//------------------------------//
// Battle 1: Arachnid 
// Story: Our Equestria 
// by Nonagon 
//------------------------------//

	Space, while striking in its vastness, is not as interesting as the philosophers would have us believe. As anyone who’s spent a weekend there can tell you, its namesake quickly becomes its biggest drawback; space is all there is. It is a void, a complete emptiness, even the captivating stars spread so wide that they’re hardly worth pursuing.

But one planet, a lone something in a vast nothing, changed this subtle balance. A glittering sphere orbited by a sisterly sun and moon, it shone not only with light, but with magic. Life, energy, thoughts, feelings; for those with eyes to see them, they burned brighter than the coldest star. The planet’s very presence sent ripples across space and time, straining reality like a branch burdened by a swollen fruit. The ponies who walked its surface lived in peaceful ignorance of the signal they were sending out by simply living, forging an admirable existence for themselves governed by harmony and understanding. And for as many years as they were capable of counting, they lay undisturbed.

Then, in a place where no living thing had any right to be, there was a noise.

A mare sat on her own in the middle of a large, dome-shaped room. In front of her lay a selection of black figurines, each uniquely shaped and posed. One of these she held in her hooves, a model of a black unicorn. A knife glowing with silvery magic ran along the length of its horn with a high-pitched scraping sound, each pass shaving off tiny particles of black metal, filing the tip to a needle-sharp point.

As the unicorn worked, the room around her began to light up. Despite there being no clear light source, everything was illuminated as the chamber seemed to glow from within, casting no shadows. She paused and looked up. Surrounding her were fifteen empty chairs, arranged in a perfect circle. Most were identical, expensive-looking office chairs with green backs. Scattered randomly throughout, however, were a few oddities. There were cheap folding chairs, a large and luxurious recliner, and even a solitary wisp of cloud. She looked around at each of these in turn, sighed, and then returned to her work.

“Don’t you think you’ve delayed long enough?”

The mare stopped again. The voice, calm and authoritative, had come from directly above her. “I still have time,” she said, not looking up. “There’s no hurry.”

There was the faintest noise from above, like the movement of air. “You know the consequences of waiting. Do you want all of this to have been in vain?”

“I know. But these things can’t be rushed.” With a final scrape along the dark horn, she put the unicorn down with the other models. “There. Perfect.” She closed her eyes. “All right. Let’s go.”

Around her, moving frictionlessly over the floor, the circle of chairs began to turn.


---


Most years, Seaddle was an attractive destination for the summer holidays. This was not one of those years. An unfortunately-timed weather schedule had resulted in a succession of hot, dry mornings and rainy afternoons, leaving vacationing tourists huffing impatiently indoors. The normally thriving beaches were empty, the brochure-worthy sands turned to a dark and grimy mess.

However, not everypony was upset about the less favorable conditions. On the northern edge of town was a high cliff with a lighthouse overlooking the ocean. As the sun started to set, the edge would normally be packed with tourists scrambling over each other for a better view. Thanks to the overcast sky, however, the path was completely clear as three fillies galloped up the slope. Together they ran to the cliff's edge and raised themselves up to put their front hooves over the fence, staring out over the seemingly endless ocean. The faint glow of the sunset lit up the waters with a red glow. The pegasus spoke first. "This is so cool."

Her companions nodded. "Mah sister is gonna be so jealous," said Apple Bloom. "She's never seen the ocean. Always said it was too far to walk for a load of old water that you can see anywhere. She never said how pretty it was."

"Pretty? More like awesome!" Scootaloo said. "Do you think Cheerilee will let us go swimming tomorrow?"

"Isn't that a little dangerous?" Sweetie Belle asked. The little unicorn peered over the edge at the waters below. "My sister says giant monsters live in deep water."

“Nah.” Scootaloo shook her head. “That’s just our lake, for some reason.”

Apple Bloom looked towards the distant beach. "Can you get a cutie mark for swimming?"

"Of course you can! Sea Swirl has one," Scootaloo said. Simultaneously, the three glanced back with determination at their own blank flanks. "Maybe we can do that too. It might be easier in a place with a proper beach."

"And fewer squid," Sweetie Belle added with a small shudder.

"Sure worth a try," Apple Bloom agreed. Smiling widely, each of the trio lifted a hoof into the air and took a deep breath.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders swimming champions! Yay!"

"Girls!" a friendly adult voice called from behind them. "Not so close to the edge, please!"

Instantly, three pairs of hooves hit the ground. "Sorry, Cheerilee," the trio echoed. With a final glance at the sunset, they turned and trotted back towards the group.

From the picnic area below the lighthouse nearby, Cheerilee watched the Cutie Mark Crusaders with a smile. A large group of colts and fillies filled the tables around her, as well as one young dragon who was unsuccessfully trying to keep order. The sight of their play never failed to warm her heart. "Now now, settle down, everypony," she said. Some of the chatter stopped, while others continued to murmur to each other. "Did you all have a nice dinner?" There was a brief confirmation of this. “It's been a long day, and normally this would be the time to head back to the hotel and settle in for the night.”

