left? I haven't even broken a sweat yet and you're already all killed? How very disappointing, indeed." Artcraft said as he slowly approached them.

"W-We got this man! He can't get us if we all team up on him at once! CHARGE!" The fifth soldier rallied his comrades to charge him all at once. Artcraft swung his buzzsaw arm to sever both of Soldier Four's legs.

"AAAHHH!!!" The fourth soldier screamed in agony at having both his legs cut off! His bone saw arm slashed through the second soldier's neck, blood gushing out everywhere, and the second one fell dead. Both his scalpel and drill arms went into soldier's three and one, ripping them open and then releasing them to hit the ground and eventually die. "I-I'll make y-you p-pay for this you... MONSTER!" The fourth soldier yelled out as he threw his spear into Artcraft's general direction.

Cling!!!

His four arms blocked it as Artcraft smirked, "A spear... really? You don't even have a leg left to stand on anymore! Meh, I'll give you credit where it's due, at least you've tried the hardest to kill me!" Artcraft said as he slit the fourth soldier's throat and watched the life leave his eyes. "That leaves only you, number five! So what was that about teaming up on me all at once? I bet you're now about to eat your words!" Artcraft said as he was slowly walking towards the fifth and last soldier.

"N-No! S-Stay back, demon, or I'll... I'll..." The fifth soldier said as Artcraft closed their distance to stare at him face to face.

"Do what? I'm right here, so tell me, what're you going to do?" Artcraft said bemusedly.

"P-Please... s-spare me! E-Everything I did, I d-did because I was o-ordered to! I-I d-don't want to die!" The fifth soldier cried out in hopes of mercy.

"No; I need you to complete my collection; your contributions to my cause will not go unappreciated, I assure you, nameless soldier!" Artcraft said with a glint in his eyes. The last one was shaking and then screaming as Artcraft's buzzsaw arm went right into his chest and up into his throat to kill him.

"Well... I guess that's all of them, I suppose I better get right to work then! Revenge won't achieve itself, will it?" Artcraft mused as he went back into his home to create his twelve puppets.