Sweetie Belle didn't know why she'd woken at first. She blinked awake, all tiredness falling away in an instant, and breathed in sharply. Her panic quickly subsided; she was still in her bed. Without fully knowing why, she pulled the covers back and trotted out into the hallway.
Rarity's room was empty. Her door was open, and the bed hadn't been slept in. Sweetie stared at this for a moment before moving on. The design room was empty as well. It had been cleared out during the night, leaving no trace of her work from the previous evening. Rarity, or at least someone, must have come back to check on her. Come to think of it, while she dimly recalled cleaning herself up last night, she wasn't sure how she'd made it into bed.
The hour was very early. It was still dark outside, but a red haze was starting to appear on the horizon. Sweetie wasn't sure that she'd ever actually seen a sunrise before. Something caught her ear and she walked downstairs, still in an early-morning haze, finally catching sight of what had woken her. There was a faint knocking at the door. Politeness made her open it before she had time to think. As soon as she did, Apple Bloom was upon her.
"C'mon, Sweetie Belle," her friend said. "We gotta hurry."
An apple was shoved into her mouth, and a comb into her mane. "Ah got you some breakfast," Apple Bloom continued, still whispering. She was probably under the impression that there was a big pony eavesdropping from upstairs. "And you can do your mane while we run. We got a lot to cover today."
Sweetie swallowed and spat the remains of the apple into her hoof. "What's going on?" she asked.
"We're gonna get you your cutie mark. And we're gonna do it today." With a flourish, Apple Bloom produced a long list that she'd had tucked behind her ear. Large sections of it had been crossed out, and large arrows pointed from the remaining parts to others. "This was Scootaloo's list," she said, running a hoof over the listed activities, "but I know she'd want us to keep usin' it. Ah've crossed out all the things we've already done'n can't do today, but your special talent's gotta be one of the rest of these, right? So Ah figured if we just run through everythin' on this list in this order..."
"Apple Bloom..." Sweetie Belle tried to interrupt.
"No, listen," Apple Bloom said, a little more desperately. "Ah've worked it out. If we go through all these things in the mornin' and use these ones to get lunch and then walk just a little way to do these, then we'll be able to find your special talent by this time tomorrow!"
"Apple Bloom..." Sweetie tried again.
"C'mon!" Apple Bloom cried. She started to tug Sweetie towards the door. "We've gotta try everything! We've got counting and teaching and fruit-eating and apple-bucking and hatmaking and creek-jumping and karaoke and violin lessons and-"
"Apple Bloom, stop!" Sweetie yelled.
They both froze, Apple Bloom's face a look of panicked incomprehension. Sweetie looked at the ground and sighed. "There's no point," she said. "I'm not going to get my cutie mark."
"Don't talk like that!" Apple Bloom started to tear up. "Sure you will! We just gotta try everything really fast, so you'll know for sure what you're good at when..."
She stumbled over herself, pausing. Sweetie sighed again. "There's no time," she said. "It doesn't make a difference. What's the point of having a special talent if I'm never going to get to use it?"
Apple Bloom remained defiant, not letting her friend's lethargy hold her back. "But we're the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" she cried, stomping. "Crusadin' for cutie marks is what we do! Don't you wanna know what your destiny is?"
"I know what my destiny is." Sweetie Belle looked down at her flank. "I'm going to die."
Apple Bloom ground her teeth. "Sweetie..."
"It's too late. I'm sorry, but it's too late. I can't go crusading with you any more."
Apple Bloom stared at her a moment more, finally perceiving the veil that had fallen over her. "It ain't fair," she said hollowly, then threw her list on the floor and bucked the door in frustration, leaving a dent. "It ain't fair!"
Sweetie watched this calmly. She felt a little better about it. Rarity had run away from her; Rarity thought she was a monster. If her sister had stayed, she would only have hurt her. Maybe it would be better if Apple Bloom ran away too. Everyone would be happier if she wasn't Sweetie Belle any more.
Apple Bloom didn't run, though. She finished stomping and threw a foreleg around Sweetie Belle, quietly weeping into her mane. "Can Ah at least spend the day with you?" she asked.
Sweetie didn't answer right away. "I..."
At that moment, the sun rose.
