• Published 19th Aug 2012
  • 2,647 Views, 134 Comments

Our Equestria - Nonagon



Fifteen foals (and one dragon) are tricked by a mysterious mare into defending Equestria... with a colossal mecha.

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Battle 3: Cricket

A series of cracks snapped the world back into focus as the fourteen pilots – plus Piña Colada – appeared in the cockpit. "But maybe not until next year," Apple Bloom finished saying, then stopped short. She glared at Cicada, who was drifting at an angle through the middle of the chamber. "What the hay? Ah was talkin' to mah sister!"

"Time flies," Cicada answered. "I don't choose when the battles are. Get used to it."

As one the group looked around in confusion, then down to the floor, and followed the glowing symbol all the way to where Diamond Tiara was sitting smugly in her dining chair. "You're the next pilot?" Spike asked in surprise. "I didn't know we'd even chosen one yet."

"That's right, losers." Diamond Tiara stuck her tongue out at the rest of the group. "I'm in charge now. I'll show you what a grown-up pony can do with this kind of power."

Archer rolled her eyes and put her head in her hooves. "That's it," she moaned. "Game over. We lose."

Silver Spoon glowered at her; Tornado Bolt raised her wings in kind. Before another fight could break out, Equus came to life with its usual hum and the chairs rose into the air. A dot of light appeared behind Diamond Tiara's head, spreading to cover the walls and floor, until the group found themselves floating high over Ponyville.

The enemy robot had already finished its appearance, but that wasn't what immediately caught the group's attention. Equus had apparently activated itself the very moment that the teleporting ring of light had vanished, leaving them resting not comfortably on the ground, but suspended the height of several houses into the air. A second was all it took for the dark unicorn to come crashing down, making craters in the road with its front hooves. Multiple foals screamed and covered their eyes. "It's okay!" Spike yelled, waving his arms to calm everyone down. "I was there helping everypony get to safety as soon as the monster sirens started. Everything directly under the robots has been evacuated."

This was a little comfort to the group, but not much. Equus was large enough that its back half stuck completely out of Ponyville, landing harmlessly in the empty fields on the east side, but its larger front hooves barely fit within the wide streets. One had come down with relative safety in the middle of a market square, but the other had flattened no less than four houses, as well as clipping a few others on all sides. More ponies could be seen running away from the wreckage, from this height no larger than ants.

Diamond Tiara noticed none of this. While the others looked down, her gaze was focused only forward, drawing her field of view closer to her opponent on the town's far side. The other robot was, surprisingly, only half Equus' size, hanging low with its belly almost scraping the houses below it. Most of its mass was taken up by a pair of curved dark legs, bent up and backwards like a jumping insect's, while the small and segmented body was held up by a set of four much shorter limbs. Instead of a head there was only a set of four enormous mandibles, the outer set enclosing the inner, with a red, triangular plate set into the "face" just above them.

"Another bug?" Silver Spoon cried in dismay.

"Weird." Tornado Bolt took a second to look the enemy up and down before fixing Diamond Tiara with a stern glare. "Now listen, DT. We're right in the middle of a populated area, so you need to be really careful how you move. Whatever you do, don't-"

"Don't tell me what to do," Diamond Tiara spat. She took a moment to orient herself, experimentally shrugged her massive, robotic shoulders, and then lifted a hoof and put it directly through the town hall.

"Diamond!" several ponies cried, though Sweetie Belle's voice was the loudest. "My sister worked really hard on decorating for this weekend..."

"I'm sorry, what?" Diamond Tiara shot her a nasty look. "Do you want to be the one fighting? I don't see you doing any better!"

Absurd as the statement was, Sweetie Belle still found herself shrinking under Diamond Tiara's gaze. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. "Just please, watch where you're going?"

“Yeah, whatever.” She rested her hoof on the town hall’s remains and tried to take another, exaggeratedly careful step across town, but only managed to kick over another cluster of houses. By her third step she managed to land a hoof harmlessly in the middle of a main street, but was less cautious with her hind legs, which had now reached the town’s edge and were trampling Ponyville’s outskirts.

