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

It was the ground. What was on top of it. It had always been that. Of course it had been that, it had always been off, and it was somehow off enough they'd never gotten used to it despite walking on it for so long. Normally you get used to something after long enough. To a smell in the room, to a sound in the background, to the temperature being slightly off, your brain filters that out eventually. It never did that for the sickly, oily black surface that had come over the ground, and Sunburst was starting to realise why.
He turned around. Quickly, but not without measure. Carefully, but hastily. "Get as far away from the creatures as fast as you can, but don't run," he said to the ponies following along behind him. His voice was held firm, but still it held a hint of shakiness. His eyes were nervous, twitching around between the ponies farther away from him and the mutants closest to them. He felt the blackness stir beneath his hooves and a shiver ran down his spine.
The ponies there began to hurriedly walk towards him, unsure and uncertain of what was exactly happening but trusting his judgment on what was best for them to do. His attention shifted mostly to the creatures. They weren't looking around as before anymore. They were all looking towards the group, and from the murmurs he heard around he knew others had noticed the same. He looked more carefully. He saw the darkness seeping upwards into some of their limbs, like water drunk by roots. "Stop!" he barked out, and everypony froze.
Everyone looked at him, and he looked at the creatures, and the creatures looked at him. They couldn't be seeing him. He was still sure of that, he was still sure that they weren't seeing him. But they knew where he was. It was almost impossible to deny at that point that they knew where he was, they knew where all of them were, and soon enough they'd be on them.
Running away? The creatures were faster. Fighting back wasn't an option he wanted to consider. Mass teleportation would have been out of the question even in normal conditions. A barrier just meant being trapped at best, being doomed if it didn't hold. A partial barrier, then running away? Their best option, but how big? Maybe more of them, repeatedly along the way, different kinds, different layers of misdirection and protection, and praying they didn't run into anything else. Was it their only choice?
He didn't get to decide. He realised too late that the amount of creatures looking at them was lower than the amount of creatures they'd run into before. He realised it after he heard them moving, as he watched the unmoving ones he'd turned towards as they stared at him, rooted on the darkness like weeds. He realised it as he heard them coming from behind, and as he turned and saw them emerging through the winds and rushing towards the group, past the barrier he'd created.