A beam of light lanced across the sky, widening to fill the day with light. It fell across scattered clouds, brightening the world with grey as well as blue. A beam of it fell through the window, lighting up the two fillies. A burst of rainbow light momentarily filled the room, then was snuffed out as the shadow of a massive, three-pronged claw fell across them.
The two looked up. Silhouetted against the morning sun was a shape that sent tendrils of shadow across the whole town. Its body was small, at least by the standards of the robots, but the enormous tentacles that sprouted from it in every direction made it seem as though it had been woven all the way across the sky. "No," Apple Bloom moaned, breaking away. "Noooo!"
There was a flash, and a sound like tearing paper.
---
"Come in, Celestia. Celestia, come in," Twilight Sparkle spoke into a small crystal that she held in her hoof. She held it up against the wall of the cockpit, speaking louder and more clearly. "Celestia, can you hear me?"
"What is that?" Tornado Bolt asked, more to break the monotony than out of actual interest.
"It's a crystal communicator." She held it up proudly. "The most advanced technology we have to offer. Genuine Crystal Empire imports combined with the latest soundstones from Canterlot, allowing messages to be sent two ways over any distance. This is just a prototype; Celestia gave it to me so that we can give status reports from inside the robot." Then her face scrunched up and she banged it several times against the wall. "And it doesn't... freaking... work!" she concluded, giving up. "It looks like as long as we're in here, we're completely cut off."
"That's about the size of it," Cicada confirmed, drifting overhead. "You're in my world now. Get used to it."
Twilight resisted the urge to glare at him. In a motionless circle, the foals and Spike were groggily waking up. Those who were fully conscious were very still, waiting for the hum of the robot to begin any second. Shining Armour stood in the middle; even at this early hour, he'd been brought to the cockpit in full ceremonial armour, freshly polished. "What's the holdup?" he demanded. "The battle should have begun by now."
"Give me a minute. I'm hunting down our last pilot." Cicada floated over to Dinky Doo's seat and stared at it intently. "She's a troublesome one. Something's been interfering with my ability to track her."
Shining's ears pricked up. "So you're not all-powerful," he said.
"Oh, hush. I assure you, this is a very, very minor inconvenience." The mouse spun to look at him, hovering upside-down. "And don't fret about it. The clock may be ticking, but the battle won't start until you're all here."
"So the enemy's just going to sit there and wait for us?" Shining raised an eyebrow. "That's strangely chivalrous for a race of planet-destroyers."
"Hey, protocol cuts both ways. Do you think they'd be happy if you started up first and smashed them before they were ready?"
Shining grunted and looked away, stony-faced. Twilight made her way around the outside of the circle, keeping an eye on him, but stopped at the stool that sat within the symbol on the floor. "Sweetie Belle, are you ready?" she whispered.
"I'm okay," Sweetie whispered back without moving. She wasn't. She looked hollow. She felt hollow. But she was going to fight. That was what mattered.
Twilight bit her lip. She found herself glancing at Spike, who was still half-asleep, and pictured him where Sweetie was now, wearing the same empty expression. No. She forced herself to look back. "Are you sure I'm the one you wanted to be here?" she asked. "There's still time to change your mind. Wouldn't you want Rarity to be here instead?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"She doesn't want to see me."
Painful as it was, Twilight knew better than to argue with her now. "All right," she said. "But just remember, if you want her, she's there for you."
"Gotcha, you little rascal!" Cicada announced. In a swift bubble of light, Dinky Doo appeared on her cloud-stool, curled up and still wearing her saddlebags from the last battle. Like many of the others, she turned up asleep; she startled awake, yelping and nearly falling off her stool as she took in her surroundings, looking around fearfully at the others.
"Dinky!" Twist yelled from across the circle.
"About time you showed up," Pina Colada added from three chairs away, leaning over the loveseat's side. "Where have you been?"
Dinky just cowered. Her attention was fully focused on the two adult ponies in the middle of the cockpit, one of whom was smiling encouragingly, the other giving her a hard stare. "What are they doing here?" she whispered to Tornado Bolt on her right.
"Cicada's letting them spectate," Tornado whispered back. "It's cool. They're not gonna do anything."
"Well, no time to waste!" Cicada said loudly, circling around to hover behind Sweetie Belle. "Took us long enough. What say we get this show on the road?" Amidst feeble protests, the robot stirred to life.
