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// Sun's Light \ Interlude II (Journey Through the Dark - Part 32.5) 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
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The sunlight was almost blinding after days spent wandering in perpetual night, and the white snow all around certainly didn't help. Twilight had to shield her eyes with a wing as she stepped away from the portal, careful not to run into any one of the few pieces of measuring equipment that had been pushed through from the other side. She walked farther away, enough for the camouflage spells in the area surrounding the portal to kick in and hide it from her view, and after a brief look around she spotted the tall spire of the Crystal Empire's central palace in the distance and took off towards it.
While flying, she slowly undid all the spells she'd weaved around herself. Only once they were gone did she realise how draining they'd actually been. Even as optimised as things were, keeping them up for so long was still a taxing endeavour, and though her body had evidently gotten used enough to the situation not to bother her about it the moment she was freed from the upkeep it was like a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and she was suddenly aware of just how heavy it had been. She would need a good night of rest at minimum.
Celestia wouldn't be there, still busy setting things up to get everyone there, and neither would probably be anyone else she'd called. But they would start getting there soon enough, a couple of hours at most for the other alicorns and likely a while longer for everyone else. That left her some time to properly write down everything she'd learned, organise things organically, and maybe even relax a little. She couldn't go back to the other world without the necessary scales being brought there, so there was no point worrying about rescuing the unicorns just yet. She'd probably put them in direct contact with Shining though.
Her backup backup plan needed Celestia and Luna to both be there, and proper battle planning would have to wait until everyone was present, so in the meantime she could probably help with organising the evacuation. They couldn't carry it out yet, not without the portals, but she could start planning things out. Figure out a way to do it without causing panic among the population. They would probably trust Cadence's words if she told them it was the safe thing to do, but she was still asking ponies to leave their homes. Homes that might have been destroyed in the following days.
But there was no better solution. She'd thought about blowing up the laboratory to buy more time, but she'd realised it would have been foolish. Aside from giving away her presence and most definitely cutting off her own ticket out of there, it would have been counterproductive to delay the attack. They knew when and where it was coming, and had enough time to prepare for it. If she forced Nightmare Moon to change her plans, they'd never get that lucky again. A few weeks more to prepare weren't worth it when it would have meant not knowing where they'd actually need to defend themselves.
The only better option, for a given definition, would have been to directly attack instead. A rather foolish endeavour. The army they would have needed to face would have been even bigger, and an attempt at infiltration to attack Nightmare Moon directly incredibly unlikely to succeed. It was far more sensible to face the alicorn on their terms and in their home turf. If she really was going to get involved, and if she knew Celestia was there she almost definitely would, that would be their best shot at solving the problem. Maybe their only one.