Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Erase

The stallion followed behind Rainbow Dash. Soon enough, what the winds had kept hidden grew close enough for them to see it. "We're here," Rainbow called out to the rest of the ponies gathered there. Then she turned to the guard with her. "Are you hurt? Do you need help?"

"I- No, I'm okay," he replied. He looked almost in awe to the group of ponies gathered there, and made his way towards them. He even recognised a few from afar, and as he walked towards them so did they, an so they headed towards him as well.

Rainbow instead flew to where Shining and Celestia were, near the edge of the gathering but surrounded by a few guards. "Are we moving yet, or should I go out again?" she asked after making sure she wasn't interrupting any ongoing discussion.

Shining bit his tongue, and looked to Philomena. The phoenix sat perched on a nearby chunk of wall, not giving any particular signs of movement, but she did look at him. Then he looked at Celestia instead. "What do you say?"

Celestia looked at Philomena as well, then at the ponies gathered there, then towards the sky. "We should go," she finally said. "I will tell Cadence and start rounding everyone up." With that, she began to walk away.

Shining nodded, and he too began to walk towards the centre of the area the ponies occupied. Rainbow gave a look around, a friendly nod to the guards there, then she began to follow him. "Worried about something?" she asked, noticing the tension in his expression.

"Constructs," he said dryly, continuing to walk. "There should have been dozens of them out here, if not hundreds, but we haven't run into a single one. I'm worried something might have happened to Sunburst."

"There should have been hundreds of enemy soldiers too," Rainbow noted, "and we haven't seen that many mutants yet. Maybe they're all busy fighting each other."

"Could be," Shining said. "Hopefully they continue to keep each other busy, if that's the case." He didn't look too convinced by the possibility, or maybe he was just generally worried about the situation. Rainbow couldn't blame him. They hadn't run into anyone too seriously hurt yet, but she'd seen how little regular ponies could do against mutated ones. If she hadn't arrived in time, the stallion she'd saved would have been dead. If others were out there without help, it was possible they may have been in similar situations, likely even if they happened to run into enemies.

Finding Sunburst could have certainly helped with matters, such as getting some idea of what was actually happening with the constructs. He wasn't the only one missing though. Starlight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Firecracker, Fluttershy, and many others were still somewhere out there in the Empire. She could only hope they were at least finding each other.

She'd let Shining go as she'd gotten absorbed in her own thoughts. When she looked around again, everyone was standing up, getting ready to move again. She took a deep breath and stretched her wings, and mentally prepared herself to do the same.

Comments

[Speckle]

We're getting closer and closer to regrouping. Don't let up, gang!