The chairs rose into the air. Twilight gasped as a familiar pinprick expanded to illuminate Ponyville around them, and both she and her brother flinched as they found themselves standing in midair. "Unbelievable..." she gasped. "I know you said it was a projection, but I never thought..." She tapped a hoof against the floor, gaping at the illusion of floating, and was by a large margin the last to notice what everyone else was already staring at.
Equus had appeared in almost exactly the same place that it had during Diamond Tiara's battle, although facing the other way. The sun had fully risen to the east, silhouetting their opponent from behind. Its main body was an angular, geometric shape which Twilight Sparkle (and no one else) recognized as an icosahedron, around the size of Equus' head. Each triangular face was coated in gleaming, mirrored armour that made its exact shape difficult to make out. From each vertex erupted a thick tentacle made from more familiar black armour, barbed all the way along and ending in spiraling, three-pronged claws. A total of twelve of these spread in all directions, bent and curved and disconcertingly still, as though frozen mid-wave. Five were currently being used as legs, stretching all the way from Ponyville's lake to the edge of the Everfree. A few of the claws came to life and snapped loudly as the two robots warmed up, but it otherwise remained completely still.
"So that's our enemy," Shining Armour said grimly. "They get uglier with each battle." He squinted into the distance at it, his frown deepening. "Hang on," he said. "Something's wrong. Sweetie Belle, can you get us a closer look?"
"O-okay," Sweetie said. She scrunched up her face in concentration, preparing to harness the vast energies that she felt flowing through her, but changing her field of view turned out to be completely effortless. All she had to do was think it and the world moved around her, propelling the circle of chairs to hover over the other robot instead of her own. Up close, what Shining Armour had seen was much more obvious. Several plates of mirrored armour were completely missing; nearly half the triangular faces were empty, exposing a surprisingly hollow interior. Hanging in the exact center, suspended from all directions by just a few grey cables, was a white sphere.
"The enemy's vital point is exposed!" Shining Armour exclaimed. "Cicada! What's the meaning of this?"
"Beats me," the mouse answered. "Even I don't have a complete record of all robot designs. But I can tell you this, though." He wheeled around them, grinning. "In simulations, all robots are built to be exactly as powerful as one another. So if this one skimped out on putting any points at all into its armour, you can make a safe bet that it's got some serious firepower backing it up."
Sweetie Belle shuddered. She moved her field of view back to her side of the battlefield, far away from the nightmarish machine. Just looking at those claws made her skin crawl, and the thought of getting any closer to that thing was terrifying in itself. Thought of the fight itself had never really registered before now, but now she finally started to wonder if she could win this battle after all.
"Hey, we didn't crash this time," Apple Bloom noted on a more positive note, looking down. "Are we still floatin'?"
"No," Cicada answered. "As the battles go on, I'll be able to get a more accurate fix on your location. I might even be able to target specific spots to land, once my scans are finished. But the bad news: the enemy is making the same scans as well."
"Right." Shining Armour took a deep breath. He marched around and took a position beside Sweetie Belle, while Twilight stood off to the side, near Spike. "All right, Sweetie Belle," he said sharply. Sweetie had never seen him like this before; on the few occasions she'd met him, the guard had always been cheerful and light-hearted, keeping an informal touch even in the uniform. Now, on the field of battle, he was all soldier. "Here's what you need to do," he ordered. "As soon as the fight starts, hit it with all you've got. Attack hard and strong and break through its defenses before it has time to get ready. Don't stop attacking. If you let it get the upper hand, it'll be able to overwhelm you."
Sweetie nodded, trying not to let her terror show. Remembering how Scootaloo had described it, she focused on her new body and lowered her head, aiming her dark horn. In response, the enemy's tentacles began to move, gently weaving back and forth like seaweed. The free claws rhythmically snapped, creating clacking noises that echoed over the town. "Watch out for those," Rumble advised. "If they're on your cutie mark they must be important."
"Be quiet," Shining ordered. Rumble obediently closed his mouth, though a few other foals in the circle began to scowl.
Suddenly, the rear tentacles began to crash down. "Look out, it's moving!" Twilight cried, then stopped and blinked. "It's... running away?"
As tentacles on the far side hit the ground, those nearer lifted up; in this manner the robot "rolled" in the other direction, away from Equus and Ponyville and towards the Everfree Forest. "It... doesn't want to fight?" Spike said, scratching his head.
