Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Sing

"I'm surprised they don't have more flying units," said Rainbow, hovering at Twilight's side as they studied the battlefield.

"I'm not." Another blast from below rocked the spherical shield Twilight and Rainbow Dash were protected by. "You see how much they're targeting us. Anything that flies too high becomes a target for the whole town, and without any long range weaponry to attach there's not much of an advantage."

"They could have them drop bombs." Rainbow scanned the city below them one more time.

"Not worth it." Twilight did the same. "You can't drop them on the battlefield, or you'll just hit your own soldiers. That means you need to get them to the enemy, and more distance to cover means more chances of getting hit. Speed matters if you have to avoid precise shots, but it doesn't really help against wide hitting spells." As if to underscore her point, a blast of magic from the opposing forces sailed past their shield and continued on for a few seconds, but still hit the top of it when exploding in the air. "That's ignoring the risk of being shot down while you're still over your allies and having your bombs fall on them."

"And I guess attacks launched from high altitude aren't really useful if they're not fast and precise." Rainbow watched a lightning bolt strike down a group of pegasi attempting to head towards them. "Regular bombs are too easy to see coming and shield against or deflect."

"Until they start doing high drop suicide dives, and I wouldn't put it past them." Twilight rapidly veered to the side and upwards, dodging out of the way of a particularly intense barrage of spells aimed their way. She retaliated with a single blast aimed at the source of the assault, a ball of energy bigger than a pony that travelled to the ground in only a couple of seconds and exploded in a wide dome of interlacing electrical arcs. A moment later it dissipated, and nothing more moved within the affected area. "But before we'll have to worry about that, they'll start aiming parabolic shots properly soon enough, now that they have a good read on the disposition of things. That's all hoping they don't bring in any siege weaponry."

"They'll definitely bring it in, right?" Rainbow watched another one of Firecracker's lightnings strike down on a group of soldiers down below. "As soon as they figure out how to deal with that." She eyed a particular spot up ahead, one Twilight had also noticed, next to a tall building that one of them recognised as a library. "Are you sure it'll work?"

"It will do what we planned it to. It might not be enough to completely cut them off," Twilight said. "But in that case, it will mean she split her army and forced herself to rely on logistics and communications, making things less efficient. Either way, we'll still have cut off one of the nodes with forces still on the other side, and we'll just have to do it again from a position of advantage."

Dash nodded. "Makes sense to me." She exchanged glances with Twilight, and both looked again to the library. Then both dove towards it, rapidly speeding up.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

We're up to a full-fledged battle now. Terrifying, messy, and all too uncertain. No idea how many tricks are up each side's sleeves, especially since we're only following one of them. We'll see how it goes from here.

[Speckle]

"fingers crossed"

[Saix]

Firecracker's power is terrifying really, it's a good thing that they're not a headcase like Stella.