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"That is everyone, right?" Sunburst asked, looking at the ponies quickly walking out of the bottom of the severed tower and onto the impromptu staircase the guards outside had built there. Shields had been put up to protect them while they moved out of there and into other buildings, but thankfully no enemy soldiers appeared to be close enough for them to be needed yet.

"It is." A guard nodded, looking one more time over a list held in his wing. "Glad to see you're all safe."

"Likewise." Sunburst's eyes focused on Celestia. She was walking on her hooves, but still supported by a mare at her side, under one of her wings. Even if her expression wasn't one of pain, at most one of heavy tiredness, her steps were still hesitant. What was left of her mane was still messy, and even against the white of her coat it wasn't hard to spot the bandages covering many, but not yet all of her wounds. Even the way her free wing rested at her side, held not fully closed and with feathers missing, spoke of how drained the alicorn still was.

A voice shook Sunburst out of his musings. "How is the inside of the palace?" asked a guard, not to him specifically but more to all the ponies who'd come from there.

"Almost everything that could fall off a shelf did, unless it was on the bottom side," another guard said. "Some furniture fell out of its room and into the corridor, and in general it got thrown around. A few cracks in the walls and on the stairs, and some broken statues. Aside from that, no significant structural damage."

"Aside from the giant cut at the bottom," Trixie quietly noted at Sunburst's side. It did get at least one other guard to chuckle, apparently one with rather good hearing. But even as she said that, Trixie mainly focused on the scene nearby. Shining Armor and Cadence fighting against Sombra, hurling spells back and forth not that far away from them. Thankfully, the duo kept the unicorn too busy for him to even entertain the thought of heading towards them to take hostages. Trixie certainly didn't plan to make that easier for him by trying to help the other two.

A guard of those who'd been outside began to sort the ponies into different nearby buildings, dividing them into groups and pointing them towards their destination. Celestia was one of the first to be taken care of and sent to the nearest building, with another guard on her free side if she needed more help walking and two more around her for protection.

Sunburst, moving closer to the other groups with Trixie at his side, gave a look around to try to assess the general situation. It was then that he noticed something. Rather, he noticed some of the ponies around him noticing something, and turned quickly to follow their gazes. There he saw the beam of darkness slicing through the sky, and the way it slowly began to turn. Hearing Trixie beside him do the same, he swallowed nervously, and kept his eyes on it while he waited, hoping the purple dot he could see near it would find a solution.

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