Shining just glared. "It's a trick," he said. "Sweetie Belle, shoot it now."
Sweetie started to build energy in herself, but hesitated. The rolling enemy was picking up speed, trying to get away from her. "But-" she said.
"Shoot it now!"
With a squeak, Sweetie Belle hunched down and shut her eyes, cracked one just slightly open to aim, and fired her horn. A mix of white and green light swirled around her and shot out in a searing blast. Her aim was good, but not good enough; the beam hit one of the mirrored plates and bounced off, only seeming to grow in power as it tore almost horizontally across the landscape. "Oh my gosh!" Twilight gasped, putting a hoof over her mouth. "That kind of power output is off the charts! How did it..."
Somewhere on the horizon, there was an explosion. As the stones fell, one of the spires in the Foal Mountain range was no longer there. "Do not do that again," Pina Colada ordered.
"Wow, it didn't even leave a mark," Tornado Bolt added, squinting after the retreating robot. "Mirror armour must be like a kind of hyper white armour. Maybe it's not as badly defended as we thought."
"I said be quiet!" Shining yelled. He sighed; the enemy robot was now well out of range for another try. "What are you waiting for?" he said. "Go after it!"
"Um." Sweetie Belle shifted uncomfortably. She looked down; to her horror, the force of the blast had slid her back several yards, throwing up more scattered debris and encroaching on more houses. Around her, ponies were evacuating the town at a more controlled pace, although she made out a few simply standing still and gawking. She carefully lifted a hoof, but found herself unsure of where she was supposed to put it. Looking down at her broad, clumsy leg, she had an idea. "I think... I think I want to try something Diamond Tiara did," she said. She looked nervously at Shining Armour. "Is that okay?"
"You're the pilot, Sweetie," Twilight said before her brother could answer. "You decide what to do. Remember, we're just here to spectate. You don't have to ask our permission for anything." She gave her brother a reproachful look.
"Right." A little more confidently, Sweetie nodded. She placed her hoof back down in its original position and, with concentration and a small click, lifted it again. The lower portion of her leg detached, allowing her to withdraw a shorter, thinner part that tapered to a sharp point. Like stepping out of a set of boots, she repeated this will all her legs, stepping away to stand on pinpricks. She had lost nearly a quarter of her height and had to adjust her pace accordingly, but her new, daintier hoofsteps allowed her to stride out of Ponyville and across the farmland without leaving house-crushing prints in her wake.
Archer snorted. "You look ridiculous," she said. "I guess we can call this Foal Form?"
"That's dumb," Silver Spoon shot back.
"You're dumb," Archer retorted. For once, the silver filly was without an answer.
Twilight was, once again, frozen with her eyes pointed downward. "This doesn't make sense!" she cried. "Legs ending in spikes should be driven into the ground by the weight. You shouldn't be able to stand, let alone walk!"
"Is she going to be like this the whole time?" Snips whispered to Spike.
"Most likely," the dragon answered.
It didn't take long to catch up with the rolling enemy, which was still moving away. In a matter of minutes they had cleared the Everfree completely and emerged on a flat, rocky plain on the far side. Once they were both clear the enemy finally halted, spinning in place and adopting what was unmistakably a fighting stance. "I guess it wants to fight here?" Twilight said, looking more and more miserably confused. She looked around. "This is... actually a really good spot. We must be miles away from any towns. There aren't even any crops to ruin."
"Are they trying to avoid collateral damage?" Archer wondered aloud. "Or are they... learning?"
There was no more time for discussion. In a flurry of motion, the enemy whirled its tentacles in the air and charged forward, no longer rolling but bounding on six limbs like an insect. "It's coming!" Twilight yelled.
"Friggin' finally!" Pina Colada exclaimed.
Sweetie Belle screamed.
Before she even knew what she was doing, she'd leaped sideways, bounding out of the enemy's path. The tentacled robot followed, barely slowing as it changed directions, its claws snapping at the air behind her. She ran and jumped in a broad circle around the field, gaining ground as the enemy treaded after her. Even with her shortened legs, she barely seemed to have lost any speed. In fact, she felt more comfortable this way; the robot's proportions now more closely matched her own stubby foal shape.