A loud groan rose up from the group. “I know, I know,” Cheerilee said. “And I’m sorry that our class trip hasn’t gone exactly as planned so far. If the weather’s better tomorrow, we’ll spend less time at the art gallery and see if we can visit the beach.”

“Like there’s any chance of that,” a filly said quietly. Cheerilee tactfully ignored her.

“However,” the teacher continued, “to make up for today, I've decided to let you all stay up a little longer.” The teacher paused for a second to bask in the looks of surprise and delight from her students. "Over dinner, I received word from the mayor that a carnival has arrived in town unexpectedly. As long as you promise to behave, we can spend an hour or two there before stopping for the night." She clapped her hooves as the little ponies began to stand up in excitement. “Places, everypony! The sooner we’re cleaned up, the sooner we can leave!”

It took a few minutes to get packed up. While some ponies helped to gather up the paper plates and leftovers from their meal, one pegasus who sat a little distance from the others continued writing on a leaf of paper. He threw occasional glances towards the others, trying to judge how long he could keep writing before he had to pack up. An especially small unicorn approached him shyly. "Hi, Rumble," she said in a voice barely above a whisper. "What are you writing?"

Rumble gave her a guarded look before setting down his quill. "It's a letter to my brother," he explained. He paused a second before looking down. "I miss him."

Dinky Doo smiled. "I know how you feel," she said, sitting down beside him. "I miss my mom."

"Shut up, losers!" a voice broke in. The pair looked up to see a pair of well-dressed fillies dramatically rolling their eyes. "Like, who gets homesick on a two-day vacation?" Diamond Tiara continued. "Seriously, I thought you were from another class, not from kindergarten."

Beside her, Silver Spoon giggled. "Yeah, totally."

"Hey, leave them alone!" Archer pushed her way in front of them. "Why don't you stop laughing and help clean up?"

The two bullies rolled their eyes again. "Yeah, whatever, Scootablue." Diamond Tiara scoffed. They turned away haughtily and sauntered off, giggling to themselves.

Behind them, Archer turned bright red. "We're not even related," she protested, but the other fillies had already stopped listening. Sighing, she turned and glowered in the direction of her doppelganger. Scootaloo was chatting with the other Crusaders while sorting garbage into bags. "I've got a cutie mark and everything," Archer grumbled, rubbing the bow and arrow symbol that was her namesake. She'd always felt it was an unfair comparison; mane and facial features aside, the two fillies were completely different colours and even types of pony. But the name had stuck, and more than once even well-meaning adults had addressed her by what they wrongly assumed was a friendly nickname. "I bet nopony else has to deal with this," she said to her own friends, who were stacking plates.

The other two ponies looked at each other and shrugged. "I heard Sun Glimmer sometimes gets mistaken for Sweetie Belle," Tornado Bolt said. Her tiny wings twitched periodically as she spoke, her tornado cutie mark hinting at a need for flight. 

"That's not the same thing," Archer complained. "She didn't get a nickname out of it. It's not fair, you know. Sometimes I think all the ponies in our town look the same." She sighed and resumed helping with the cleanup. "What do you think, guys? Do you ever notice that?" Tornado Bolt simply shrugged again, while Peachy Pie stared into the distance. "Peachy? Hey, Peachy, are you listening to me?"

"Huh?" Peachy Pie blinked. "Oh, sorry." She shook her amber mane and resumed working. "I was just thinking about my sister. She'd know what you were talking about."

“How come your parents didn’t send both of you?” Tornado Bolt asked. A hint of envy crept into her voice. “It’s not like your parents can’t afford it.”

“It’s... complicated.” Peachy Pie shook her head. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Several minutes later, the cleanup was almost complete. Cheerilee helped place the last bag onto the cart they’d used to carry their supplies and prepared to hitch herself to it, taking a final look around to make sure nothing had been left behind and no foals had wandered off. “Do we have everything, Spike?” she asked, raising the cart’s handles to her sides.

“Yep!” the little dragon confirmed, holding up a large checklist proudly. Years working with Twilight Sparkle had given him enormous proficiency with checklists, something few ponies other than Cheerilee seemed to appreciate. The mare nodded gratefully and hitched herself up, starting down the path to the town below. The foals around her took this as their cue to follow. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon hopped onto the back of the cart and sat smugly, which their teacher noticed but didn't comment on. Spike rolled his eyes and looked to make sure nopony was being left behind. "Hey, cut that out!" he yelled at a pair of unicorns who were still lounging on the slope. The colts, Snips and Snails, were attempting to juggle some leftover grapes with magic, with limited success. At the dragon's shout they dropped their bounty and scurried to join the group, the smaller of the two sticking his tongue out at the reptile as they passed.

Aside from its hotels and occasional tourist traps, Seaddle was a small town, almost aggressively so. The majority of its residents were retirees and their children, living off the rush of business during the summer season and relaxing for the rest of the year. Their houses were small, but comfortable, and even the newer buildings had an air of old age and contentment about them. Nothing moved in Seaddle, nothing was built or grown, and nothing happened that hadn't already occurred a thousand times before. But in the short amount of time since Ponyville's visiting class trip had left for the cliffs, the main street of Seaddle had been transformed. Brightly coloured tents and stalls had sprung up seemingly from nowhere, obscuring the ancient and musty houses that surrounded them. Lights shone and music played, and for once the old town's residents were spurred into action, curiously wandering the streets.