Spike winced; in the fraction of a second before his mind had forced him to look away, he thought he’d seen bodies in the rubble. “DT, stop!” he cried. “You’re destroying the town!”

“Shut up!” Diamond Tiara shouted back. “You’re ruining my concentration! Tell them, Silver Spoon.”

The bespectacled pony nodded shakily, unable to tear her eyes away from what was unfolding below. “Y-you’re doing great,” she mumbled. “Keep it-” She shrieked and grabbed at Piña Colada. “Look out!

It was too late. A stray pony had waited too long before running for cover and had stumbled directly beneath one of Equus’ descending hooves. There was no sound other than the usual thud when the metal leg landed, and when it lifted there was no sign amongst the debris of where the pony had once been.

A sickly silence fell. “Is... is she dead?” Snips asked, frozen to the spot. Ignoring him, Diamond Tiara hesitated only a second before continuing her advance. The enemy had by this point begun moving as well, lifting up its massive rear legs and crawling cautiously backwards on the shorter four, keeping its head low.

“You squished Daisy,” Dinky Doo said quietly, as though she needed to hear the words said aloud before they became real. “My mom used to buy flowers from her on weekends. And you squished her. You squished her!” Now crying, she turned her face towards the ceiling. “Cicada, make her stop!”

“Not my problem,” Cicada responded casually, drifting around the top of the cockpit on his back. “She’s the pilot. Whatever she says goes.”

Diamond Tiara’s smile returned. Although looking slightly shaken herself, she determinedly shrugged it off. “You see?” she said. “You can’t tell me what to do. Besides, all of Equestria’s at stake, right? What’s one little pony next to the lives of everypony?”

“That ain’t right and you know it,” Apple Bloom argued. “Savin’ Equestria ain’t worth it if you’re just gonna destroy Equestria doin’ it!”

Diamond Tiara came to a halt. She slowly turned and glared at Apple Bloom, baring her teeth. “And what would you know about it, you snot-nosed little blank-flank?” she growled.

Apple Bloom paled. “What?”

“What’s Equestria to you?” the pink filly continued. “Just a couple acres of the same boring fruit over and over again? When all this is over, I’ll be the one going on tours of Equestria, and you are just going to go back to your boring little farm and stay there for the rest of your boring little life, so don’t lecture me about perspective! Face it, you’re just jealous that I have all this power and you don’t.”

Apple Bloom was too stunned to respond, so Tornado Bolt answered for her. “What are you talking about? Stop talking and just finish the fight before you hurt somepony else!”

“No, somepony needs to be taught a lesson.” Now grinning again, Diamond Tiara abandoned her pursuit of her opponent and turned around, managing to do minimal damage to an area that she’d already walked over once. “Oh look,” she said, raising a hoof to point, “Daisy’s flower stall survived.”

Sweetie Belle trembled. “What are you-”

The hoof descended.

Diamond Tiara laughed at the horrified expressions of the ponies around her. “Come on, lighten up,” she said. “It’s just a cart. My daddy can buy her another one, no sweat. He can buy her two, if she wants, or four, or ten.”

“She’s dead,” Archer said flatly.

Rumble looked over his shoulder. Now that Equus had turned away, the enemy robot had stopped retreating. In fact it was now creeping forward, edging around diagonally on its thin legs to come at them from the side. “Uh, guys?” he said, buzzing his wings nervously.

“And thothe were thomeponyth’ hometh,” Twist spat, summoning all her courage. “Mithter Rich can’t replathe all thothe.”

“No, but the Princesses can. We’re working for them too, right?” Diamond Tiara replied casually, flicking over another house to prove her point. “In fact, I bet there’s a reward for this. Do you think I’ll get an award ceremony in my honour?”

“Diamond, that’s enough!” From the seat beside her, Peachy Pie threw her hooves over the edge of her bench and leaned out as far as she dared, snarling at her new nemesis. “You haven’t done a thing to help Ponyville all the time you’ve been up here! You’ve practically proved that money doesn’t make you a good pony, so shut up and start fighting!”