As the chase went on, Sweetie used the opportunity to catch her breath. Calming herself, she risked a glance backwards. The sight of the perpetually snapping claws still caused her shivers, but knowing that she was at least faster than it made it a little less scary. "Scootaloo was brave enough to fight her monster," she told herself, not really caring who was listening. "I can be too." All at once she stopped and spun around, putting on her bravest, angriest face and charging her horn. "Get away from me!" she yelled.
To her surprise, the enemy obeyed. The moment her horn lit up it slid to a halt, throwing up its front tentacles defensively. Its core twisted, putting a mirrored panel directly between her and the vital point. "Huh?" Sweetie said. As she moved her head to the side, the enemy twisted further, following the point of her horn to keep itself defended.
Twilight Sparkle released a breath. "Phew," she said. "I was afraid it was going to overrun us for a second there. It looks like it's not willing to risk its core up close."
The two robots stood there for several long seconds, barely moving. Sweetie could see just taunting flashes of its vital point through the forest of tentacles, like the monster was peeking at her from behind its claws. She kept her horn charged, edging diagonally away. The tentacles on the enemy's back began to wave back and forth, once again like they were underwater. "It's doing something," Archer said.
"What?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"I don't know. But that's a boss monster's tell if I've ever seen one."
Twilight Sparkle sighed, but smiled sympathetically. "Scootablue, you can't just apply arcade game principles to real life and expect them to-"
Without warning, the enemy smacked two of its claws into the ground and flipped over backwards, unfurling four tentacles that it had kept hidden behind its back. Each of them held a small, crackling sphere of blue energy, rapidly expanding. It hurled two of these as it finished its flip, sending them whistling past either side of Equus' head, and immediately took a defensive stance again.
"Watch ou-" Shining Armour yelled, but found his gaze being drawn away as the spheres exploded harmlessly in the sky behind them. "It missed?"
"That's not my name!" Archer shouted, not letting the point drop.
Sweetie Belle kept her eyes forward. The enemy was crawling forward, raising up its two remaining bombs like horns, all while keeping several of its claws raised defensively. It snapped with every step, slowly approaching. When it suddenly darted towards her, she shrieked and released the energy in her horn, blasting one of the claws. That tentacle was thrown powerfully back, but the rest of the monster took its chance and surged forward. In an instant, it was upon her.
Having those claws touching her was even worse than she'd thought it would be. The first touch made her scream in pain and fear, and every strike afterwards was even worse. As she thrashed in their grip the claws ripped into her armour, working together to grab and tear unpredictably, growing in number as the enemy effectively mounted her from the front. Even though the robot itself couldn't feel pain, the feeling of having "her" outer shell ripped away made her feel bloodied and nauseous. It was like being covered in cockroaches, all of then slicing and eating into her, with all the terror that went with it. "Sweetie Belle, do something!" Apple Bloom yelled.
She tried to, she tried. She kicked and thrashed, fighting against the weight to rear up and throw this nightmare off of her. She threw her head back and forth, and felt one of the tentacles fall away as her horn accidentally stabbed straight through it, severing it completely. But without her broad front hooves, she couldn't push, only stab pathetically at the tangle surrounding her. There was a flash of light as one of the remaining blue bombs was tossed from claw to claw, then roughly slammed against her shoulder. There was a bang and what looked like an explosion, but the armour was undamaged. No one was sure what had happened until Equus lurched to the side.
Sweetie Belle fought to control herself, only keeping herself from falling over by dropping the rest of her legs to the ground. "I can't feel my leg!" she cried, trying to move the one that had been struck. It felt like it had seized up completely. "It's stuck!"
Twilight backed up until she hit the wall. This close, it was like the enemy was looming over them directly, with the screaming of twisting metal all around them. "Shining?" she asked nervously.
"...okay," Shining Armour said, trying to steady himself. "It's okay. All we have to do is..." He winced as a particularly loud crash filled the chamber, this time from a claw ripping deep into Equus' neck. He hoped he wasn't visibly sweating. He was. "Your horn," he stated, grasping for an answer. "That's what it's going for. You have to shoot it while it's close!"
"No, don't!" Archer yelled back before Sweetie Belle could make up her mind. "If a reflected beam hits us, it could destroy us!"
"We don't have a choice!" Shining Armour snapped, whirling on her. "Do you have any better suggestions?"
"Well..." She glared back defiantly for a second, then slumped. "No."
