Obsidian: Shards Of Sombra

by Randimaxis

Fifty Five: Obligatory Giant Mech Battle

An almost guaranteed certainty of death. Exceedingly small chances for success. Possibly terrible losses ahead.

So what were they waiting for?

Obsidian still didn't have any plans to deal with all of this, but hey - that never stopped her before! Though it honestly should have, from time to time; perhaps less ponies would have had to die, like Applejack or Ruby. In fact, a smarter, less lazy pony could do a much better job of this than Siddy currently felt like she was.

"Quickly, to the bridge! If all else fails, we can simply collapse it, right?" Obsidian suggested with a rather resolved and weary voice. Will the city's government get angry about ruining their big bridge? Quite likely.

Gypsy nodded, then grabbed the gearshift and let loose with an, "Awwwooo-OOOOO-"

Which was cut off when the vehicle began to hitch and jerk again.

"N-no, NO... this... th-this is, no... this i-i-is NOT awoo~... NO!" he growled irritably as the vehicle slung to the left for a precarious second then, with a loud grinding sound, it slammed down into higher gear and they took off like a shot.

"... awwwwooooo-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-oooooooooooo!!!!!" the diamond dog happily resumed his howl.

If Gypsy landed them in river with his inexperienced gear-shifting, they still had at least a small chance to survive, right? Even though Obsidian herself didn't actually know how to swim...

The walker made slow but steady progress towards the hapless city, its massive steel and gear legs making the ground shake as they made their way forward while on the street below, the riot van raced along the road, Gypsy maintaining a good speed but still having a few issues with shifting gears.

Obsidian saw one of the legs come down right next to the van, smashing into the road itself, and Gypsy yelped as a chunk of concrete shrapnel smacked into the side of the vehicle, making him fight to get it under control... but the deft doggo managed to do so, and they were now juuuuuuuuust ahead of the walker.

But their passage did not go unnoticed...

"AND LO, THE COCKROACH, AFTER HAVING A CHANCE TO LIVE, CHOOSES DEATH! THIS ROACH IS A FOOL... BUT WE APPLAUD THEIR TENACITY!"

The mechanical nightmare now opened multiple small hatches underneath, and what looked like ping-pong balls began to drop out of them. Once clear of the hull, the spheres grew little propellors, and began to float along and hover...

And then, they began to beep. And beeping wasn't usually a good sign. Especially when the beeping things were drifting in YOUR direction.

The fact that they actually managed to make it towards the bridge quickly was a pleasant surprise. Avoiding crashing into the metal spider's leg was a promising turn of events, too. Overall, Obsidian - who had already almost decided that they'd lost and would have to either evacuate the city or simply run away - was starting to hope that perhaps they could do something here...

And it was her first boss fight with narration!

When her sister decided to attack them with things that seemed to be flying bombs (what a genius she was!), Obsidian decided it was her time to try to do something beyond moping and complaining. She carefully went to the back of the van to push open the doors and start targeting the little flying spheres with the Fire Spell she'd learned from Onyx's book.

It was time to see how fire-resistant Opal had made her creations.

The blaze blasted outward from her horn, boosted by a touch of her Light Magic, and surrounded the majority of the incoming spheres, which detonated with little >BOOMF< sounds, releasing not explosives... but instead, little puffs of globby white goo which just seemed to splatter about.

And as soon as the goo struck something, it stuck fast and began to grow, like some sort of foam. The foam grew rather quickly, and seemed to be attracted to itself in the process, sealing quickly around whatever it stuck to; if that foam got on someone's face...

Though her blast was effective, there were still a number of spheres that were on their way towards them, attempting to keep ahead of the oncoming towering spider mech.

"{Obsidyan... could any of this assist you?}" Diamond pointed to the police weapons lockers, which were open and gave full access to everything... IF she could figure out what these things were. Racks of what looked like firearms, some sort of sticks with pull-rings, little handles with pointy bits up front, and a long, steel tube with an aiming scope on its' side.

"{Have I started helping yet?}" the little stallion asked merrily.

The most perfect situation would give Obsidian enough time to catch some of these balls and throw them back at the spider's legs, maybe to make it a bit more sticky and overall more difficult to steer. Alas, this was hardly the perfect situation, especially as typical explody-type bombs would horrifically hurt them, forcing their grieving families and friends to keep their coffins closed during their funerals. These things, though? They were a bit more subtle...

