//------------------------------//
// Lygt 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

"You'd be running away-"
"I'd be walking away. Different thing. I wouldn't be running, I'd be walking. Relatively slowly if I could get away with it."
The mare threw her head back, silently hissing in disbelief. "That is not nearly as different as you're making it out to be. And if anything it's worse."
"Relax," the stallion replied. "I said I could do it, doesn't mean I will."
"You literally physically can't." The mare shook her head and went to look out the window. "Why are you even here if you're thinking of running away? Couldn't you have thought about it sooner?"
"Walking away," the stallion corrected her. "And I didn't think it would be this bad. If I'd known it would be this bad I would have stayed away from here, yeah. Too late for that now."
"Coward."
"Don't tell me you're not afraid to die, that just means you've never thought about it seriously." The stallion got up and looked out the window alongside the mare. "How long do you think that's going to hold?" he asked.
"No idea." The mare followed his gaze to the black sphere floating not too far from their building, though she already knew he was talking about that. "Hopefully enough."
"Enough for what?" the stallion said. "Do you even know what the plan is? Do you even know anything about how things are out there?"
"Stable," said the mare. "We're making progress."
"That's what they tell us," the stallion hissed. "All I see is more buildings falling in the distance and no signs of anything being different. Why are we even here if we're not doing any fighting? We're just waiting to be slaughtered when that thing cracks open."
"We are here by choice," said the mare. "Those of us who thought that choice through are, at least."
"Like there was ever a chance no one would agree. The numbers were always going to be high. For all I know it's all part of her plan, and we're here as a sacrifice or something. You've seen the weird magic they have out there, no?" The stallion clicked his tongue against the inside of his cheek. "I don't trust those fake ponies out there either. Those things look creepy."
The mare threw a rather unhappy sideways glance at him. "Why did you even join the Guard?"
"I joined the Guard back when Equestria was still run by its princess. You know, the one that's now without power and half dead in the other room because it's all part of the purple one's great plan." He huffed. "Things started getting bad the moment she took the throne. First the Behemoth and now this, and everything else in between too. She's got to be the one behind it."
The mare did not answer him. She was busy focusing her attention back on the black sphere floating outside, the one Luna had entrapped Nightmare Moon inside of. And she was busy looking at that because for the first time since settling into that shape properly, something was changing about the sphere. "Whatever you think is going to happen when that thing opens," she said after a nervous swallow, "you're probably about to find out if you were right."