Rumble, who had been keeping his eyes skyward, mouthed the answer to himself and had to repeat it more loudly for the others. "The bomb!"
"What?" Apple Bloom said.
"The bomb!" He pointed. "Shoot the bomb!"
The others looked up. Held safely out of reach was the final stun bomb, glowing like a miniature sun, presumably being kept in reserve. "Would that do anything?" Spike asked.
"It's better than nothing," Rumble said. "Sweetie, shoot it!"
"O-okay," Sweetie Belle whimpered. More and more claws were plunging into her head and neck; it felt like the enemy was trying to rip it clean off. She thrashed as best she could and charged energy. Three of the claws immediately retreated to protect the core, letting her take a clear shot and shoot a beam of light straight into the unprotected bomb.
The orb of light exploded, showering both robots in crackling blue energy. Sweetie felt her entire front go numb, while more than half of the enemy's tentacles went limp. It tore a last chunk off her face as it crashed down, unable to hold itself up. The two giants dragged themselves away from each other, mostly immobilized. Collectively, the group took a deep breath. "Now what do we do?" Spike asked. "Neither of us can fight like this."
When the enemy was a safe distance away, it stopped. A deep blue light filled its core, then burst outward in a wave stretching all the way to the horizon. Immediately it leaped back up again, all eleven remaining tentacles swaying freely. As soon as the wave hit her, Sweetie Belle felt her legs and chest unclench. She flexed, now fully mobile. "So, it's got a reset switch," Shining Armour murmured. "We'll have to keep that in mind."
Restored, the enemy started moving forward again. Sweetie Belle immediately lowered her head and charged her horn. In response, the enemy entered its defensive stance again, standing still. "If you give it time it'll just charge more stun bombs," Archer warned. "And I don't think it'll fall for the same trick twice."
"I know," Sweetie wheezed. "I just... can't."
Everyone stared at her. In light of the robotic brawl going on all around them, no one had thought to look at Sweetie Belle herself. The filly looked sick and trembling, now more than ever a scared little girl. Her eyes were leaking and her nose had started to run. Her breath was a barely-controlled whimper; she was terrified, not without reason, that if she made another noise she would be hurt again. Her leg shook; slowly, her robotic leg took a stumbling step backwards. "Sweetie, don't run," Twilight cautioned. Another step. "If you run, it will catch you. Please, don't run."
The steps stopped. The enemy started to clack its claws, filling the air with thundering crashes. Sweetie Belle shivered. "I can't," she repeated, shaking her head. "I can't..."
"Hm?" Suddenly, Cicada buzzed to the side, twitching irritably. "Hey! Cut that out!"
Everyone looked at him, but he didn't seem to be speaking to any of them. "Cut what out?" Snips asked.
"Not you! Stupid... doesn't work that way! Ugh. Someone wants up. Hey, kiddo, can you focus on your chair at home for me?"
Sweetie was in no position to be making sense of things, but the request was simple enough that she obliged without a thought. A flat bubble appeared on the surface of the dome, like a window to another part of the world. Through it, Rarity could be seen in her design room, repeatedly banging her sewing stool against the wall. She was wearing her designer saddlebags and looked like she hadn't slept. "Let me see her!" she shouted at the stool. "Take me to her now, you little fiend!"
Sweetie Belle's eyes lit up. "Rarity? Rarity!"
"She can't hear you, kid," Cicada said. "And you're at your maximum number of spectators already. If you want to get her off my back, someone's going to have to step out."
"She can take my place," Twilight Sparkle said quickly. She blushed. "To be honest, I'm... not being a lot of use here. I'll be more use coordinating things outside."
"As you wish."
Twilight disappeared in a bubble of light. At the same time, Rarity appeared in the middle of the cockpit. She stumbled and then shrieked as she found herself floating in midair, but quickly recovered. She made quick note of the current stalemate between Equus and the tentacled enemy, then turned her attention to what was really important. "Sweetie Belle!" She rushed up to her sister, taking in her withdrawn and shivering frame. "What has that horrid beast been doing to you?"
Sweetie Belle blinked at her, then took a deep breath, as though emerging from underwater. "Rarity!" she cried, throwing herself from her stool and landing heavily in Rarity's grasp. "I thought I'd never ever see you again!" Shining Armour tensed up as she left her seat, but the images on the walls didn't fade and Equus stayed in place, horn still charged with energy.