Diamond Tiara only rolled her eyes, turning to face her almost nose-to-nose. “Yeah,” she hissed back calmly, “and I bet your friends only hang out with you because of your winning personality.”

Blinking at the unexpected blow, Peachy Pie fell back over her bench. “Of... of course they do,” she mumbled. “They’re not like... they... guys?” She looked around the room. Archer and Tornado Bolt suddenly found they had much more important places to look. “Guys?” she pleaded.

The enemy was by now only a few of Equus’ steps away. Rumble rose up in his chair, flapping his wings urgently. "Look out, it's coming!"

Diamond Tiara ignored him, too busy gloating over the town. "What else can I do while I’m up here? Should I squish that ugly little boutique over there? Or maybe..." She turned and hovered her hoof over the square where, less than an hour ago, she'd tried and failed to fairly purchase an apple. A panicked mare froze in the middle of the square, her foal tugging desperately on her leg. "What about this cute little apple stand?" She grinned wickedly at Apple Bloom. "Your sister thought I was just making things up earlier. She must be feeling like a real moron right now."

Stony-faced, Apple Bloom shook her head. "Don't you dare," she said. "There's ponies down there. Don't you dare do it."

“Oh yeah?” Diamond Tiara taunted. Her eyes flashed triumphantly. “And what are you gonna do about it, blank flank?”

"Look out!" Rumble shouted.

Without warning, the enemy plunged its hind legs down and jumped, aiming directly for Equus' head. Diamond Tiara turned and blinked, reflexively trying to move out of the way. At the last second, she ducked, and the insect’s legs clattered against the back of her neck as it sailed overhead. This action caused her to lose her balance, and her suspended hoof plummeted towards the square. Apple Bloom only had time to gasp and close her eyes.

Amidst the sound of the distant crash there was a faint whoosh, and then cheering. Apple Bloom opened her eyes. A rainbow contrail extended from both sides of the dark hoof, rocketing away in one direction. A pair of ponies clung tightly to the cyan shape at the front of it. “Rainbow Dash!” Apple Bloom yelled, rising up to stomp and letting out a whoop on Scootaloo’s behalf.

The dark cricket bounced as it landed, knocking the roofs off half a neighborhood and scratching four parallel trenches into the ground as it skidded to a halt. A storm of debris followed it, coming dangerously close to falling upon a trail of escaping ponies until it was blocked by the passing of a strange contraption. Something like an armoured sailboat with wheels thundered down the street, shielding the fleeing ponies from raining clods of wood and stone with its thick sail, a contraption that would have been utterly inexplicable if not for its rider. “Pinkie Pie!” Sweetie Belle yelled in delight.

Sliding to a halt, the cricket began to turn again, but slowly; while its spring-loaded rear legs had launched it with the speed of an arrow, it didn’t seem able to change directions very quickly. The group used the pause to watch the sudden burst of activity around them. Now that hiding in houses was clearly no longer a safe option, ponies were bursting onto the streets again, rushing every which way in an attempt to escape the town. More Elements of Harmony could be seen in action; Applejack guided a panicked herd down one of the main streets, while Rarity lit the way with guiding beacons of light, and Fluttershy could be seen working with other pegasi to airlift unconscious ponies to safety. Something twinkled in the sky near Canterlot, unnoticed by all except those who’d been waiting for it. Tornado Bolt didn’t feel the need to shout out any names, but she did smile to herself.

The standard response to an attack from a giant beast was to send three Wonderbolts. On this occasion, Canterlot had sent eight. They broke formation as they neared Ponyville, not bothering with their introductory flyby, with several of their number looping into tight spirals around the remaining three. They flew faster and faster, dragging in stray clouds as they passed, until they'd formed an almost horizontal miniature tornado in the air. This living force of nature pulsed and exploded, the tunnel of air firing three Wonderbolts forward as if from a cannon, launching them with hooves extended towards the battlefield. This maneuver, recognized by Tornado Bolt as the Vortex Lightning Launcher, was known to knock the wind out of overgrown dragons... and it plinked harmlessly against the side of Equus' face without so much as a sound.