"{I don't know how to use those, Diamond! We'd have to ask Mica or Clap!}" she replied while continuing to blast their spheroid attackers with her magic. "{Can't you try to do something to them as well? They're not alive, so it wouldn't disrupt your pacifistic vows to attack them!}"

Diamond considered it for a moment, then smiled broadly as realization set in. "{You are correct, Obsidyan!}"

He turned, grabbed a small ammo crate and dumped it, filling it with the strange pull-ring sticks and dragging it to the back - flashing a quick smile beatifically at Obsidian as he passed - and when he was positioned at the rear doors where he could see clearly, he blinked... and thick, dark purple mist POURED from his eyes as his smile went feral.

"{I SHALL OBLITERATE OUR FLYING FOES WITH NO MERCY!!!}" Diamond's suddenly gravelly and deep voice growled out as he began physically throwing the sticks at the goo-balls. This was about the point that she was reminded of her brother's uncanny strength, as his throws sent the sticks through multiple spheres with each toss, making them drop their sinister payload harmlessly on the ground.

Impressive... most impressive! As far as Obsidian was concerned, her brother's transformation was terrifyingly beautiful, or beautifully terrifying - perhaps both? Regardless, the fact that this little war machine was on her side improved her mood considerably.

Gypsy, who had been watching in the rearview on occasion, suddenly yipped. "Ob-b-b-bs-s-s-s... Ob-b-b-bsid-d-d..." Apparently, he wanted her attention. "... RRGH! {Obsidian! If you can get the flying balls to chase us, could we use them to block up the bridge?}"

After seeing the Fire Spell's effectiveness boosted from Light Magic... maybe the flying devils weren't immune to Light? But block up the bridge? It was a good idea, but Obsidian simply had no clue how to levitate so many of them at the same time. Even with Lemon's training, there were too many of them - making simple levitation ineffective.

As she watched, another round of flying glueballs were being dropped... but they fell a short distance before they opened their props. Maybe if there was a way to push one or two back up inside it, it might explode within? That could be a BAD day for Sister Opal. Also, there was the idea that the little spheres were little; maybe there was some way to direct them away from the van, and possibly to another target? Or there was also-

"{OBSIDYAN! I REQUIRE MORE ITEMS OF DESTRUCTION WITH WHICH TO RAVAGE OUR FOES WITH!}"

... Diamond requesting something else to throw, apparently. Along with what was in the armoury lockers, there were some helmets, some expensive-looking equipment, and a lot of loose shells of ammunition rolling around on the floor with each turn and jerk of the steering wheel up front.

Obsidian quickly scooped together and rolled several of the shells closer to Diamond, hoping it would be enough to keep him occupied while she focused on the goo-ball hatch. She actually had something in mind that could be rather useful in this situation... especially if this foam contained even one tiny drop of water...

While she was doing her best to repeal the airborne assault of these flying machines, she kept eyeing the hatch they were coming from carefully, in order to try to block it with a shield during the next attempt to drop fresh enemies; all she could do was hope that there was enough water to make her impromptu mix of growth and water spells work.

When the shells clinked against his rear hooves, Diamond turned and looked down and grinned wickedly. He scooped up one and winged it at a sphere. "{NOW, FACE THE DOOM OF-}"

When the shell exploded on contact, Diamond jumped back. "FOKMEE!" he yelped, in... Equeeeeeeestrian..?

Then, it kicked in what the shell had done... and his smile went from wicked to beastly.

"{THERE SHALL NOW BE A RECKONIIIIIIIIIIING!!!!!}" he screamed with a voice like a howling wolf as he began throwing bullets rapidly... with both hooves. Very much like a powerful rifle packed into a smol pone package, Obsidian watched as the number of spheres began to dwindle while her tiny, sweet and harmless-looking brother became Tartarus Incarnate.

As for the tube-blocking shield spell... well, it managed to cover the hole, but it didn't seem to-

>BOOMF< ... oh. There it went.

And as she watched, the compartment section which housed those tubes suddenly dropped a number of screws, automatically separated from the spider, slid across Obsidian's shield and fell straight to the ground, before the entire device burst open at the seams with a massive clump of sticky white foam.

It hadn't stopped or even slowed the walker down - but the sticky bombs were also no longer a threat, so... success? Considering what sort of issues that goo might make, it most certainly WAS a success... it was just hard to enjoy the little things when the massive mechanical war machine was almost at the bridge.