Sensing the captain's unease, Rarity glanced up at him. "I'm sorry. Is this a bad time?"
"No, it's fine," he said, trying to reassure himself as much as her. "We're in the middle of a standoff now. The battle could still go either way."
Sweetie Belle buried herself in her sister's mane, desperate for any touch that wasn't wood or cold metal. "Why did you run away?" she sobbed. "I thought you hated me."
"Never. I would never." Rarity put on a brave face, smiling as though nothing were the matter. "I simply didn't want you to have to see your big sister crying and fussing like an old mare before your fight. I thought that was what was best for you. But I can see now that I was only panicking. I promise, I will never run away from you ever again." She paused to squeeze her gently, then lifted up the flap of her bag. "I brought something for you. I know you said you wanted to do it, but I found your designs and finished one of them for you... just in case."
Out of the bag emerged a cape. It was red, like the capes that Sweetie Belle was used to making and repairing, but wider and longer across all sides. In place of the usual CMC logo was a black unicorn, standing proudly over a blue sphere, with fifteen smaller circles of various colours surrounding it. Rarity lifted it up and tied it around Sweetie's neck, briefly exposing a silver-lined interior. For a moment Sweetie felt swallowed by it, and worried that she'd made it too big, but when it fell around her and its weight caressed her like a blanket she knew that she'd been right. This wasn't a cape for adventuring in. This was the kind of wear for a Princess or somepony equally important, sitting high on their throne while they decided the fate of the world. "It's perfect," she said, hugging Rarity once again.
"You designed that?" Silver Spoon said incredulously.
"Yeah." Sweetie Belle sniffed, smiling. "I wanted to make one for everyone. But maybe we can all share this one. So when it's our turn, we can hide our fake cutie marks and show that we're still... us."
Pina Colada rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because the black unicorn doesn't give it away at all," she muttered.
"...Wow." Apple Bloom stared, awed. "You were thinkin' of us, the whole time."
"Of course." Sweetie Belle smiled at her. "This place isn't my destiny. You guys are."
She looked to Rarity. "I'm ready to fight now."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure."
With one last nuzzle of her mane, Rarity lifted Sweetie Belle up and used magic to give her a gentle push back onto her stool. "I believe in you," she said. She maintained her smile, but brushed a tear out of her eye. "Now you show that wicked beast what for, all right?"
"I will. I promise."
The promise felt empty, but somehow rang true. Taking a deep breath, Sweetie Belle steadied herself and tried to assess the situation. She still had no idea how she was going to fight the monster in front of her, but she was now more sure than ever that she had to try. The cape around her clothed her in a tangible softness, and she knew that if the enemy sunk its claws into her again, this time she wouldn't panic. She would fight.
For a moment she closed her eyes, listening to the rhythmic clacking of the claws. "So what's the plan?" Snips said, nearly breaking her concentration.
"We have to find a way to break past those claws," Shining Armour said. "Sweetie Belle, if you charge it first this time and take it by surprise, then maybe..." She laughed, interrupting him. "What's funny?"
"I just realized." She opened her eyes, smirking. "It's fighting in 4/4 time."
For those who knew what this meant, once it was heard it could not be unheard. The dark claws snapped and waved on an even beat, unbroken, the limbs unpredictable but the rhythm never changing. Thinking back, Sweetie realized that it had been following the same pattern even while attacking her, with the strongest blows landing every fourth beat. "It ith!" Twist gasped.
Sweetie Belle started to tap her hoof against her stool. As she did, Equus began to move again, clawing a groove into the earth as it prepared to charge. In response, the enemy unfolded, revealing four new stun bombs that it weaved back and forth overhead, cautious of any horn blast. Sweetie began to hum, still tapping and bobbing her head in time with the enemy's snapping. She took a step forward, keeping the energy in her horn charged. The two robots circled each other, warily keeping their defensive poses.
She closed her eyes again. She didn't need them to see, anyway. Her humming grew louder and more focused, using the snapping claws and footsteps as her metronome, and then broke off into a sweet, pure voice. "Each one of us has something special... that makes us different, that makes us rare..."
She broke into a gallop, charging. On exactly the fourth beat, the enemy whirled around and hurled one of its bombs at lightning speed, but she had already leaped out of the way, dodging nimbly to the side. A few of the pilots gasped in realization. Apple Bloom beamed and added her voice. "We have a light that shines within us..."
