Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

2

Stella saw the first broken piece of the giant slab Starshine had summoned falling towards the ground, and quickly flew to it. Once she was close enough her horn ignited, and before it could get too close to the city the rock was enveloped by her magic and burnt through by it. She redirected the resulting matter towards Nightmare Moon's shield and kept doing the same for every other chunk that fell towards the earth.

She refused to get particularly close to Nightmare Moon, or to attack her too directly. She was aware of how the alicorn could see through her powers and how she was aware of her presence, and she was conscious, despite her refusal to acknowledge it, of the fact that she was at a significant disadvantage. Nightmare Moon, or whatever else she was at that point, whatever was animating her cadaveric body, had long gone past the point of being comparable to a pony. Likely even before coming through the portal, but the events of the battle had pushed things to their limit.

Twilight had been right in her intuitions. Stella had realised it sooner, of course, she'd guided Twilight towards the solution to the problem presented by Nightmare Moon's sheer presence, but she still refused to think about it. Maybe once everything was done, out of sheer curiosity, she would look into it. Maybe even indulge the idea of following a similar path, eventually, after she'd disposed of Twilight and had her fun with Equestria. Maybe she would look back on the event and find a way in it to ascend to something greater.

Maybe she would take over Nightmare Moon's world eventually. Once she was dealt with, once Twilight was done as well, once Equestria bored her. If she didn't find a way to save it, or more likely if she simply refused to save it. She could play games with the citizens. She could have only some allowed to come with her, make them do all sorts of sacrifices for the privilege of being saved. She would definitely be looking at that possibility, once she was done with everything else.

That would be in the future though, and the future was not her present. Neither was it the time to start looking into gaining simultaneous awareness of different points of her timeline. Right then and there, in the space and time she was still confined by, she had much more important things to focus on. She hated to even just consider the possibility and she equally hated having to collaborate and help Twilight, but she knew too well that if she didn't do her part, she had slim chances of survival.

Sure, there was maybe an alternative. If she ran away, she could devise something on her own, then come back and solve the issue. Unburdened by Twilight's moronic moral limitations, at worst she'd throw together a strong enough spell to erase Nightmare Moon, likely alongside the totality of the Empire and possibly the Wall as well. Doing that involved the risk of letting Nightmare Moon kill Twilight, and that was not on the table. So, even if she hated the fact that she was in danger, that she could be in danger, and even if she despised having to play along with inferiors, she knew it was her best course of action.

Comments

[Calmflame]

At the rate this story is going its going to hit the 1000 chapter hard limit.

[Speckle]

Nice to know where you stand, Stella

[Saix]

Maybe she would take over Nightmare Moon's world eventually. Once she was dealt with, once Twilight was done as well, once Equestria bored her. If she didn't find a way to save it, or more likely if she simply refused to save it. She could play games with the citizens. She could have only some allowed to come with her, make them do all sorts of sacrifices for the privilege of being saved. She would definitely be looking at that possibility, once she was done with everything else.

Ugh...