Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Yzhg

To kill or not to kill? Stella pondered as she watched over the city from a rooftop, invisible to the eyes of every other creature. It would give Twilight quite a scare if she actually took some lives. Under the other hoof, she hadn't made any official statements or requests yet. Perhaps already killing ponies would be going too fast. Perhaps it was better to move things more gradually, start by only damaging property and then threaten to do something worse. Drag things out. It was true after all, she'd only conducted a single attack by that point and it had been out in the woods. Making her second move bloody before she even started talking with Twilight would sour things. There would always be time to kill later, after all.

Decided, then. No killing for that day, probably that whole week. She stood. Next she needed to find a good spot. She began to wander through the town, looking for one. She wanted to do it during the day, while ponies could see. At night it would have been far easier to find an empty place within the city, probably a park, but that would be boring. Yes, some ponies might wake up as they saw light flaring nearby, but it wasn't the same. An earthquake or a flood could get away with happening at night because they would last a while, enough for everyone to wake, and in fact they would be greater for it and the memory left deeper as they'd interrupt the peace of sleep so sacred to ponies' minds. Her actions would be far to brief for that, she'd need to act in broad daylight to leave the kind of scar she wished to.

Where then? A park could still work. During the less busy hours, finding a portion of it unoccupied, waiting until the moment no one was in the area that would be affected. That wasn't a certainty though. Needing to set things up in advance meant she'd have to carefully pick a given area, then lie in wait for the right moment. The former alone would take her at least a day of observation, the latter would give information away once Twilight arrived. She would know someone had been there, watching and waiting. Not to say that it was out of the question, it was still probably one of her best options, but it was not to be the only one.

She could stick the scale to a tower or other tall building. Minimise property damage, but consequently also the risk of harming ponies, maximise visibility. A giant glowing spheroid above the city, blotting out the Sun. A cool image, certainly, but the lack of actual destruction would leave less of an impact than she wished to. No real perceived risk meant it wouldn't stick with the citizens the way she wanted. Another problem was placing the scale there in the first place. It wouldn't be hard, no, but it would be too clearly visible, and recovering it might prove problematic. It just wasn't quite what she was looking for, though it certainly was an easy approach.

Comments

[Speckle]

I dare posit a wild theory that Stella's hesitating because, maybe, just maybe, she doesn't want to hurt anypony?

Yes, it's a reach. A very long reach. She's been very meticulous this entire time, but it just sounds as though she's making excuses not to do it.