"That we were always meant to share," Dinky Doo added.
With each addition, the colour of Equus' magic changed slightly, gaining streaks of tan, then grey. Shining Armour opened his mouth, but Rarity put a hoof over it and shook her head, smiling joyously. A second bomb whistled past them, and suddenly they were in combat range again. The remaining missiles were held safely back and claws began to shoot out, but only in ones and twos, and always on the same beat. Perfectly-timed dodges and slices prevented any from landing more than a scratch.
"And when we come together..." Spike picked up, joined by others.
"Combine the light that shines within..."
"There ith nothing we can't do..."
"There is no battle we can't win!"
A deft claw managed to wrap itself around Equus' horn, but with a quick swipe from her pointed hoof the offending tentacle was torn off. The mirrored center twitched, providing a too-fast clear shot right to the core. Suddenly it was the enemy that was scrambling to get away, abandoning its rhythm to roll away, the tentacles almost tripping over each other in their haste.
"When we come together," Snips parroted.
"There'll be a star to guide the way..."
As the enemy gained ground it spun around, whipping another bomb. There was no time to dodge this one. It crashed directly against Equus' main breastplate, freezing both front legs mid-stride. "We're hit!" Berry Pinch squeaked, covering her eyes.
"It's inside us every day," Silver Spoon sang out, much to her own surprise. A band of silver joined the maelstrom of colours around the horn.
"See it now," Sweetie Belle called, seeming unfazed. The brilliant lights shone with greater intensity. "See it now!" She lowered her head one last time and fired - not forward, but down and between her legs, releasing a dozen different colours into the ground directly beneath her.
The earth exploded, launching the massive robot into the air. The force of it shook the cockpit, but didn't unsettle any of the foals. The two adults gasped. Equus spun in the air, rising to what seemed an impossible height, then angled its horn as it fell straight towards the escaping enemy. The foals sang as one. "Let the rainbow remind you that together we will always shine!" The last bomb was thrown and hit its mark, locking the unicorn's neck in place, but this did nothing to slow its descent. The enemy made no attempt to flee, only cowered with nearly all of its tentacles raised up in defense.
"Let the rainbow remind you that forever this will be our time!"
Equus crashed through the tangle of black armour, the sheer force blowing them aside. The core was crushed down to the ground. The mirrors shattered, reflecting hundreds of angles of the same image as the immense black horn pierced the vital point right through its middle.
---
"Let the rainbow remind you... that together we will always shine."
Sweetie Belle collapsed in Rarity's grip, pressing tight against her. She felt some relief at the knowledge that she would never have to feel anything sharp or cold ever again.
Cicada performed a small loop that may have been meant to simulate an eye roll. "That has to be the single sappiest conclusion to a fight I've ever seen," he sighed.
"But it worked, didn't it?" Tornado Bolt countered.
"It did," Rarity agreed, brimming with pride. "That was absolutely marvelous."
Sweetie smiled back weakly. "It wasn't that hard," she said. She felt sleepy. "It... it was scared too."
"That was incredible," Shining Armour added, still openly awed. "I had no idea this machine could jump like that. I'm almost glad Twilight left; I don't know if she could handle it."
"She probably saw that clear from Ponyville," Spike said, "so I guess we'll find out soon."
"Yeah, these things are just full of surprises," Cicada muttered grumpily.
Sweetie Belle looked up at him. "Cicada?" she said. "Can I ask you something?"
"You know my rules, kid-"
"Why is this happening?" She choked. "Who is doing this to us?"
There was a firm pause. "Not your place to ask, and not my place to answer," he said briskly. "You've already fulfilled your purpose, so-"
"Cicada!" Apple Bloom shouted. She stormed over and held her friend's hoof, glaring up at the mouse. "She's dyin'," she said sharply. "Tell her the truth."
Cicada turned and drifted away. It almost seemed like he was once again refusing to answer until he finally spoke. "They're called the Masterminds," he said. "That's all you need to know."
Something shifted. It was like a noise that had been present and unnoticed all her life had stopped, and was dragging all other sounds after it. Rapidly, everything began to fade. Rarity gasped and held her tightly. "Sweetie?" she whispered.
It wasn't a lot of comfort.
But it was enough.