Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Thagomizer;

It had gotten loud. It had gotten somewhere between uncomfortably loud and downright painfully loud. Pinkie, Applejack, and the unicorn with them had taken on to shielding their ears as they'd moved a bit closer. They couldn't tell for sure how much the volume had increased because they'd walked farther and how much of it was the thing getting louder by itself, but in either case it made communication with each other much harder.

Yelling wasn't really an option either. Not when enemy soldiers were so close by. On top of that, the sound made it harder to potentially hear anyone approaching, forcing them to stay even more alert. At least the constructs seemed to have no problem understanding what they were told even when spoken to at a regular volume, and so they had had them take on the role of watchers momentarily while the three of them schemed out what to do next.

They had a plan to approach the enemy group, though they didn't know its precise location or its size yet. Send in the constructs as a distraction, throw in as much confusion as they could on top of that, and get close enough to the portal to cast the spell while all that happened. In the event that a couple of soldiers remained to guard it even while everything else was going on, they were confident they'd be able to deal with them, the real challenge was getting there undetected.

That could be far from easy and even far from likely. They could throw their constructs against the soldiers and make it seem like a lot more was going on, but if they dealt with the issue quickly, figured out how to see through their illusions, or simply spotted and went after the three of them at any point as they approached the portal, then everything would be meaningless. They were never the group most likely to succeed. Despite what might have seemed the obvious, Applejack actually wondered if they weren't the least likely to. Twilight's had obviously been the favourite, but even comprised of just two ponies Lyra's group had something to it. Lyra herself did. Applejack had seen it, or maybe felt it, though she hadn't quite understood what it meant. It was like what she'd felt with that pegasus hurling lighting from the sky above them.

She wondered briefly if giving up on the whole thing wouldn't have been wiser. As Elelments they had to protect themselves too, it would be pointless to risk capture or worse. She decided they would assess the situation first, send in the constructs if their plan seemed feasible, and if things looked like they were taking a turn for the worst they'd run away. Not the most brilliantly safe approach, but they were also probably some of the ponies most fit for the job. She could always kick down a building to add extra commotion, and reminding herself that she could do that and Pinkie was the other pony there, while the soldiers were largely regular ponies, did bolster her confidence a little.

The unicorn with them most likely wasn't as resistant as them though. But neither was he an Element, or necessary to the fight beyond his role in closing the portal. Applejack knew there was a word to describe that. She knew what it was too, but shook herself out of those thoughts before she could get to it. It wouldn't do to start thinking like that.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Named after the late Thag Simmons.

Yeah, nothing helps bolster your morale like reminding yourself you can kick over a building. And thinking of ponies as expendable is a path to Weatherwaxian evil, i.e. treating people as things.