March of the dead

Warmaster Unyaka, the leader of this sect of Believers was sitting in his new throne room inside his newly erected fort, fitting of a Believer of his status. The room was large and elaborate whit slaves hanging from the walls, whose blood dripped down into a central pool. Where five warlocks were conducting a ritual to expand his castle and field of influence until this entire region was joined under the gaze of the benevolent.

He should be happy, he should be in his cambers reeling in some of his favorite slaves and consuming of the flesh from some of the previous inhabitants of this place. Yet he sat on his throne grumbling as his son was still missing. While it was not one of the sons he liked particularly much, it was neither one he hated and he wanted to share in his victory with his son, to later use him as a sacrifice in his rise to demonkind but that was a whole other thing.

"Have you located my son yet dark casters?" Unyaka asked the warlocks trying to at least sound a little honorable to them, as they were the backbone to his strength. Whit his possession of five being a rarity among other warbands, but he also knew that due to warlocks' connection to the Benevolent ones, made they both independent and powerful. And one wrong word can make them decide to defect to another Warband.

"No ascended one, while we are able to see his soul in the void of the Benevolent ones, his flesh and mind are somehow eluding our gaze," one of the warlocks said angering Unyaka. Not only had he stolen one of his sacred blades he had also disobeyed his orders and charged ahead of the main hoard when they were purging the site for the construction of Unyaka´s fort. Then he had the gall to run away saying that he was going to hunt down some iponi that had escaped the cleansing.

Leaning back on his throne he began imagining what torture he would inflict on his disappointment of a son, but his mind was pulled to different places as he heard a faint sound. It sounded like hoofs stomping on the ground which wouldn't be too uncommon in a believer's fort. But that was usually in a glorious disharmony as a tribute to the Benevolent ones, this was harmonious, in unison.

Grabbing his newly forged void staff, he walked to a balcony looking out towards the horizon where the sound, which was steadily growing stronger whit every passing moment emanated from. Looking out just in time to see something falling from the sky and erupting in a tremendous fire explosion as it struck the courtyard below. Caught off guard Warmaster, Unyaka looked towards the horizon as new series of explosions rung out.

At the edge of the horizon was a large tide of grey iponi´s all clad in the same garb and moving as one coming as the tide over the horizon. located just behind them were metallic constructs whit large hollow rods pointing up into the sky wholly unfamiliar to the warlord. as he looks at the structures, the top exploded in fire sending something flying towards his fort, and once they landed a large explosion followed damaging his fort and killing his Warband in the outer courtyard.

Whit fury pumping true his veins with such ferocity that dark magick was pouring from his eyes and mouth Warmaster Unyaka. Raised his void staff and whit a deathly wail as a prayer to the benevolent father, cast a spell to both shields his fort and to summon forth aid from the realm of the Benevolent.

As another salvo was fired from the massive hydra canons Fluttershy looked true a pair of binoculars as the same zebra she had seen before whit the staff made from the gazel dis something at the top of the fort. Just as the shells from the canon would impact, a swirling magical sheld grew around the fort protecting it from the salvo. As continuous salvos were unable to break the shield, Fluttershy raised her sword signaling for the artillery to stop.

As the artillery grew silent the world around Fluttershy turned pale and time stopped, as emerging from Fluttershy's chest were two balls of energy. One yellow and pink and the other one black and white with both balls of energy forming into a pony.

"Well I really hoped that we would be able to do more damage, but I wasn't expecting a magical barier" the black and white figure representing the soul of Krieg said. While the other one, the embodiment of Fluttershy's soul looked on in horror.

"How many do you think died?" she asked and Krige while sounding uncaring she could feel his regret even true the gasmask that obscured his face. That had appeared whit the rest of their new ensemble when the full power of the amulet where activated. As before it consisted of the trenchcoat and belt but now under it was a full military officer ensemble and bodysuit that covered Fluttershy from head to toe. It even had the before mentioned gas mask and a metal helmet whit a twin-headed pegasus on top.

"In an artillery engagement, the first barrage is always the most devastating, as no one is prepared for it and usually the artillery hasn't completely zeroed the target. So I would guess that almost everyone outside the castle is dead by this point" he said and Fluttershy could feel a sting of sadness in her heart.

" I can´t speak for the dead but if their choice is betine death or enslavement to this cultist I would choose death" Krige then said laying a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder. She knew that he was speaking the truth as even she knew that if she were in the same situation, she would have a hard time not wishing for her own death.