"What? Hey!" Diamond Tiara turned around, glaring at the three dazed Wonderbolts as they flew off. "Why are they attacking me?"

"Because you're the one who's been destroying the town!" Apple Bloom shouted back.

"Don't worry about it," Cicada reassured them from above. "The robot's a thousand times tougher than anything your puny ponies can throw at it. You're basically on your own either way."

Several of the group glared upwards. Before another argument could break out, Rumble directed their attention back to the enemy with a wave. The dark cricket sprung out and completed its turn in midair, landing for only a split second before launching itself at Equus from the front. Diamond Tiara snorted at it. "Stupid... bug!" she yelled, swinging a hoof at it and easily catching it in midair, knocking it away. The cricket landed on its side, throwing up another wave of destroyed houses, but bounced back with the flexible durability of an insect and sprung away again.

"We need to get out of Ponyville," Tornado Bolt advised. "Just being careful isn't going to be enough with an enemy who moves around that much."

Diamond Tiara glared at her. "For the last time, I'm in charge-"

"Diamond, will you quit it with this bein' in charge business!" Apple Bloom exploded at her. "We get it, you've got the power, but she's right! Even you can see that stayin' here is only gonna make things worse!"

The pink filly hesitated. As she did, the cricket sprung again, this time from behind. Scarcely needing to look back, Diamond Tiara leaned forward and bucked it out of the air. Even Apple Bloom nodded faintly in approval; even though Equus' armour was thinner there, only a fool would try to attack an earth pony from behind. "Diamond, please," she begged. "We'll give you whatever you want when this is over, but for now, can you please just take the fight outta Ponyville?"

Long seconds passed as Equus stood still and the enemy robot sprung around it, apparently looking for a good opening. It found one directly to the side and slid to a halt, shuffling into position. "Think fast," Rumble said, but Diamond Tiara was already turning to face it. "Here it-"

Between the combatants, there was a flash of light. A powerful voice echoed all around Ponyville, drawing everything and everyone into silence. "STOP!"

The light cleared. Princess Twilight Sparkle hovered in between the two robots, naked except for her Elemental tiara, flapping her wings to stay aloft. She looked back and forth between the pair, tears running down her face. "Please," she continued, loud enough through some enchantment that she could easily be heard even from this distance. "Whatever conflict the two of you have, there must be some way to settle it without fighting! We ponies are small, but no less deserving of life than you."

"She thinks we're from another world," Snails said. He was, as usual, ignored.

"Look around," Twilight continued, her voice growing stronger. "Look at the damage your fighting has caused. This kind of carnage is everything that our nation of Equestria was created to avoid! Whoever you are, you've come to a land of peace, where our conflicts are settled through-" Her eyes widened. "Uh-oh."

Apparently not having listened to a word of this, the dark cricket finished its turn and leaped again, heading straight for the Princess of Friendship. Twilight squeaked and disappeared in another flash of teleportation, but the robot hadn't been aiming for her at all, carrying on directly towards Equus. Diamond Tiara's reaction was slower this time, and she was barely able to dodge out of the way as the insect missed its target by mere metres, glancing off of Equus' breastplate with enough force to shake the whole body.

Glancing back only slightly, Diamond Tiara turned and started to stomp away in the direction of Ponyville's edge. The Wonderbolts began to circle again, slowing down and forming two parallel lines beside her. They slowly began to turn, and Diamond Tiara found herself turning with them until she realized what she was doing and forcefully twisted back in her original direction. "It's okay," Tornado Bolt reassured her, recognizing the move. "They're trying to corral you. They just want you to walk through the parts you've already stepped on, so you don't cause as much damage. You can trust them, they're experts."

Diamond Tiara submitted to this and allowed the Wonderbolts to escort her outside Ponyville's limits, turning sharply towards the foothills to the north. Her opponent followed in short hops, either not willing to take advantage of the distraction or simply unenthusiastic about trying to attack from behind again. Once they were a considerable distance away, the Wonderbolts broke off and tried to do the same with the other robot, only to find that it had followed without complaint.

