Legends of Equestria: The Long Road Back

by JimmyHook19

Back Through Streets

As the Pillars made their way through streets, it rapidly became apparent that something of great importance was happening. As they trotted along, vehicles and heavy armour rolled through the streets, heading on their way towards some place or another. In the distance, the constant drumroll of artillery fire opened up again, indicating another settlement that Project 722 was destroying as somebody had clearly learned too much. And thusly deserved to be destroyed in fire and flames as they carried on.

Rockhoof listened on in concern. "I worry for the poor townsfolk," he said. "That barrage is one of the heaviest I've ever heard. Not even the siege of Lafayette was that intense!"

"Ah would hope thin's were OK," Meadowbrook said, "but that's false hope, Ah fear."

"We will defeat this evil and take these beings down," Somnambula told them. "Our bravery, sorcery, strength, beauty, hope, and healing shall see to that."

"We are only strong as a united force in this struggle," Stygian pointed out to them. "According to my research, some strange magical miasma currently surrounds us in the world. This miasma prevents us from accessing most of our magic, except when that magic is innate to our being, such as Rockhoof's strength or Mistmane's healing- neither of which are tied to casting spells."

"You can add flying to that list," Flash pointed out, shaking his wings off. "I can still do that, barring a period of serious injury. Besides, even we don't really get how magic works around here."

"This world is a strange and confusing place," Starswirl mused.

"You can say that again," Flash replied.

"This world is a strange and con-"

"Not literally! It's just a figure of speech."

"We appear to be picking up their speech patterns too," Starswirl noted, scribbling something in his journal.

"You may want to consider writing that again," Stygian said. "That will be illegible to anypony else."

"I can always rewrite it later," Starswirl replied. "Besides, these are notes for use in the field. "You, on the other hand, record all of this for posterity, so your work needs to be readable."

Stygian nodded, as Mistmane seemed to be deep in thought. "This confirms one thing, though," she said, as they headed northwest, followed by a series of left turns, passing through the same tunnel they came through on the outbound trip, and then some more left turns. "The Pony of Shadows can transmit messages instantly to anywhere in the world, to anypony they choose. That message was identical to the one in my dream."

"We saw the playback," Rockhoof replied. "We are fully aware of the danger of the threat."

"But no matter what," Meadowbrook said, "we face this threat together, as one. There's no challenge teamwork can't overcome!"

"I will need additional time to devise a strategy with which to defeat this fiend," Stygian said. "To this end, I suggest we retire to do our own things for a bit, then reunite for dinner."

There were murmurs of agreement, and they set off to do just that.

Author's Note:

Short chapter, but mainly it focused on the group retracing the same route they took when going to the Battleship. :)

Be on the lookout for the final chapter of the first half by the mid point of this week!