Well, at least they were no longer in danger of being suffocated by scientifically-spawned goo; she turned to her small brother. "{Diamond! We stopped the spheres - can you try attacking one of the legs?}"

"{MY THIRST FOR DESTRUCTION SHALL SLAKE ITSELF ON THAT WHICH CANNOT DIE!}" he yowled as he turned his powerful throws towards the walker's front right leg, his strength leaving pock-marks in the leg's sturdy armor as shell after shell impacted it.

This drew attention from above, as the speakers crackled to life again. "AND SO, YOU SEEK TO STOP US BEFORE WE ENACT OUR VENGEANCE UPON THE MASSES? WELL, WE GREET YOUR CHALLENGE HEAD-ON, AND ONLY THE WEAKEST OF US WILL HAVE TO SUFFER... AND THAT MEANS YOU!!!"

More hatches popped, slid and folded open beneath it, and out popped a number of gadgets, gizmoes and weaponry that looked ready to fire at a moment's notice. The sudden deployment of technological weaponry made this task go from well-nigh impossible to completely impossible! The walker stopped heading towards the city... and turned to focus its' FULL attention on the little riot van.

Vengeance upon the masses? Oh dear; the spawn of wicked King Sombra surely had some terrible mental issues, didn't they? It really shouldn't be too surprising, considering how he kept treating them, but still - most of them seemed to like mindless destruction just a wee bit too much.

And DAMNATION, how many weapon hatches did this fucking thing have? And how many more destructive devices was it carrying in its mechanical belly? For now, Obsidian could only frantically try to block some of the various instruments of destruction with her shield. Perhaps at least some of these things would explode when damaged, and maybe damage the spider from the inside..?

As she watched doom looming large over them, Obsidian saw a group of bottles come flying out of seemingly nowhere and shatter along the top of the walker, covering it with a cloud of sickly green fog.

"WHA- NO! WHAT IS THIS? WHERE ARE YOU?" There was a quick flash of purple on the top spire of the bridge's arch... but it whirled away before Obsidian could get a good look at it.

There was a ratcheting sound as tubes opened along the sides of the dome, then a whirr as a number of fans came to life and the green mist was blown away into the sky, leaving Lapo's view unobstructed. "AND NOW, INTREPID HE-"

Suddenly, the spider's own busted goo-ball dispenser came flying from behind it, slamming into the rear left leg and bursting open along its length. The white goo inside did its 'sticky-thing', and the walker's leg was held fast to the asphalt, stuck in place.

"UNSTOPPABLE! OUR FURY IS UNSTOPPABLE! INSIGNIFICANT GERM! PUSTULE!" ... leaving one rather irate Lapo.

Who was this purple-clad pony? And why was she hiding her presence? Why was she helping them, and what were her motivations to do such? Would Obsidian be able to trust her? She would certainly have a number of questions to ask the purple mare later, if she didn't mysteriously disappear once this was done with (and if they didn't die in the process)...

But first things first.

The machine was stopped - at least for now - and that was all that mattered at the moment. They just had to be sure that it would stay this way.

"Now's our chance!" Siddy said as she quickly took a peek into the small weapon arsenal that they had access to. Explosives, explosives... where were the explosives!? If she could just cripple one or two of the machine's legs, this could all be over with!

There were no more of the pull-tab sticks, and she didn't recognize anything else here enough to operate it with any level of efficiency or confidence. However, before further ideas could settle in... their luck gave out.

Gypsy was stuck in the middle of another grumble-worthy downshifting when one of the devices beneath the metal spider fired a beam of bright yellow energy directly in front of the van, melting asphalt as if it were butter as it left a massive hole that was deep enough to breach the underground sewers.

The diamond dog was far too busy trying to get the current gear to catch to notice them roll directly into that same spot.

And the van ABRUPTLY stopped. As in, instant dead stop; Obsidian, Diamond and Gypsy were now at the mercy of Big Bad Papa Gravity... and momentum hurts.

Obsidian flew towards the front cab and slammed into the back of the separating wall, with Diamond landing square in the center of her ribs on her left side. It hurt as she felt her skeleton flex from the impact, but it frankly paled in comparison to what else she noticed...

The driver's seat was empty, and the windshield was GONE.