Cheerilee's students started to walk more quickly as they approached the town, hastening towards the spectacle. The two fillies on the cart jumped down and ran ahead, not wanting to be left behind. Cheerilee laughed playfully at their excitement. "Stay close, everypony!" she called, though for the most part her words fell on deaf ears. "Keep an eye on them, Spike," she whispered to her reptilian companion. "Make sure they don't get into any trouble."

Spike saluted. "Yes, ma'am!" he said automatically, then hesitated as he realized the magnitude of what he'd been asked to do. The teacher giggled and made her own way into the carnival.

Unsurprisingly, the colts and fillies showed little restraint as they zipped from stall to stall, counting out allowances between them. There was a stall that sold exotic seashells carved into animals; a well-covered tent where an eight-legged mare was said to dwell; a ring-tossing game where even a careful youngster could lose a month's allowance without so much as a sticker set to show for it. Dominating it all was a ferris wheel lit up in every colour of the rainbow, towering as high as the lighthouse on the distant hill.

"Mith Cheerilee! Mith Cheerilee!" A pale filly with glasses and an enormously frizzy red mane charged back through the crowd, screeching to a halt at the side of her teacher. She prodded her teacher’s leg and beamed upwards. "There'th a mare at the other end who needth lotth of ponieth for a game," she lisped. "Can we try it? Can we?"

"Only if you can afford it, Twist.” Cheerilee tore her gaze away from a pottery stall and looked down, smiling. “Is it far? Do you need me to come with you?”

“I’ll go,” Spike volunteered quickly. Although Cheerilee was carrying on as normal, Spike could tell from her slowing gait that having to watch over nearly twice her normal number of students for an entire day was starting to take its toll. Much like another mare he knew, he suspected that the teacher wasn’t entirely willing to admit when she was overworked. “I’m responsible. You should go and enjoy the carnival too.”

Cheerilee hesitated for only a second before nodding. “All right, Spike. Have fun, you two!” With a cheery wave, the teacher unhitched herself from her cart and trotted over to a nearby stall.

The other foals weren't hard to find. The Cutie Mark Crusaders darted from stall to stall, unable to stay in one place for more than a few seconds. With Spike’s help, it was easy to round them up. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were standing in the long line for the ferris wheel, but gave up when they heard a new place was more readily available. Snips and Snails were discovered nearby, deep in conversation with a pair of bright pink fillies. “Wait, wait,” Snips was saying as Twist ran up behind him. “I don’t get it. How can you be her aunt if you’re the same age? I thought aunts were supposed to be older.”

“My aunt’s really old,” Snails added, but as usual everypony ignored him.

Piña Colada rolled her eyes. “It’s really simple,” she sighed, her tone suggesting she’d explained this many times before. She stood protectively over her niece, able to hold herself slightly taller than her despite lacking a horn. “I’m Berry Punch’s sister. Berry Pinch is her daughter. My parents happened to have another kid at the same time as their daughter, so Pinchy and I were born around the same time. That’s all there is to it.”

Berry Pinch smiled shyly. “I’m actually a week older,” she admitted. “But it doesn’t feel like it. It’s like having a big sister. Sometimes, it’s like having two mommies.”

“Pinchy, I told you never to call me that.”

“Sorry, aunt Piña.”

“You guyth,” Twist broke in, finally attracting the group’s attention. She smiled as they turned towards her. “You wanna play a game?”

The rest of the group had gathered at the ring toss booth, where an exasperated carny was rapidly running out of prizes. "Here you go, kid," the vendor grunted, levitating a stuffed squirrel over to the filly opposite him. Archer accepted the prize and passed it to Dinky Doo, who held it tightly with muffled squeals of joy and gratitude. "You've got one shot left, little filly," the stall owner sighed. "Make it count. I'm sure you will."

"Thank you, sir." Archer turned to the classmates that surrounded her, several of whom were carrying toys of varying sizes. "How about you, Bolt? Do you want anything?"

"Um..." Tornado Bolt blushed and quickly scanned the rows of prizes. Most of them were stuffed animals or plastic toys, nothing that seemed appropriate. "I don't know." Suddenly, the pale pegasus' eyes landed on a tiny tower figurine near the bottom of the shelf. "That one," she said, pointing. "The little tower."

"That's all? Okay." Shrugging, Archer picked up her last ring between her teeth and carefully eyed the game in front of her. A table of bottles and spires had been laid out on the other side of the counter, each worth a different number of points. To a discerning eye the game was obviously rigged, and made no illusions about it; many of the bottles were too wide to successfully land a ring on with any degree of accuracy, while others were too short to score a hit without the ring bouncing right off. The rings themselves were weighted and unbalanced, difficult to hold in either the hooves or the mouth. One-point prize, Archer thought, testing the weight of the plastic between her teeth. She eyed a tall, thin bottle near the edge of the stack. Got it.

“Guyth! Guyth!”

