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

Though everyone was still clearly confused in the explosion's initial aftermath, it became quickly clear that the soldiers were taking notice of how the intruders had freed themselves, and were about to take action against it. Applejack barely had time to notice, as she frantically looked around, that the portal itself was no longer there. Whatever had happened, they had in some way succeeded, most likely a different group had. That at least meant they could run away from there without needing to worry about it.
But with how things were shaping up, she was unsure if they'd be able to do so. Soldiers were already heading towards her and she'd definitely been worse off than they had just moments before. Her only real choice was to retreat and hope she wasn't hit while doing so, but even rushing backwards wasn't much of an option when she knew there were soldiers behind her as well. She saw the horns of a few charging as they took aim, directed by the more heavily armoured ones who'd regained their footing and were taking charge of the rest.
"Stop it!"
Pinkie's shout broke the building tension, allowing for a moment of quiet as suddenly everyone focused on her. Applejack used it to rush to her companion, and doing so noticed what else was keeping things still. Evidently having paralysed him with one of her shots, Pinkie had grabbed hold of an enemy unicorn and was keeping him close to her chest with his neck exposed, while the stallion together with them pointed his horn at said neck. "One move and he gets it," she barked towards the other soldiers, her mane noticeably less puffy than usual.
Applejack could see the fear evident in the white stallion's eyes as she approached, darting terrorised between her, the other unicorn, and the soldiers up ahead. He'd probably been knocked down by the machine just as they had, going by his lack of any heavier form of protection. He didn't even have an helmet on, his purple curls exposed, though it had probably simply been knocked off during the explosion.
Once she'd reached her friend's side, Applejack turned again. She could see, and sense, the uncertainty in Pinkie's body and in that of the stallion holding his horn pointed to their prisoner's neck. Slowly they began to back away, muscles tense, unsure of what would happen next. "Let us go and nothing bad will happen to him," Pinkie added, though her voice struck as less determined than it had been the previous time.
Most soldiers looked around, waiting for orders. Not the ones straight ahead of the trio, staring at them through the slits in their helms. One of them charged their horn again.
Applejack just barely managed to dodge to the side, while the other two rolled the opposite way. Where Pinkie had been standing, and by extension where the stallion she was holding in front of her had been just a moment before, was a small and smoking scorched crater left in the crystal ground.
Ponies on both ends of the conflict got the message rather quickly. Pinkie, Applejack, and the unicorn with them, still carrying their prisoner, began to run and rush towards the closest edge of the crossroad, while behind them spells flew through the air aiming at them and ponies began to give chase.