"So what, exactly, am I looking at here?" Indigo asked, looking over the ridge into the valley below.
"I have no idea. The scouts say it went up like an hour before the alicorns started attacking. The unicorns say it's a shield spell."
"It definately looks like one."
Indigo was standing on the ledge surveying the scene. In the valley below him was the Alicorn's encampmet, but Indigo was currently curious about the new feature: a massive glowing bright green dome encasing the majority of the camp. Indigo was fairly certain that wasn't there before, and the scouts had clarified that it had been erected several hours before.
"Sir?"
"I'm not a rookie. I fought a campaign against the Unicorns some time before the Archon took power." Indigo clarified. Indigo didn't like telling a story like that, since claiming that he "fought a campaign" against anypony, while true, made him feel old. At twenty-one years old, chances were the Pegasus Indigo was currently talking to, however old the pegasus is, is older than he is.
The pegasus scoutmaster spoke up, "Speaking of which, where is your Archon?"
Indigo remained quiet. Sule's kidnapping wasn't yet common knowledge, and Indigo preferred it to remain that way. If word got out that Sule was out of the picture, that would complicate things further. Indigo really didn't need a panic or accusations that he was trying to usurp the Archon right now. "I have yet to get in contact with him." Indigo told him. It was technically true, and Indigo valued honesty in part for moral integrity and in part for lies only required pointlessly more bits of information that would need to be kept track of.
"Hmm...wait, I almost forgot. There was something else the scout mentioned." The pegasus officer said. Indigo was silently glad that the pegasus had his train of thought interrupted before he could press the issue.
"Hit me."
"Right before the shield went up, there was a bunch of ...explosions in the camp." The officer reported. He spoke up again before Indigo could ask, "no idea what caused it or what had happened. The shield went up right after, but..."
"But what?" Indigo asked.
"I didn't really understand it, but a unicorn scout said it was like an emergency defensive spell. Something that goes up quick, but is difficult to take back down." The pegasus reported.
Indigo was familiar with that as well. Whatever that shield was, it was something a unicorn would deploy and the spherical-or-domed-shaped shield would sustain itself without input from its caster. Handy There was one thing, though...
The pegasus continued "There's one thing, though. He said that those spells are small, can only enclose a few ponies. This spell here is so massive it's never been seen before."
Indigo's sentiment exactly. This shield was at least a mile in diameter, if not two. Enough to fit a small village inside. But there was one other thing about it...
"These spells aren't normally opaque." Indigo commented. The shield dome was green and nothing inside of it was visible.
"I have no idea."
"Nova is no ordinary unicorn, that much is obvious. We'll need to watch our backs."
"Yeah...anyway, I need to get back to my duties."
"Get to it, then. Thanks for the information."
The maluma and the pegasus nodded at each other before the latter took off in flight. Indigo turned and trotted forward a bit, before taking off in flight back to the Maluma's main encampment. He'd need to brief and discuss the Malumai's next move with the generals regarding this new development.