Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Journey Through the Dark - Part 24

The town itself wasn't too dissimilar from the one Twilight was familiar with. Less overall cheerful, perhaps, less decorated, but ponies were still out and about and mostly appeared to still retain their free will. A guard could be spotted every once in a while, armoured and wearing the same kind of black helmet she'd seen already, but that aside the place looked almost normal. The only thing still weird to her was ponies being out in the middle of the night, but she supposed she'd never get used to that. Most of them were crystal ponies, she noted.

Her destination was farther north, in a district largely separate from the rest of town according to her notes. Flying higher, almost high enough to be level with the top of the central tower, she could spot the grey area of squared buildings she was supposed to head towards. The whole town seemed to shift from a more widely inhabited portion to what looked more like industrial buildings and factories the farther north she moved.

Her travels through were uneventful. She threw a passing glance at the top of the main tower as she passed it by, and spotted a white mare with a blue mane and black armour looking over the city, not wearing any helmet. She didn't focus on her much, and kept on flying. Time was starting to run out and she knew it, she couldn't go following every pony that seemed like a weird parallel to someone who should have been there in her world. Last she'd heard from Starburst and Sunlight, they'd converted several other soldiers, losing sleep to keep to the schedule, after which they had been informed that they were done. She was looking at having to deal with over a hundred of those things, all ready to go. She had to hope the assault wouldn't be launched while she was still over there, or at least that she'd be able to warn Celestia in time if it was.

She spotted from above the outline of the laboratory, and began to descend towards it in circles. The set of buildings was isolated from the rest of town, as she'd heard, close to the northern edge of the barrier and with no other buildings around it for a fair distance. Twilight supposed, knowing what kind of experiments might have been happening there, it was wise to keep it out of town. She'd kept her secondary laboratory even farther from civilisation after all, just in case something went wrong, and the one she was about to enter was likely warded similarly to her castle.

She reached the ground, careful to stop using her wings and keep herself afloat with her magic as to leave no traces in the snow that surrounded the structure. It didn't affect the town proper, but the blizzard raged directly against the barrier on that side and some snow made it through, likely intentionally so. It stopped before reaching the rest of the buildings, and only fell gently, but still contributed to the area feeling rather colder than the flight there had. Twilight hovered there and watched, trying to get a better idea of the best way to get in.