Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Sel

Applejack ducked behind a broken chunk of crystal wall, then quickly spun around and kicked it towards a group of soldiers, knocking one of them out in the process. It wasn't the most elegant approach, certainly far from Twilight's stun spells, but it still did what it needed to.

A little farther ahead, Pinkie took a more hooves on approach, rolling between ponies and chucking balloons filled with sleeping potions at them. The researchers at Twilight's laboratory hadn't come to the battlefield directly, of course, but they'd still provided some help in other ways. Applejack knew one of Twilight's several potential backup maneuvers if things got bad was releasing enough sleeping gas to cover the whole town, though she wasn't actually sure if the alicorn had managed to implement that one.

Between the increase in numbers and the surprise of their charge, their group managed to defeat the opposing one. A few pegasi remained, but as they tried to fly away they were zapped by the construct warriors' spears and fell to the ground, unconscious. They were soon immobilised and stripped of their weapons, and a small group of constructs began to quickly carry their equipment back towards the centre of town.

Pinkie looked at the constructs remaining, then threw a look down the road ahead to ensure they weren't about to be ambushed. "Should we stick with them?" she asked to Applejack and the unicorn guard. "We could use the help."

"It might make us too big of a target," Applejack said. "I think we'd rather use them as a distraction. Keep the same group as before." She looked at the unicorn. "You're the one they're supposed to be protecting though. You should get a say."

"I think you're right," the unicorn said after only a bit of thinking. "They're going to target us if we advance as a single group, and that's not the point of the mission." He nodded.

Applejack nodded back. "Pinkie, where do we send them?" she asked, turning to the other earth pony.

Pinkie, who'd climbed on a nearby building, dropped down again. "That way," she said, pointing down a street. "There's another fight happening there, they'll be onto us further ahead otherwise."

Applejack gave another nod. She pointed in the direction Pinkie had, and looked at the constructs they'd helped. They nodded back to her, and began to head down their chosen path. Applejack and Pinkie watched them walk away for a few moments, then started to head down the main street in front of them, alongside the unicorn and the remaining constructs.

"Is the path up ahead clear?" Applejack asked, carefully looking around as they slowly walked down the street. The sounds of ongoing battles still echoed around them, but none close enough to be worrying yet.

"It looked like it," Pinkie Pie said. She too was carefully looking around as they slowly advanced. "I don't think they have camouflage spells," she hissed.

"I hope not," said Applejack. "But I think they would-"

She was cut off, as a loud sound suddenly came from behind them.

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