Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Unbeknownst

A soldier peeked out from behind a half-destroyed building, squinting, ringing still stuck in her ears. She couldn't make out much of what was ahead, everything was still covered by a thick and crackling haze. Quietly she drew back, closing her eyes again while her head began to spin.

Twilight Sparkle was somewhere in the middle of the clearing, past the buildings she'd levelled and the remains of her spell. If they wanted to catch up to her they needed to strike as soon as possible, but at least half their forces were in no condition to do so at that moment. Even setting that aside, the residual energy from Twilight's spell would likely interfere with attempts at a long range attack.

It already was interfering, the mare realised, as the ringing in her hears subsided and the headache passed and her eyes stopped seeing white even with her eyelids closed. The long distance spells from farther out around the area were still being fired, but they didn't make it past the outer layer of mist.

Tentatively, she got to her hooves properly, as other ponies around her did the same. One, evidently less harmed by the shield's explosion, got out from the building's cover and attempted to shoot a spell. As expected it didn't get far in, but the mist didn't appear to react aggressively. In fact, looking at it as she got out too, the mare noticed how it seemed to be dissipating over time. Growing weaker.

Carefully she tried to approach it. She extended a hoof, fully expecting it to be burnt away. But she was the closest, and her sacrifice would inform the others. Instead it merely passed through it. Maybe her hair stood up a little, maybe she just imagined it, but there was no damage done. She took a full step into it, then took a breath inside it. The mist didn't even appear to move, existing separately from air as far as she could tell.

With that sorted, with the rest of the soldiers recovering from the blast as well, they quickly took on to looking for the alicorn. Her being alone in the middle of a wide and otherwise empty portion of the city made that quite easy as the mist began to clear further, and though they could not yet shoot at her they could certainly run towards her. She noticed them, turned tail and fled, but she seemed far more worn out than any of them. Her steps were stilted and uneven, and they would catch up to her without much difficulty.

Those were the last thoughts going through the mare's head before her body fell limp on the shattered and burnt crystal ground. Not quite the last thing going through her head however, as that title belonged to the magic bolt which had left a bit-sized, perfectly circular hole in her skull and brain from one side to the other.

Some of the ponies running alongside her saw her fall, and stopped in their tracks. Others continued, but realised something had happened and turned back. Only the one who'd been immediately behind her kept on running, until she was a bit of a distance away from everyone else. Then she turned, and in turning swung and released a scythe of purple energy that cut a soldier in half. "She's mine," she hissed, charging towards the confused group of soldiers.