The sound of a now-large group approaching broke Archer’s concentration. Her head turned slightly to the side mid-throw, causing her to stumble. The ring flew out of her mouth and bounced off of another bottle far from her target, landing somewhere within the stall’s dark interior. “Aw, I’m sorry, little lady,” the stall owner said, visibly relieved. “Maybe next time.”

Archer sighed. “Sorry, Bolt.” Tornado Bolt simply shrugged and looked away. The blue earth pony looked to the new arrivals. “You guys want prizes? If you have any more bits I can win them for you.”

“I’ve still got lots of bits, actually,” said Peachy Pie, checking her tiny coin purse.

“Thith ith better,” Twist insisted. “It’th free!”

“Free?” Peachy snapped her purse shut. “Lead the way.”


---


The fifteen foals and one dragon stuck close together as they made their way back through the carnival. Every so often one of the ones at the edges would look longingly towards a gleaming attraction as they passed, but with the encouragement of their friends they let Twist lead them resolutely on towards the edge of the carnival.

The tent, when they finally arrived, appeared to be nothing special. It was set a little ways apart from the others and had no sign over its entrance. The material was the same red and gold as the rest of the carnival, but seemed brighter and newer than the other tents. Spike nudged Twist as the filly came to a halt in front of it. "Are you sure this is the place?" he asked. "Doesn't look like any kind of game to me."

"I'm thure," Twist said back, though she didn't sound quite as certain as she'd been on the way over. "There wath a lady right here a minute ago..." Nervously, the filly poked her head inside the tent, then walked in. In twos and threes, the others followed her.

The interior of the tent was mostly bare. One candle barely illuminated the portable building's interior, casting long shadows that made it look larger on the inside. In the center was a wide, round table covered in a highly detailed map of Equestria. Black, hoof-sized models of animals were scattered across the surface; there were ponies, bears, snakes, spiders, and a few the assembled foals didn't recognize. Beside the table was a strange shape made from a dark metal that resembled an elaborate music stand.

"Mith?" Twist called nervously, though the tent was clearly empty. The rest of her classmates crowded around the table curiously. "I brought my friendth like you athked."

Diamond Tiara turned up her nose. "And what are these supposed to be?" she asked condescendingly. "Did you drag us all the way out here just to play with some stupid dolls?"

"Action figures!" Snips argued automatically. "They look cool to me."

Apple Bloom cautiously picked up the figure nearest to her and peered at it. "What's this supposed to be? Is it a bear or a wolf?"

"This spider's got six legs," Archer noted.

"Tweet! Tweet!" Dinky Doo happily waved a bird-shaped figure through the air. "I'm an eagle! Tweet tweet!"

"Please don't touch those."

Everypony jumped as an adult voice spoke from the front of the tent. A dark green unicorn in a brown vest smiled politely and finished walking in as those who had picked up the figures quickly returned them. "I'm sorry if I startled you, children," she said in a kindly voice. A pair of round glasses perched on the end of her nose, and her mane was bound in a tight braid down her back. Unlike the rest of the carnival ponies, she spoke in a thick Canterlot accent. "I'm afraid those devices are rather fragile, that's all. They're... precious to me."

"Mith?" Twist said, perking up. "I brought my friendth."

"So I see." The mare surveyed the group. Her smile flickered slightly. "Is this all of you? I thought..." She shook her head. "No. I'm sorry, that's not important. You came here to play a game, yes?"

Spike stepped forwards. "What kind of game is this?" he asked. "I've never seen anything like this."

“Oh, it’s very simple.” The mare’s horn lit up with a silvery glow. The models on the table began to rearrange themselves, forming a circle around the map of Equestria and leaving a single unicorn-shaped figure in the centre. “There will be fifteen rounds,” she said. “Each round, an evil monster will invade Equestria. All of you will take it in turn to control the hero and fight off the invaders one by one. Only when all fifteen are defeated will Equestria be safe.” There was a pause as she posed dramatically. Some of the fillies rolled their eyes, and the mare blushed. “I know, it seems a little silly. But it’s important that I take this seriously.”

“Wait... control?” Spike scratched his head. “Like, do we hold it, or...?”

“I get it,” Archer said. She put her front hooves up on the table, examining the tiny figures with growing fascination. “It’s like an arcade game, right? Only with real models.”

“Exactly like that,” the mare confirmed, sounding slightly relieved. “Like puppets without strings.”

The group responded with varying levels of interest. “That sounds awesome!” Snips exclaimed, his eyes lighting up.

Peachy Pie frowned skeptically. The devices on the table didn’t look terribly mobile. “How does it work?” she asked, picturing the hoof-sized unicorn jerkily tottering around the map.

“Oh... it’s complicated. The controls look a little tricky, but it’s perfectly natural once you start playing. You won’t see anything like it for a few years. Suffice to say it’s fairly advanced technology.”

“Advanced technology, huh?” Spike nodded approvingly. “Twilight would like this.”

"What's your cutie mark mean?" a high-pitched voice asked.

The mare blinked. During her speech, three of the group had zipped to her sides and were staring intently at her flanks. She looked back and blushed. Her cutie mark was an unusual one; a pair of thick black lines formed a diagonal cross across her flank, the tips connected by jagged bolts of dark lightning. Unlike most cutie marks there was no colour to it, only black lines with no filler in between. "It's... well... you'll see," she answered the unicorn who had spoken. "It's not really important right now."