"But we will save the rest?" Fluttershy asked and received a nod from Krege as time returned to normal. Drawing her sword she raised into the air and with a bombing voice that reached the entire battle line she shouted out a single command.

"DEATH CORPS OF EQUESTRIA ADVANCE!!!" and with that hundred of ponies clad in grey simple uniforms whit, a gas mask, simple metal helmet, and grey trenchcoat and thick leather bots that combined covered their entire body began marching towards the cultist castle. As they did the artillery began to roar again dropping dozen upon dozens of tons of high explosive shells on the magical shield hoping to break it.

But whatever powered the shield stayed strong, forcing the artillery to one again go silent, and as it did it gave just the opening the cultist needed, and true opening in the shield they came rushing out in great waves. Screaming and chanting demonic curses as they bean charging headfirst towards the guard's ponies of the death corps of Equestria. The scams and cants were to spread fear among their enemies, to make them run and cower to be easier cut down and sacrifice to the benevolent, but the guard's ponies didn't flinch.

Walking in perfect coordination shoulder to shoulder, flank to flank none stoping, none fleeing just marching forward towards what would seem like inevitable death. Then like funder from an empty sky, the artillery erupted once again but this time not firing at the shield but at the ground just in front of the guard's ponies. The cultist died in droves as fire erupted from the ground laying waste to everything, except the guard's ponies.

Who just as coordinated walked just behind and out of reach of the devastation of the slowly forward creping artillery strike. The first sells almost instantly obliterated the cultist, and those who survived quickly ran back towards the fort, but as there was no longer an opening in the shield for them to run true they were traped. Slamming their hoves on the wall of the shield begging to be let back in but the magical wall stayed closed. So when the artillery began striking the shield again this time the cultist were turned to red mist evaporating into the air.

For hours the barrage continued and the cultist so used to being on the offensive grew more and more restless and was on the verge of sliting other troths, silence fell. And the moment the warlord opened up the shields for a rush no one remembered what happened last time and rushed out ready to face their enemy, only to find the plains before them empty.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy peeked around the corner of the main gate to the cultist fort she saw that the plan had gone perfectly, just as Krige had predicted. He has suspected that they would get extremely anxious being trapped behind their won magical barrier. Meaning that they would rush out at any moment given, meaning they could be easily killed by the artillery. But they both knew that this strategy was only god fore one or two times before whoever was leading the cultist would use the slaves. Trowing them into the meat grinder to save their own forces. Meaning that if they could not go true the main gate or bomb the main enemy hoard from above, their only solution was to go under them.

"Lord commander ma´am, all units ready and awaiting orders," a large death corps soldier said.

"I need you and the rest of your Grenadier to take care of any survivors while I take care of however lead this enemy force," Fluttershy said to the soldier who after saluting tock position whit other large ponies having taken position behind some dirt made into a makeshift barricade. They were Grenadier, heavy weapon and explosions specialists that distinguished themself from the regular death corps troper by bing about twice as big, clad in a heavy cheapest and shoulder guard, and being armed whit high explosive grenades and the C-08 caster rifle.

A specialist variant on the ZT-05 caster rifle the regular soldiers had, which was a single-action rifle that fired a magically energized crystal shard at the enemy. While efficient in a large formation its slow speed of fire and somewhat pore ammo capacity only begin able to fire 40 shit from a weapons crystal. On the other hand, though the ZT-05 caster rifle did make up the flaws whit it being excellent in armor penetration. With the crystal, shards to be able to pierce almost all kinds of light armor.

C-08 caster rifle was similar, firing a crystal shard charged whit magic but for the C-08 it was fully automatic, held over 300 shots in an external pack that the soldier wore on their back, and could penetrate everything except heavy armor. It manege this due to the weapon being almost twice as bulky as the ZT-05 and it sacrifices its range only being able to shot at about one-third in comparison to the ZT-05. Also if the weapon was not carefully maintained or suffered massive blunt force it could lead to drastic overheating of the main crystal core causing the explosion of the weapon.

But Fluttershy did not worry about that due as she ascended the fort due to the Grenadier being elite soldiers who knew what would happen if their weapon quality slipped. so as the opening barge of the C-08 sounded below here she had full trust in her soldiers to hold the line. as she ventured higher in the fort whit a hoof full of soldiers acting as her bodyguard while she searched for the zebra cultist she had seen before. the one who had turned the poor gazel into a staff and was senselessly torturing her with never-ending pain and suffering, and she was going to save her.