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

"Cadence!" Shining called out, as he put up a shield and immediately rolled out of it, to watch it shatter as the mutated pony broke through it with a spell. He didn't have time to properly look around, not with the creature still chasing after him. He'd been able to avoid all its shots that far, but he was getting tired, and he knew it wouldn't. Thankfully, at least, he'd managed to keep it running and shooting in circles after him and away from everypony else. It didn't appear to be all too intelligent, which was a great thing considering everything else.
Cadence did not reply verbally. She did reply by hurling a jagged slab of crystal wider than a cart measured lengthwise and thicker than a pony's torso towards the creature's head and general neck area. Something that had probably been part of a large building's wall at some point. It hit it in full, sending its next shot flying towards the sky rather than towards Shining and sending the creature tumbling sideways towards the ground. It fell, and the slab fell with it, still over its neck and the top of its shoulders. Shining looked with careful anticipation, while Cadence flew over to his side.
The creature hissed, still very much alive after the impact despite the speed at which the crystal chunk had reached it. It tried to raise itself, but its long, overstretch arms could neither properly get a grip on the wall nor get into a position to push the rest of its body up. After a few seconds of thrashing around trying to move properly again, it once more failed at roaring, then its horn shone again. It fired. Not towards Shining, but blindly, towards the direction its horn was pointing at. It barely missed one of the other ponies there.
On instinct, Shining put up shields around all of the others. He knew they wouldn't do much, but he couldn't do much else either. Even physical barriers would be easily shattered by the spells, if they somehow managed to get together enough debris to build up something proper and stable. The creature fired a couple more times, still at random, thankfully it did not hit anyone. The ponies on the side it was targeting began to run their way around to the other side, passing behind the creature to stay out of its vision.
Shining knew that could only work so much though. If it figured where everyone was, even without being able to see them, it would aim and fire there. It wasn't smart, but it wasn't completely stupid either. But if what Cadence had done hadn't been enough to hurt it, he wasn't sure anything he could do would be.
All those thoughts were interrupted as, suddenly, the former pony fired a blast in the opposite direction. It fired it straight at the block of crystal over its neck, and straight through it, splitting the chunk in half. The two pieces slid to the ground with heavy thuds. The creature rolled to the side slightly, and slowly, shakily stood itself up again.