“Aw... okay.”

The trio nodded, looking slightly disappointed. “What’s your name?” Apple Bloom asked.

“My name... my name is Pollinia.” As she said this, the mare’s eyes momentarily flicked to a dark corner of the room. Archer followed her gaze, but nothing was there. “The game is still being tested, so it’s free to play while we iron out any kinks. Really, you’d be doing me a favor by playing.”

“But there’s sixteen of us,” Spike said, counting the figures on the table. His spines drooped a little. “I wanted to play too...”

“I’m not playing.” Piña Colada bristled as everyone turned to stare at her. “What? It sounds stupid, and she just told us it’s not even done yet. Pinchy, you shouldn’t play either. It might not be safe.”

By her side, Berry Pinch lowered her head meekly. “I kinda want to try it...”

“It’s perfectly fine,” Pollinia interrupted. “Fifteen... fifteen is perfect.” The unicorn raised the strange music stand-like apparatus with magic and placed it in front of the group. “There’s a little magic involved. All you need to do to register is place your hoof on this. And tell me your names, as well.” She pulled a miniature notebook and quill from a pocket within her vest.

Scootaloo rushed forward to stand in front of the device, then stared up at the dark surface. The top of the stand rose well above her head. “Uh...”

“Oh, sorry.” A tight-lipped smile on her face, Pollinia pulled a box from the darkness beneath the table. “The ponies this was built for are generally a little... taller.”

Shrugging off the likely unintentional jab, the little pegasus hopped onto the box and raised herself onto her hind legs. “I’m Scootaloo!” she announced, then pressed her hoof against the dark metal surface.

There was a pause. “Should something happen?” Scootaloo asked, slowly lowering herself to all fours.

“No,” Pollinia answered, looking at her notebook as she wrote down the filly’s name. “Just touching it once is enough. We’ll probably add some lights or something in a later model.”

The pegasus shrugged and hopped down. A second later, one of her friends took her place. “I’m Sweetie Belle.”

“And Ah’m Apple Bloom!”

“My name’s Dinky Doo.”

“Diamond Tiara.” The earth filly tossed her mane dramatically. “I’ll show you foals how it’s done.”

“Me too. Silver Spoon.”

“Archer.”

“I’m Snips.”

“Tornado Bolt.”

“And Snails.”

“My name’th Twist.”

“Berry Pinch.” The unicorn filly glanced at her aunt before placing her hoof over the device.

“I guess it’s worth a try. I’m Peachy Pie.”

“Rumble.”

"And I'm Spike." The little dragon placed his hand against the device. His claws clicked against the cold metal. After a moment, Spike stepped down and looked at Pollinia. The mare was staring into space, no longer writing. "So, uh... what happens now?" Spike looked at the table. "How do you start it up?"

"Hm?" Pollinia stared at the dragon for a second, then shook her head. "Oh, no. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. These aren't the pieces you'll be using."

Scootaloo frowned. "Then where are they?"

"You'll see soon enough." Pollinia sighed and turned away. "There will be one demonstration battle before we begin. It shouldn't be long no—"

There was a flash, and a sound like tearing paper.


---


"Bleugh?"

Scootaloo awoke to a mouthful of sand. She blinked blearily and pushed herself to her hooves, spitting out the grainy particles. She looked around, her heart racing. The entire group was sprawled on the beach, individually waking up and looking around in confusion. The moon was high in the sky, and the sounds from the now-distant carnival were starting to die down. Apple Bloom was the first to speak. "What the hay just happened?"

Peachy Pie sighed. "Was that a dream?" she asked. "It felt so real."

"It wasn't a dream," Rumble said quietly. "There was a mare who promised us a game about fighting monsters, right?" He looked around. The others silently nodded. "How could it have been a dream if we all dreamed the same thing?"

Spike's concerns were more immediate. "Oh man, oh man, oh man," he said, scurrying around the group and counting heads while wringing his claws together. "We are gonna be in so much trouble! Cheerilee’s gonna think we ran away on purpose, and..." He paused. “Hey, how did we get here?”

"Forget it," Scootaloo said loudly. She groaned and looked up at the moon. “It’s too late now. Let’s just go back and forget this ever happened.”

Unusually quiet, the miniature herd rounded themselves up and followed Scootaloo towards the trail back to town. Dinky Doo ran around in a circle for a few seconds before giving up and hanging her head. “I lost my squirrel,” she mourned to no one, then sighed and went after the others.

The trail was long and dark. The winding sandy path between the town and the beach had seemed straightforward from a distance, but at night it was shadowed and hard to follow. Thoughts plagued each of the foals as they walked in silence, every one quietly meditating on what had happened to them. "She was probably just some crazy mare anyway," Diamond Tiara scoffed, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, totally," Silver Spoon agreed, but without much enthusiasm.

“I mean, fighting monsters? Puppets without strings? Puh-leeze,” Diamond Tiara continued loudly, tossing her mane. “I bet it didn’t even work. Did you see her face at the end? That mare was out of her mind.”

“Still would have been awesome, though,” Snips grumbled.