Archer examined the terrain. Here the ground was broken up by rolling and rocky fields, with the low Everfree curving away to one side and the sharp inclines of the mountains close by. "This is a good spot," she muttered to herself. "Now the real battle begins."

With a steadying breath, Diamond Tiara turned back to where her opponent had been. It was no longer there. She looked around wildly, and it was only the cries of her classmates that alerted her to the robot already launching itself at her from the side. She reared up and flailed, knocking it to the ground by sheer chance but not following up with a stomp before it sprang away again. Now that the unicorn had no distractions, the cricket didn't try to turn on its four legs, instead leaping around in a wide circle before attacking from the front.

Diamond Tiara again knocked it down with ease. Now that she wasn't as concerned with watching her hooves she was starting to find her footing, and the dark unicorn was starting to move more and more like a natural pony. She spun around to follow each new arc, swatting away each successive attack with ease, only for the enemy to bounce away before she could follow up with a crushing blow. "Too easy," she gloated, noting with glee that one of her opponent's smaller legs was bent out of shape. "I don't see why Scootaloo had so much trouble with this."

This earned her a few more glares, but excitement was starting to grow in the group. "Maybe you could try shooting it?" Snips suggested meekly. "That might take it down more quickly."

"Maybe," Diamond responded with a roll of her eyes, but she still lit up her mechanical horn. Bright pink light swirled around it before shooting out in a wildly inaccurate beam, blasting a hole in one of the hills and coming nowhere near the enemy. "Stupid thing," she muttered, glaring at Snips, then looking back to her enemy. "Hey, where's it going?"

Instead of leaping around for another futile head-on assault, the other robot was taking a much wider route, going further on into the foothills. "Wait," Tornado Bolt ordered as Diamond Tiara started to follow, but the pilot ignored her and charged on. It wasn't long before they lost sight of the cricket behind the rapidly swelling hills, which were soon turning into full-fledged mountains.

After a minute without catching sight of the metallic insect, Diamond Tiara came to a halt. They were now right at the edge of the mountain range that led up to Canterlot, the nearly vertical stone ridges rising far higher even than Equus. "There's no way I can get up that without falling over," she groaned. "Cicada, what do I do now?"

"You're the pilot," Cicada answered calmly, still swimming around near the ceiling. "Figure it out."

"Ugh. What's even the point of you?" Diamond Tiara shook her head and looked around. It was conceivable that the smaller robot could have made its way through the range, but her more flat-footed steed would have a much more difficult time. "Here we go," she muttered, taking her first step onto the uneven surface.

A series of rocks landed right in front of her. Some of the group looked towards the source. "Up there!" Dinky Doo shrieked, covering her eyes.

Diamond Tiara looked up, too late. In leaps and bounds the dark cricket had made it to the top of one of the nearest mountains, and just as she realized what this meant it leaped. The powerful legs propelled it straight down the mountainside, working with gravity to launch it at a higher speed than any before. In a panic, Diamond Tiara reared up, which was enough to keep it from landing on her directly from above, but not enough to prevent the cricket from smashing right into the middle of Equus' breastplate.

The gonglike sound of metal on metal rang through the mountains; all around, avalanches began to rain down as Equus staggered backwards. The force of the landing had put a hefty dent in the unicorn's armour, but the cricket wasn't done. With a mechanical click the enormous rear legs seamlessly detached themselves from the rest of the body, falling to the ground and leaving only a four-legged, wormlike shape clinging to Equus' front. Suddenly, the quadruple mandibles on its face sparked and began to glow red-hot, and the robot began to dig and tear at the armour in front of it as easily as if it were biting into living flesh.

Diamond Tiara shrieked and flailed at the bug stuck onto her. She tried to tear it off, but the thick armour on her front prevented her hooves from actually reaching it, leaving her only flexible enough to bat uselessly at its dangling tail. In seconds the biting worm had created a hole large enough for it to stick its whole head into and began to crawl forward, its three functional legs clutching tightly to the larger robot's front.

Peachy Pie gasped in horror and clutched at her own belly. "It's gonna eat us from the inside!" she cried. "Diamond, do something!"