"NO!" Obsidian screamed in horror; their carriage was damaged, and she was hurt, but Gypsy... well, the chances were exceedingly good that rocketing out of a van through the front windscreen was probably bad for his health. As in, LETHALLY bad...

She did her best to stand back up on all four of her legs as quickly as she possibly could, cursing under her breath at Opal, Onyx, Amber and every single force of fucking evil that was so keen to turn all their lives into a living Tartarus.

"{OUT!}" she said as she grabbed Diamond with a forehoof and started to move through the front cab to the shattered portal that was once a windshield, apparently wanting to leave the vehicle from the other side, away from the spider and its' many nasty devices.

She managed to squeeze herself and Diamond through the windscreen's former home just as one of the walker's legs came directly down on top of the vehicle, crushing the van into a much smaller, flatter version of its' former self.

Gypsy was lying against a wall across the street - and he looked horrible. First of all, there was a lot of blood. Second of all, his arm really shouldn't be able to bend that way. Third and most foremost, however, was the fact that he shouldn't be bleeding so profusely from his mouth like that - one might think he was mortally wounded by being thrown through a windshield at high velocities, then slamming into a brick wall... but, that's what it seemed like had happened.

"{Listen to me closely, Obsidyan,}" Diamond spoke up, turning to face her with all seriousness in his expression, "{I can most likely save Gypsee... but I need to be able to work; you MUST keep the walker distracted, or it may kill me as I cast it. I need you to do this, please, for Gypsee!}" He turned and galloped over to the broken canine and began healing him as quickly as he could, his horn glowing a bright white as he went to work.

Obsidian instantly wheeled around to face the metal spider. "OPAL! YOUR TECHNOLOGY CAN GO FUCK ITSELF! NATURAL SHIT BEATS THE FUCK OUT OF MODERN SHIT ALL THE TIME!" Obsidian screamed in a high-pitched voice, as she was trying to push away the terrors of Gypsy's current state from her mind.

She turned around and blasted her Fire Spell straight at the cockpit; she doubted it would do anything serious, but she just wanted to ensure she kept Opal's attention focused on herself. "FATHER NEVER LIKED YOU ANYWAY!"

Now she just had to worry about the enormous, weaponized and clearly superior mechanical spider; she'd better start using that dodge spell she'd learned from Onyx's book - unless, of course, she really wanted to die. It would come in handy for attracting Opal's attention, though, as there would be a better chance that her attacks would miss the Grey Princess - unless she knew of this spell already and knew how to aim in order to counter it...

Lapo merely laughed scornfully. "DO YOU TRULY BELIEVE I WOULD RISE TO SUCH JIBES AS THAT!? PLEASE, OBSIDIAN," she mocked, "WHO DO YOU THINK I AM - TOURMALINE?"

However, Obsidian obviously had her attention anyhow, as Lapo pulled levers which sent many of the destructive things underneath into a determined mass of 'KILL OBSIDIAN NOW'... but another bottle flew overhead and burst across the spider's bubble cockpit, and the green fog returned.

Leaping down from above, a purple shape came to a solid landing right in front of Obsidian... and slowly stood up. It was a sleek purple-suited mare, wearing a wide-brimmed matching fedora, her eyes hidden behind a purple mask. She looked strong, capable and more than ready for battle. To top it off, she had a billowing purple cape that looked EXACTLY the way a hero's cape was supposed to look.

She looked sort of like one of Cup's 'Power Ponies', but it wasn't one she recognized... but Obsidian was certain that Wart would have; hadn't she said something about... what was that name?

The purple mare faced off at the walker, narrowing her eyes as Lapo gave an amused chuckle. "AND WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE? ANOTHER FOOLISH PONY, DOOMED TO MEET THEIR FATE AT MY HOOVES!?"

The purple mare's eyes just glared as she took a defensive stance, glancing over at Siddy only once before focusing completely on the mad, mechanically-inclined mare.

That hat was obviously hiding a horn... however, Obsidian felt she could rather safely assume that this unknown pony didn't have wings. Too bad; it would have possibly meant that Princess Twilight had decided to bring her heavy firepower to the fight. Or maybe it was Prince Midnight... though he looked a bit too stallion-ly to be this pony...

First things first - as far as Obsidian was concerned, it could even be Amethyst; as long as she turned out to be more helpful than Obsidian herself was at the moment, it was fine with her.

"I'll take care of the devices on the ground, if you can keep her attention," she suggested to the mystery mare; hopefully, something would finally work against the evil genius in front of them.