“I doubt it. Even if—”

Whatever Diamond Tiara was about to say was lost as a thundering crash nearly deafened the group. The ground pulsed and shook, knocking the less nimble ponies off their hooves. The three pegasi leaped into the air, hovering with varying degrees of success before lightly touching down again. In the distance, a siren blared.

Apple Bloom helped Sweetie Belle to her hooves. “What in the...” She saw Rumble staring, mouth agape, and followed his gaze. Her own jaw dropped. She was vaguely aware of the rest of her classmates turning as well, staring up at the shape that now filled her field of vision. “What... what the...”

“Whoa.”

"Was that there a second ago?"

"What in the hay is that?"

It was some time before the little ponies could bring themselves to move again. A shape blacker than the night sky towered over not only the little herd, but the entire town. It was shaped roughly like the unicorn model they’d seen earlier, but many hundreds of times larger and far more intricately detailed. Though it stood some distance out into the ocean, the waters only lapped around its hooves. The sweeping beam of the clifftop lighthouse barely reached its knees. The entire shape was covered in—or perhaps made from—black, segmented armor, unlike any design the assembled foals had seen before. It stood facing Seaddle’s cliffs with its head bowed, revealing the only splash of colour on its entire form: a glowing patch of red in the middle of its face, just below the horn.

“Aunt Piña, I’m scared,” Berry Pinch whimpered, drawing closer to her aunt.

Piña Colada comforted her niece, though she kept her at leg’s length. “Bet you’re wishing you’d listened to me now, huh?” she said.

“It’s so big,” Peachy Pie breathed. “Is that what we’re supposed to control? It must be the size of a mountain...”

“It’s about a thousand feet tall,” Tornado Bolt said confidently. “On its hind legs, it would easily be over fifteen hundred.”

“How can you tell?” Peachy Pie asked.

Tornado Bolt flared out her tiny wings. “Pegasus, remember? I’m good with heights.”

“It’s a monster!” Snails yelled, about thirty seconds too late.

Apple Bloom gulped. “That ain’t a monster,” she said at last, finally finding her voice. “It’s a golem.”

Her friends glanced at her, though their eyes were immediately torn back to the monstrous shape above them. “A what?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“A golem. Like in the stories mah granny used to tell me. It’s a creature made out of the earth that protects ponies from harm. Look, see?” She pointed towards the patch of red on the behemoth’s face. “There’s the magic ruby that brings it to life.”

“You’re wrong,” Archer argued. “It’s obviously a construct. Like Lord Cruelty’s magicka tank from Wonder Force Three.”

Apple Bloom glared. “That’s just a dumb arcade game!”

Archer glared back. “So? Your guess is just a dumb foal’s story!”

“Guys!” Scootaloo yelled, jumping between the two. “We can work that out later. For now, we’ve got bigger problems. Where’s the enemy?”

“The enemy?” Sweetie Belle asked, suddenly nervous.

“Yeah! Pollinia said there would be fifteen evil monsters, right? So if our golem or construct or whatever is here, then where’s our opponent?”

The group looked around. “There!” Rumble yelled, pointing. In the direction the colossal unicorn was facing, partially hidden behind the distant cliffs, it looked as though a hole had appeared in the sky. A shimmering ring of light was slowly descending with a magical hum, revealing a new dark shape emerging above it, as though it was being written into existence.

Before the miniature herd had time to take in the new shape, however, a flash and a distorted tearing overwhelmed them for a second time. When their vision returned, they were no longer on the trail.

“Hello again, children,” a familiar voice drifted down as the foals and dragon tried to orient themselves, the dizziness fading more rapidly than it had on the beach. “I’m sorry for the delay. The first jump is the most difficult. It shouldn’t happen again.”

The group looked around. They’d appeared in a large, dome-shaped room with no windows or doors. The walls and gently sloping floor were a deep, golden brown, making it difficult to tell where one ended and the other began. The chamber seemed to glow from within, gently illuminating every surface. In the center of the room were fifteen chairs arranged in a circle, hovering motionless and unsupported far over the foals’ heads. “Up here, everypony,” Pollinia called down from the seat nearest to them, a green-backed office chair identical to many others in the circle. A tiny white and green shape floated beside her head, but before any of the foals could focus on it it vanished. “Welcome to the cockpit.”

“The cocka-what?” Sweetie Belle echoed, sensing a distressing pattern emerging.

“Cockpit. It’s the chamber from which you’ll be controlling your warrior.” Pollinia spoke quickly, glancing at the walls around her. “Please, sit down. I’ll explain as much as I can.”

A pinprick of blackness appeared on the wall opposite Pollinia, then rapidly expanded to encompass the entire room. Suddenly, the group appeared to be floating hundreds of feet above the ocean, the dark unicorn now visible below their hooves. Those who had started to sit down immediately jumped back up, trembling. The more easily startled ponies screamed, then one by one calmed themselves as they realized they weren’t about to fall out of the sky. “Don’t panic!” Pollinia commanded, wincing as Dinky Doo tried to leap on Rumble’s back. “It’s just a projection. You’re completely safe within this chamber.”

