Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto


Strap

"This is the situation so far. No new portals have appeared anywhere that we could detect," the guard concluded.
"Just the three we've found?" Sunburst looked suspiciously at the map projected onto the floor, then at Twilight. "Do you think they're hiding more of them?"
Twilight was frowning in thought as she answered, "No. They would have hidden all of them if they had a way to. I think they only have a limited amount of portals they can keep open and operate at the same time, and decided splitting their army into three fronts was a good compromise." She pointed with a hoof at the library she'd flown near, where one of the portals had been. "We should advance here. They won't be sending any new reinforcements through, that means we should be able to take the forces still there."
"How do we know they won't reopen the portal somewhere else around town?" asked the guard.
"They probably will," Twilight said. "But it will take a while for them to place it properly. That's why we should try to take back as much as we can while their connection is partially cut. The alternative is that they might choose to consider that area lost and redirect soldiers to the other two portals instead, in which case we should still clean out that part of the city." She looked carefully at the map, but seemingly not at any specific point of it.
"Anything else?" Sunburst asked.
"They probably have at least a couple more portals they can open in different locations, coming from somewhere else. If I had to guess what they might do with them, then..." She pointed at the empty space above the map. "The conflict has been going on for long enough that they might start sending in aerial reinforcements. The kind they don't expect to make it back."
"Suicide bombings?" The guard looked at her. "Do we have the means to defend against that?"
"Maybe," Twilight replied. "We won't know how fast they will strike until we're actually dealing with them." She cleared her throat. "Now, hopefully dealing with the current portals would eliminate that possibility as well. Even if it didn't, it should still reduce their forces significantly, enough for us to win by attrition and enough to allow us to better defend against other threats." She clenched her teeth for a moment. "That is of course assuming we're able to deal with the existing portals quickly, and assuming Nightmare Moon doesn't escape before we've dealt with everything else. What's the status with the other two groups?"
"Alive, but stalling. Both are close to the portals, which means both are having to deal with increased security," explained the guard.
"Of course." Twilight looked again at the map. "Do we have any signs of a third weapon being brought in?"
"Pinkie's group and other nearby units have reported something, but the exact nature of a potential weapon is unclear," said the guard.
"It's mostly just sounds," Sunburst added. "No visible damage anywhere yet."
"Status on dealing with the second weapon?" asked Twilight.
"Starlight cut communication to avoid being detected, but we've visually confirmed she has not been found yet," the guard said. "She's working on it."
Twilight nodded, finding acknowledgments of her hopes superfluous. She turned to Sunburst instead. "What is Starshine doing? Can you trace her?"