The purple mare spared her another glance, nodded once and began to make her way to the opposite side from Obsidian, circling warily as she tried to flank the spider. Lapo obviously wasn't having that - and said so with rivet cannons that chattered along the ground after her path. But the mare was exceedingly nimble, and practically danced out of the path of the guns, keeping barely a step ahead... which left Siddy free of attention.

For now, Obsidian concerned herself with the various machines on the ground; with only herself and her (diminished) magic ability, she had to take care of a LOT of artificial enemies, at least long enough for Diamond to heal Gypsy back into one piece... her poor friend... into one... whole... ENTIRE... PIECE... AND IT WAS THESE STUPID MACHINES THAT HAD DONE IT!

"D̮̝̗I̶͎̥E̝̯͈!̲̫͟!" she screamed, summoning a small firestorm with the power of her righteous anger at poor Gypsy's situation. Besides, the more she could possibly destroy now, the more opportunity it would give them to find a way to defeat this damnable thing!

The effect was instantaneous; flames licked outward in a circle, sending out a literal ring of fire around her. Most of the devices - the small machines, anyhow - were blown backward from the release, their innards cooked to a charred and blackened lump.

Behind her, the street shook as the walker's front legs were now smashing at the ground around the purple mare, who was artfully dodging each attempted strike. The mystery mare then slid to a stop next to a dumpster and, swiveling to place her rear legs against it, she bucked it directly into the middle left leg of the walker, cracking the armored casing and staggering the huge machine.

"OH, PLAYING THAT WAY, EH? WE CAN PLAY THAT WAY, TOO!" One of the other legs lifted from the ground and came down behind a small cafe, which then was raked sideways towards the purple mare, sending an entire shop's worth of debrs flying at her! In the dust and dirt of the receding wave of rubble, Obsidian lost sight of her mysterious ally.

"EXCELLENT! AND NOW... FOR YOUUUUU..."

Oh shit...

Obsidian probably didn't have to worry too terribly much about her new ally; she doubted such an attack would be enough to kill her, as she seemed sprightly enough to have probably gotten out of the way quickly, and most wounds could be healed by Diamond. At the moment, she was mostly concerned about herself, her brother and the current state of her diamond dog friend.

She braced for an attack - and with her Displacement Spell, she could at least hope that Sister Opal wouldn't be able to kill her too quickly. In the meantime, she attempted to throw another firestorm at the one leg already weakened by the earlier dumpster throw. Whatever was making this machine capable of mobility, combined with whatever damages the mysterious mare had managed to do... Obsidian was sure she just had to weaken it enough to make it collapse under its own weight.

The Fire Spell went off again and the spider-walker's leg set ablaze, though there was no visible changes she could see... yet.

Five different weapon-like appendages each locked on Obsidian and fired: a green laser, a red laser, a rivet cannon, a speargun and a stream of high-pressure water - and all headed directly for her; at least the stream would be easy to deal with.

She waited for Opal to fire, then dodged towards one of the legs, hoping that her sister would do something stupid, like maybe hitting one of her device's own appendages - and keeping the mad genius' attention away from Diamond and Gypsy would be a nice bonus too.

Obsidian's diligence helped her narrowly escape the lasers, she sidestepped the spear and the rivets were thrown off completely by the dodge spell... but the stream of water slapped into her muzzle-first, and she slammed into the leg she was headed for... so, she'd made it. She was unhurt, but was now FAR too close to the metal spider for her comfort.

Another green bottle flew against the cockpit and shattered, but now the fans around it were running constantly. "THAT TRICK IS NEUTRALIZED, INTERLOPER!"

A burst of rivets revealed the purple mare's location as she leapt from the debris to avoid the shots; she looked a bit scuffed up and dirty, but she seemed otherwise unharmed as she continued to attempt to flank the spider.

At least Obsidian could survive being wet; she didn't even try to deflect lasers back at the leg, but she forced herself to once again dodge to the side, moving away from the mechanical leg with a nimble roll. The effects of the battle were starting to catch up to her, despite the adrenaline currently raging through her body and clouding her mind.

Honestly, she was a bit outmatched, not to mention how tired she was... and frankly, Obsidian was not in any sort of good mood... which she hoped would be just enough to reach into the water gun with her growing magic, and make it pay for soaking her!