Spike looked up nervously. Having lived through the experience once, he still suffered occasional nightmares about falling to his death. “This is... safe, right?” he asked.

“Perfectly,” Pollinia answered, staring straight ahead.

Unfazed by the disappearing floor, Scootaloo grinned and spread out her wings in excitement. “Look!” she yelled, pointing forwards.

Opposite the dark unicorn, the other shape had finished forming. It was about the same size as the metal creature they were floating over, but very different in form. This one was closer in appearance to a spider, with a segmented main body and eight long, thin legs. Hundreds of small, pointed spars jutted out of the entire length of its body, making it look hairy from a distance. The only colour on it was on a yellow patch on a flat protrusion where a head should have been. As the last tips of the monster’s legs materialized, the circle of light dwindled and vanished. The shape floated momentarily before crashing to the ground. The eight legs created waves as they landed in the ocean, sending out an earth-shaking tremor.

“Ewwwwww.” Silver Spoon stuck her tongue out at the sight of the insectoid opponent. “That is so gross. You’re gonna crush that, right?”

“I intend to.” A harder tone had come into Pollinia’s voice. “Watch how I fight, children. The warrior moves as I will it to.”

As the unicorn above spoke, the one below began to move. It shrugged its shoulders, making a sound like grinding metal, and stepped back into a fighting stance. Pollinia didn’t move, though her brow furrowed in concentration. As the metallic unicorn raised its head, light began to form around its horn; not the gentle glow of unicorn magic, but harsh, searing light that was painful to look at. Without warning the built-up energy shot forward in a beam, rocketing across the sky to strike the spider with a crash like thunder and enough force to send it tumbling onto its back.

The foals near the front of the crowd cheered. “That’s so awesome!” Snips exclaimed, stomping.

“Yeah!” Archer looked up at Pollinia. “Is this hard to do? You’ve had lots of practice, right?”

The mare swiftly shook her head, keeping her eyes forward. “No. This is my first time.”

“Huh?” Spike frowned, his confusion growing. “That can’t be right. This is a game you made, right?”

Pollinia laughed humorlessly. “Do you really think a single pony could make something like this?” She silenced further questions as opposite them, the spider scuttled back to its feet. “Of course, even a blow like that won’t do a lot of damage. In order to completely destroy the opponent, you must be more direct.”

“Then we should charge it!” Scootaloo yelled, pawing eagerly at the ground.

The giant unicorn shifted positions again, copying Scootaloo’s charging posture. The young pegasus squealed happily. “Look out!” Apple Bloom cautioned, pointing ahead. The spider had raised itself onto its rear four legs, spreading the front four wide. Sparks of bright blue electricity arced along the bristles down its back before leaping from leg to leg, forming a square of energy in the air.

“Hey.” Rumble nudged Dinky Doo, gesturing towards Pollinia. “It’s her cutie mark.” Dinky squinted at the raised unicorn’s flank, then looked back and forth between her and the shape created by the dark spider. The cross, linked by arcs of electricity, was virtually identical.

“It means to trap us in a web,” Pollinia said calmly. “Against a smaller opponent, perhaps, that would be an effective strategy. But the warrior is heavily armored.” She lowered her head, grinning. “And we will not go down so easily.” With a faint growl, she charged.

While the metallic monster had been an impressive sight at a standstill, in motion it was breathtaking. It ran as quickly as a regular pony would, barely slowed by its unbelievable size, and covered the space between the two combatants in a matter of seconds. Every hoofstep launched up a pillar of water and made a noise like hundreds of cannons going off at once. Arcs of lightning leaped from the spider and lanced down the unicorn’s sides at its approach, glancing off in all directions. Then, with a crash that shook the cockpit, the unicorn’s horn slammed into the spider’s chest.

Pollinia remained calm as the spider began to thrash. She gently bobbed her head, sparking the dark unicorn to hurl the impaled insect to the ground and pin down the thin front legs with its hooves, allowing the rear ones to flail uselessly at its underside. Countless strands of grey cables spilled out of the spider’s top half as Pollinia continued to nod and weave, neatly eviscerating it with the horn under her command. A line was now growing between the foals cheering her on below her and the ones slowly creeping to the back of the room. “Every monster has a weak spot,” she explained, stomping hard on a leg that had momentarily escaped her grasp. “It’s in a different place in each one, but usually buried inside the torso, protected by multiple layers of armor. It’s round, and looks like... come on...” The mare began to frown. “It’s in here somewhere...”

Suddenly, the spider shifted. With a horrible snapping noise its rear segment twisted at an unnatural angle to the rest of its body, and the remaining free limbs wrapped around both the unicorn’s left legs and tugged sharply. Before Pollinia could react, the creature she controlled was pulled off its hooves. With a final push from the spider, she was sent hurtling towards Seaddle’s cliffs.

The assembled foals screamed as the ground came rushing up to meet them. The unicorn hit the cliffs with an explosion of debris, sending rocks and dirt flying in all directions. The light of the lighthouse vanished. The cockpit shook violently, nearly toppling some of the foals over, but the room itself somehow remained upright. Instinctively, the divided foals melded back together into a single group. “Pollinia, what’s happening?” Silver Spoon sobbed, clutching the protesting Diamond Tiara. “Why aren’t we winning?”