"I'm trying!" Diamond Tiara yelled, genuine panic in her voice. She scratched madly at what little of the bug she could reach before lowering her hooves and charging directly at the mountainside, throwing her head back. She slammed into the wall of stone with force, putting a dent in the landscape but barely slowing the crawling bug attached to her.

"Hey, Diamond?" Piña Colada said, surprisingly calm. "That bug detached part of itself so it could get to us more easily. Do you think that this robot can do something similar?"

Although her first instinct was to mock the idea, Diamond Tiara nodded frantically. She leaned back against the mountainside and started to push against her main breastplate, only to find that it popped off simply at a thought. It started to carry the enemy with it, but by now the worm had created enough space beyond the outer layer that it was able to hold on and slip the rest of its body through the hole it had created. Underneath the main plate was another, thinner layer of armour, which the enemy was already starting to eat through like paper. Now with more freedom to stretch, Diamond Tiara swatted at it, smashing her hoof against its lower half. Half of the enemy robot burst open in a mass of grey cables and inner metal structures, but the front and its remaining leg carried on unimpeded. She struck again, this time aiming for the hole in her chest, but it was too late. The enemy had vanished inside of her.

There was a short silence. Then a grinding sound started, the noise of something chewing and tearing, getting slowly but steadily louder. Diamond Tiara had gone pale. "I can feel it," she said, uncharacteristically quiet. "It's eating me. How can something so small..." Her face twisted in pain, then in fury. "Something so small..." She growled. "No!"

The dark unicorn began to thrash again. Diamond Tiara slid down the mountainside and landed on her back, both forehooves pounding mercilessly at her own chest. Equus' metal skin split open, exposing greyish innards to the sunlight, and still she pounded on. A flash of red could be seen somewhere in the coiling insides, but quickly vanished. "You're not getting away from me!" she roared. Stretching out her right foreleg, the entire lower part of the hoof slid off, as though she'd been wearing an oversized boot the entire time. What remained of the leg was about two-thirds the length and tapered to a sharp point. "Take... this!" she yelled, stabbing herself through the middle.

There was an almighty crash, and the grinding from outside the cockpit stopped.

Diamond Tiara paused, breathing heavily. She dug around inside her giant self a little more and withdrew her leg, the remains of the enemy robot skewered upon it. What little there was writhed against her, but she'd managed to crush one side of its head completely, rendering the red jaws all but useless. Clumsily, she got back onto her three intact legs, a mess of cables spilling out of the wound in her front. If she felt this, she gave no indication if it. "Stupid bugs," she muttered, glaring at the twitching shape in front of her. "Why don't you just..."

She hurled the broken robot at the ground, dislodging it from her spike, then reared up above it. "DIE!" she screamed as her left hoof came down.

One final crunch marked the battle's end.

With the sound of a spell winding down, the walls faded back to brown and the chairs lowered to the floor. The ponies on them stood up unsteadily, if they chose to stand up at all. "That was... close," said Spike, hugging his knees to his chest. "Way too close."

Diamond Tiara looked around expectantly. Even now that the danger had passed, she was having trouble catching her breath. "Well?" she said, glaring about. "You're welcome?"

Apple Bloom slowly climbed down from her chair. "That was a good finish," she said. "But that doesn't change what happened." She glared. "You squished Daisy for no reason."

“Ugh, are you still hung up on that?” Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. “That was an accident! Any of you would have done the same thing.”

“Any of us would have cared,” Tornado Bolt added, jumping down from her cloud. “And none of us would have kicked more houses down afterwards just to be mean.”

In ones and twos, a semicircle started to form around Diamond Tiara, this one half the size and not nearly as congratulatory as Scootaloo’s had been. “Hey, leave her alone!” Silver Spoon said, but Piña Colada held her down when she tried to stand up.

At the front of the group, Tornado Bolt stepped forward, malice written onto her face. “You’re not gonna get a reward for this,” she said. “Everypony saw what you did, and you saw how they treated you. The enemy was just a fighting machine. But you... you were a monster.”

Diamond Tiara shuffled away, for once in her life finding herself being ganged up on. “That’s not true,” she said.