Hitting it with the Growth Spell was more than enough to burst the pressurized cannon's tube, and water sprayed everywhere for all of five seconds before that too was dropped from underneath, just as the Gooball Dispenser had been.

There was a sudden, sharp bang; steel shrapnel, wires and gears flew out of the burning leg, along with a trail of thick black smoke. The purple mare juked and jived her way to that side and - with a firm buck - bent the entire leg into a broken and warped angle, rendering it inoperable.

Now, even if Opal got loose from the goo, she wasn't going anywhere! Well... anywhere quickly, at any rate.

Lapo let go with an unintelligible scream of fury, and turned ALL her attention on the purple mare, firing everything at once at her... which the nimble mare dodged with deceptive ease, driving Lapo even crazier, if the line of enraged screams and grunts of exertion she was currently screeching through the loudspeakers meant anything.

Okay, this was perhaps the best possible time to move away from the spider a bit, just in case it came crashing down anytime soon - after all, Obsidian had heard that overdosing on gravity was dangerous. However, it didn't stop her from enveloping as many of the laser guns as she could with small, personal firestorms of their own; if it worked for a leg, then it should do wonders to a delicate, technological masterpiece where every single wire was probably important to the whole.

She gave a burst of fire to the two lasers, and the green one almost instantly exploded. The red one got off a single shot, which hit her right in the middle of her left flank, setting the cutie mark on that side aflame and sending a searing jolt of pain along her barrel... but it was no Bonetwister Spell, so it seemed as if Tourmaline's magical attack had prepared her for pain like this... but just barely. With that one shot successful, the red laser gave up the ghost and simply melted into useless slag.

GAH! FLAMES! Obsidian almost instinctively dodged back and leapt to the side, then immediately cast her water spell over her flaming flank to stop the fire from spreading any further. Being covered by a coat of fur, she really wanted to avoid burning it off!

Ironic; without the water cannon soaking her, Obsidian would have been in a much more dire situation right now.

"ENOOOOOOOUGH!!!"

Twin cables, like an octopus' steel replacements, shot out of the spider's underbelly and wrapped themselves rapidly around both Obsidian and the purple-clad mare, binding them tightly like a boa constrictor's coils.

"THIS LITTLE GAME IS OVER! YOU WILL NOW BEAR WITNESS TO THE VERY FIRST OF MANY, MANY, MAAAAAANY REPARATIONS, AS I GIVE MYSELF THE GIFT OF YOUR DEATH!"

A small yet bright beam of Light Magic came flashing out from the sidelines; Diamond and Gypsy (now fully healed, Obsidian noticed with relief) were standing there - and the brave little stallion had dared to fire a beam of Light Magic at her...

Which struck the armor and glowed... then did nothing. Well, at least he'd tried - and honestly, Obsidian was a bit surprised; apparently, between this shot and his earlier assistance, Diamond was a bit more bold than she'd thought.

"FOOLISH BROTHER! ONLY DARK MAGIC CAN AFFECT MY BRILLIANT ARMOR!" Which is when Obsidian felt Dark Magic building QUICKLY, somewhere nearby...

Just how many damned weapons did this fucking machine have!? Lasers, rivet guns, water cannons, exhaust fans, immobilizing goo, standalone devices, cables... IT WAS FUCKING OVERKILL! It was an army unto itself!

A one-machine-army which would kill her and her mystery companion... but what was this? Obsidian looked sidelong at the costumed hero as soon as she felt the familiar surge of Dark Magic...

With a burst of pure black energy, a column of Dark Magic - roiling and pulsing - shot out of the purple mare's hat, shredding it as the horn there fired the beam directly at the walker. The resulting blast tore right into the chrome hull, and like a red hot knife through butter, it sliced away nearly an entire third of the walker's body - including three of its' massive legs!

"NOOOOOOO! IMPOSSIBLE!!!" screeched Opal's voice, incredulous, as the walker began to teeter precariously, fluids and servos bleeding onto the street below as it staggered to stay upright.

This done, the purple mare popped off two smaller shots that split the steel cables holding the two of them, and Obsidian hit the ground on all four hooves, just as the mare herself did.

The walker was making a valiant attempt to remain standing, but flashes of sparking machinery inside revealed oil and other fluids gushing out by the bucketful as it tilted wildly on what remaining legs it still had, trying clumsily to compensate for the lost stability... and failing miserably.

