Spike and AJ's procession had advanced nearly three quarters of the way. It had been joined, to her surprise, by several civilians with no comment from the army.
"So they also joined Hlaoo?" she asked Spike, uncomfortable with the idea. It was a thing attacking a soldier and a different one completely to attack civilians.
"Nah," said a nearby griffon "I've heard Hlaoo's using golems. That's bad sport" he flew off to chat with a nearby group of his kind.
"Oh" she blinked "Alright?"
"Yeah, these people is like that" said Spike.
At least, she admitted, there seemed to be a consensus about age. Everyone seemed to be at least thirty, and younger people who tried to join was quickly thrown from the group by their elders, often via kicks in the arse.
She was thinking this when a group of unoccupied spaces approached them quickly, and the alarm spread like wild fire. Everyone who could use some magic or another rained disrupting projectiles over them, imploding most of their perception filters quickly.
-º-
Quibra wasn't quite drunk yet. He was, in fact, in his favorite stage-- in a pleasant haze that didn't quite rob him of intelligence.
He also wore his armor, because the enchantments on it made it far easier to move with a broken rib. There was absolutely no other reason, he reminded himself.
He had to get some gift for lil' bro' before heading back, too, but the mental reminder was interrupted by a crash outside.
He and the rest of the bar went to the door to see a golem, bigger than a buffalo and painted with the colors of Hlaoo, being fallen over by a dozen armored griffons wearing the colors of Reddo.
Without a moment's pause, the Suraneans entered in a rush, took anything that wasn't nailed to the floor, and flew out of windows and doors alike to attack the golem on account of it being bigger. He was vaguely aware of the barman, a minotaur, charging with a sword thrice as long as he was tall.
Well, technically he was still under Twilight's contract, and the golem wasn't alive. Just a machine.
He didn't cold water, after all.
-º-
A group of griffons and pegasi, Twilight's in its mid, were over the city. Messengers flew constantly between them and the groups each controled, with Reddo mainly keeping the group controllers from fighting each other for what strategies were better and Twilight giving general advice. Currently Applejack's group, the largest, was spearheading the charge.
A light group of basic golems was delaying them while larger groups of mixed people and golems, with most of the mobile bases, tried to establish a pincer formation around them. "Tried" because, according to Reddo and as Twilight was beholding now, the citizenry had really strong opinions about using golems to wage war. Bludgeoning, exploding, and flaming opinions.
That wasn't to say that Reddo's own army wasn't doing anything-- without support by soldiers with augmenting armors and strategic organization, common people wouldn've been hard pressed to advance the way they were.
A tiny ruby spark was barely noticeable, and a war golem had part of its head pulverized, gaining a smile from her. Celestia had long since taught her that the best pieces are the ones that move on their own.
One of the messengers, a pegasus, flew to Twilight.
"A zebra told me to send you a message," he handed it to her "Forgive me if I wasted your time" he waited in expectation.
"No, Nanda's fine" Twilight scanned the paper quickly "Tell her to keep an eye on it"
The pegasus nodded and flew off. The left spearhead of the pincers had nearly reached Reddo's castle when it was engaged by a mass of griffons that had been practicing some sport or another which included, as Twilight saw with her telescope, ludicrous amounts of war maces.
It was strangely fitting than Surane was almost in the other side of the world from Equestria. Identical opposites, Celestia had called them once.
"They seem to..." said Reddo "The strategies are terrible" an old griffon that was at her side nodded "Hlaoo wouldn't ever try to pince and then keep doing it with so much resistance"
"Yes" continued the old griffon "I can't distinguish golems and people, too. They all fight mindlessly"
"Hold this" Twilight gave her clock to a nearby pegasus and closed her wings, letting herself fall. She formed several layers of magic shielding before reaching the ground, which resulted in a kinetic explosion among a particularly large amount of normal golems, then teleported around the area until she found a soldier, trapped him in telekinesis, and teleported back to Reddo "You were right" she grabbed the clock again.
The soldier's hooves searched for something to hit desperately, eyes covered by a dull sheen.
They all looked at him, some eyes widening.
"Do any of you have any idea of what this is?" she asked.
"I've seen this" said one of the pegasi "It happens to sleepers from time to time, if the dreamer is careless when meditating" he flew closer and slapped him "Hey, hey!" the soldier tried to bite his hoof, and he drew it off "Snap off it, you idiot!" the soldier just kept trashing.
"So they are supposed to snap off it easily?" Twilight encased the soldier and herself in a protective shield, preparing to meteor down again "I'll take him to the think ta-"
She plummeted down, her whole body and even magic paralized in a rictus. There was an instant in which only the tick-tock and wind could be heard, before the two youngest griffons threw themselves to catch her, then an awkward one when the orchestrators shared uncomfortable looks.
"-nk wait it happened again didn't it" Twilight checked her clock, flying on her own wingpower now "I hate the jerking sensation of it. Two minutes? very bad" she let herself fall again, producing more shields than necessary just in case.
-º-
"Huh" Nanda scribbled in a notebook, reading the instruments they had cobbled together along the night "Its nearing the fifty now" she said, not caring to notice what languages she was using.
"Fifty? bad mojo" a nearby unicorn, Serv Pack, wrote on his own notebook "The old monk is really trying to, isn't he? A full coupling?"
Before Nanda had time to answer, Twilight walked in. There was an instant of silence when she looked longingly at all the equipement, clearly wanting to join in, but she showed them a soldier instead.
"He seems to be under some kind of enchantment, but I don't know enough of soul or mind craftery to diagnose it" she set him in the floor, restrained with ropes "Don't let him go. He'll attack anything in sight" she teleported away, then reapeared almost immediately "Oh, and I was paralized again. A minute and forty-two seconds this time" she teleported away again.