“It is,” Tornado Bolt continued. She advanced further, putting her hooves up on the edge of the pink filly’s seat, wearing an expression that made even the others in the group start to edge away from her. “As soon as we get back home, you’re gonna get locked away forever. And nopony, not even your parents, is going to care that you’re gone. In fact, they’ll be happy.”

“Stop it,” Diamond Tiara breathed, scrabbling away. “Stop it!”

“Hey, Bolt?” Archer said nervously, reaching out to her friend. “You’re kinda overdoing it...”

“Back off!” Tornado Bolt yelled, pushing Archer away. She turned back and tried to shove the dining chair over, only to find it completely immobile. Undeterred, the raised herself as high as she could and drew back one hoof. “You’re gonna get what’s coming to you, murderer.”

“Whoa, that’s enough!” In a bubble of light, Tornado Bolt vanished and reappeared on the far side of the cockpit, immediately falling over without a hoofhold. Cicada, whom most of the group had forgotten was still in the room, swooped down and took her place, hovering defensively in front of Diamond Tiara. “Let’s not be too hasty, all right?” he continued. “Personally, I thought she did really well.”

“You’re on her side?” Sweetie Belle asked in horror.

“Why not?” He swiveled around, looking the surprised Diamond Tiara right in the eye. “First off, I’ve known grown mares who would’ve tried to call the battle off at the first sight of blood. No matter what happened down below you, you never let it get to you, and that’s something that a few of these chumps could stand to learn from if they want to get through this. Second, you came within a hair of stabbing yourself in your own heart to win that battle, and that takes some of the most amazing guts I’ve ever seen - and coming from me, that means a lot. And third, if I was a pony your age and had been given power like this, I know I wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to treat the world like my playground a little, especially since... well. My point is, at the end of the day, you saved Equestria, so don’t let these jerks get to you, okay?” Somehow, his painted smile appeared to widen. “You’re my hero. Don’t you forget that.”

Little by little, the shock started to fade away, and to her surprise Diamond Tiara smiled. “Thanks,” she said.

Her breathing became weaker, and then stopped.

Not everypony realized what had happened at first. But as Cicada continued to watch, the colour began to drain from her face, and she slumped unceremoniously over. Her tiara, which for so long had seemed a permanent part of her, slipped from her head and tinkled on the ground below.

Silver Spoon was the first to move. “DT?” she cried, throwing off Piña Colada’s restraining hoof and running over, pushing other ponies aside. She grabbed Diamond Tiara just as the filly began to slide off her chair and shook her, then frantically checked for a pulse. “What happened?” she cried, tears starting to well up behind her glasses. “What did you do to her!?”

Cicada continued to watch impassively. “I swear she did this to spite me,” he said, much more quietly.

“What?” Shaking in grief and anger, Silver Spoon held tightly onto her friend and glared at the mouse with all the focus she could muster. “What did you do to her!?

“Never trust a mare,” Cicada continued, rising up and drifting away from the group. “We go through so much together, we travel all this way, we give your world the one chance it has to defend itself, and what does she do? She leaves it in the hooves of children.” His voice, ever complacent, was starting to grow bitter. “She leaves me to clean up her messes.”

“Cicada.” Apple Bloom heard her voice shake, but she gathered all the sternness she could and stared at him. “What’s going on?”

The mouse paused. He spun around and turned back to Apple Bloom. Gone was his pleasant smile; now she could see bared, pointed teeth. “What, you think the robot is run on wishes and friendship magic?” he snarled. “You’re not just this thing’s pilots, you’re its power source. Kapish? The moment that you get into your chair, your soul is bound directly to the machine. That’s the reason it feels like an extension of your body. And when your battle ends, one way or another, when this machine shuts down, so do you.”

He did a slow turn in midair. Everyone was staring at him with the same wide-eyed expression, their young minds struggling to process this information. “You get it now?” he spat. “You see why I don’t want to have to deal with you? Once the process is started, it can’t be stopped. Even if by some miracle you all win, even if you do manage to save your world...” He halted.

“You’re all going to die.”