“Shut up!” the mare snapped. She breathed in sharply and looked towards her opponent. The spider had crawled onto its four functional legs, its front half hanging loosely by a few strands. With a final shake it snapped this dead weight off, creating another earth-shaking crash as the torso landed in the water, then with blinding speed leaped at the downed unicorn. Now little more than an egg-shaped orb balanced on four spindly legs, it rapidly charged electricity down its remaining bristles before launching a flurry of lightning-fueled kicks at the metal pony’s torso. Despite the thinness of its legs, each blow rattled the cockpit and visibly dented the unicorn’s armor.

Pollinia tried to lift herself up, only to be knocked deeper into the cliffs as the blows rained down. “No!” she screamed. Gone was the calm, confident tone she’d used before; now there was only fear and fury. “Not like this. Not like this!” The dark unicorn’s horn glowed again. A thinner beam of light lanced out and struck the spider mid-kick, momentarily sending it off-balance. This second was all it took for Pollinia to throw another hoof against its side, knocking it against the shoreline. With a whirl she launched herself back into a standing position, sending another storm of crushed stone into the air.

“Pollinia, stop!” Apple Bloom yelled, staring down at the now frighteningly close lights of Seaddle. “You’re gonna destroy the town!”

“Forget the town!” the mare screeched back, shocking Apple Bloom into silence. The dark unicorn advanced on the spider again, now crushing stone underhoof in its wake. The spider raised two legs to defend itself, but with a vicious swipe Pollinia snapped them in half. Another second was all it took to throw the crippled monster back into the ocean. “As I was saying,” Pollinia growled, stomping the remaining two legs into powder. “Every monster has a weak spot. It looks like...” She plunged her horn into the twitching orb and carved it open, then knelt down and pressed with her hooves to widen the wound. “This.”

Nestled within the spider’s grey innards was a white sphere. Now gentle, Pollinia carefully pried the weak spot out and held it aloft in one hoof, revealing a long cable attached to somewhere within the grey interior. Though massive compared to any pony, in the colossal hoof that held it it seemed smaller than a tennis ball. “All monsters, the warrior included, can heal themselves over time. All damage will be fixed between rounds, so don’t worry about getting a few scratches. Even if you tear your opponent to pieces, the only way to end the battle for good is to find this weak spot...” She held the orb between two hooves. “And crush it.”

With a final, decisive crack, the two enormous hooves slammed together. There was a long, slow fade out, like the sound of a spell running down, and the unicorn and the spider stopped moving.

Behind Pollinia, a spot of brown appeared. This spread across the walls and floor, covering up the view of outside, until the cockpit was in the same state it had been in when they’d arrived. Gently, the circle of chairs floated down to the floor. Pollinia breathed in and out slowly, her head bowed. She looked around at the chairs around her, then sighed. “I’ve given you all I can,” she said. The fury in her voice had vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving only a strange tiredness. “The rest is up to you now.”

“Mith Pollinia?” Twist approached the seated mare nervously, her lower lip trembling. “I made a mithtake. I don’t want to play any more.”

Pollinia didn’t answer. She glanced at Twist, then at the floor. “My little ponies,” she said quietly. “I’m s—”

There was a flash, and a sound like tearing paper.


---


It took several minutes more for the earthquake sirens to stop sounding.

From high up, it hadn’t been as clear what the battle’s effect on the landscape had been. Like tumbling around in a sandbox, the crumbling of the ground beneath their massive hooves had seemed tiny, insignificant. From their position back on the now rock-strewn beach, however, it was much more immediate to the little herd what Pollinia’s tumble and desperate flailings had done.

The cliffs of Seaddle were gone. Where less than an hour ago they had sloped up proudly above the ocean, there was now only a sharp descent into thrashing and rocky waters. There was no sign of the lighthouse, not even fragments among the debris. The surrounding landscape was littered with dust and stone. The two colossal monsters had vanished, leaving destruction as the only sign that they’d been there at all.

Apple Bloom stared numbly at the place where she and her friends had stood just that evening. “Ah guess when she said all damage would be fixed, she only meant damage to the golem,” she said.

“Construct!” Archer snapped. She kicked in irritation. “Shoot. We forgot to ask what we’re supposed to call it.”

Slowly, Twist sank to the ground. “I’m thorry, guyth,” she mumbled, looking at the ground. “I didn’t think it would be like thith.”

“So... we still get to ride that thing, right?” Snips said. “Like, we all get a turn?”

Everyone began talking at once. Some whooped, some quaked in horror, some simply stood and shouted. Spike shook his head rapidly. Quietly, two ponies slipped away from the noise and sat at the edge of the beach.

The ocean was calm again. Tiny ripples lapped at the shore, faint echoes of the thundering hoofsteps that had recently torn the waters into chaos. Through a rare gap in the overcast sky, the perpetually full moon was shining down. Rumble and Dinky Doo stared up at it in silence, each quietly reflecting on the events of the night. “She tried to say something, right at the end, right?” Rumble said. Dinky Doo nodded. “What do you think it was?”

The tiny unicorn closed her eyes. “I think she said... ‘I’m sorry.’”