"... no-no-no-no-NO-NO-NO-NO-NO-NONONONONONOOOOOOO!!!" the mad mare's voice wailed as the massive mechanical monstrosity lurched sideways when one of its' few remaining pivotal legs plunged straight through the surface of the road, creating a deep hole that caused the entire walker to tilt, scrabble humorously at the ground with two desperate legs, then tumble over, coming to rest at an angle with a massive, grinding squeal of protest... from the machinery AND the mare controlling it.

It was finally down; the spider walker was now dormant... but Lapo was still active, and there was no telling what tricks she may have still had up her lab coat's sleeve... regardless, Obsidian wasn't going to give her enough time to shake off this sudden and unexpected defeat.

She dashed forward to the fallen war machine, making her way carefully towards the cockpit with the knowledge that dear Opal could be still a dangerous foe if she got away! Building another giant mechanical spider would probably take her a while - especially without her factory - but the Labor Harnesses? Even a single one of them could be terribly dangerous!

All that she had to do was drag her out of the machine's domed cockpit and keep her occupied until the police got there to handle the official arrest... IF Opal didn't manage to get away from her through some freak happenstance, that was.

Climbing over the wreckage carefully (she recalled how slippery the surface had been), she found the cracked and broken dome of the control center easily enough... and inside was EXACTLY who she was looking for...

But something didn't look right; the mare who cowered at the bottom of the pilot's seat was decidedly more demure and skittish, with barely-controlled fear in her eyes as she looked up at Obsidian.

"Um, er... p-p-please, ah, if you w-would, er, could you, um, please n-not, um, h-hit me, yes? Um, ah, p-please?"

Her soft, BLUE eyes.

So, Lapo had escaped into the depths of Opal's mind after her defeat - and she was calm now? Well, it was an improvement, at least - and it seemed as though the actual fight-fight was over with. Good.

Obsidian sighed deeply. "Good morning, my sister... I hope you will be at least a touch more reasonable than your, ah... 'other self' was," she said kindly. Well, as kindly as she could in her current state of mind. "Diamond is here with us, dear Opal - would you like to go and say hello? I am certain he would be eager to meet with you, now that you're... well, YOU."

The small, harmless-looking mare shivered a bit where she was, still looking up at Obsidian. "Uh, well, I would l-like to, ah, apologize for my, let's say, mmm, alter ego? She, er, gets a bit, um, protective, yes, of me at times, quite... w-we thought that you, uhm, might be here to, ah, k-k-kill us, um... y-yeah."

She looked down and gave a shaky sigh. "Please, er, tell me i-if she hurt, uhm, anyone or, ah, killed any poor souls today, y-yeah? But yes, I'm, um, very sorry, right..." The mousy mare looked down in shame and embarrassment, her body language suggesting she was fighting the urge to simply scamper away like a rabbit.

Opal, it seemed, was apparently worried about the welfare of the ponies Lapo had threatened... maybe she was going to be easier to convert to Obsidian's cause like this? "We... we will have to see; let's go for now, sister. I happen to know a good lawyer, if you need one... and with what's happened here, you just might."

Obsidian offered her hoof to her sister, in order to help her climb out of the broken and tilted cockpit. Opal gave a sheepish smile, one that also looked a little hopeful as she reached up towards Obsidian's outstretched foreleg...

And a voice rang out so hard in Obsidian's head that it drove her straight to her knees...

And Opal. And the purple mare. And Diamond. And Gypsy...

... and every officer tending to the factory scene...

... and every citizen of Cincineighti... and Manehattan... and Ponyville... and Canterlot...

In fact, all of Equus heard the voice, excruciatingly clear and precise, as if their minds were all connected to a single, gigantic speaker that was sending a jarring squelch of feedback directly into their heads.

As Obsidian and the others around her writhed in pain, the voice presented a saccharine sweet giggle before speaking up again.

By Darkness! This was more than Obsidian could stand; she'd just finished fighting with an enormous and terrifyingly powerful war machine! What the FUCK was going on? WHY COULDN'T HER MOTHERFUCKING SIBLINGS JUST STOP?!

IT! WAS! NOT! FAIR!!!

There was a wicked, mocking laughter that rang out through everyone's skull like a gigantic, tolling bell... and then, the pain too great to bear any further, Obsidian blacked out...

The last thing her eyes beheld before darkness claimed her sight was Gypsy holding his head and howling to the skies in agony.